Maple Roasted Potato & Rosemary Soup

I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing holiday with your families. Our Christmas was quiet and blessed. We didn't travel, we aren't entertaining. We cooked our big meal on Christmas Eve, so the big day was spent Skyping with family and setting up Legos.

We've also been enjoying a lot of glazed ham leftovers. Josh handled the ham, and the glaze and resulting gravy were nothing short of spectacular! Maple syrup and homemade orange marmalade were involved. He will have to do a post on it one day. Perhaps when he sits down to do that Thanksgiving post.

*cough cough*

I have decided that simple, satisfying, fortifying soups = my theme for the rest of Winter. And this one I made last week, was a doozy: Incredibly simple, but with delicately nuanced flavors to keep it interesting. Everyone had seconds.

There is no dairy in this potato soup. And it could easily go vegetarian/vegan with a flavorful vegetable stock substituted for the chicken stock.

Oh yeah! Take note: Maple Roasted Potatoes are officially the Way To Go. Next time you're roasting red potatoes as a dinner side, try it this way. Add some chopped rosemary after they come out of the oven, if you want. Delicious! Or, if you're serving home fries with a big weekend breakfast or brunch, leave out the rosemary and dish out alongside your scrambled eggs or omelette... You know how you soak up leftover maple syrup with whatever is left on you plate when you're eating breakfast out? These taste like that. Only better.

This color means they're done.

Chunky Monkey Mini-Muffins

These started out as a cookie experiment, but they baked up like little, cookie-shaped muffins.  So, I tried them out in a mini-muffin tin, and Success!  Tasty, healthy, easy and vegan.

The immersion blender makes quick work of chopped fruit.

Ingredients

2 large bananas (at least med. ripe)

1 medium apple (I used Fuji)

1/2 c. packed light brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. flour

1 1/3 c. rolled oats

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 c. chocolate chips

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a mini-muffin tin and set aside.  Roughly chop bananas and apple into large bowl and puree well with immersion blender. Add brown sugar and vanilla, blend well.  

Mix in medium bowl: flour, oats, salt and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients to the puree and stir until moistened.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes or so to soften oats.  

Spoon into mini-muffin tins, filling nearly to the top (they don't rise much), and bake 10-12 minutes or until coming apart from sides of the tins a bit.  Cool 5 minutes, then remove from tins and cool completely.  Dust with powdered sugar before serving.  They are moist on top, from the fruit, so don't dust with the sugar until ready to serve (and don't over bake, thinking they look too moist to be done).