Cottage Cheese Blueberry Muffins

Cottage cheese?!  I know, sounds disgusting, but don’t knock it ’til you try it.

I was wary, too. However, when I looked in the fridge and we had an almost-full container of cottage cheese, I had to use it.

I just can’t waste food.  Did you know that American’s waste almost 40% of food produced for consumption?? And that was in 2011.

That’s just sad.  I use slimy spinach in my green monsters, black bananas in banana bread, and almost moldy bread for bread pudding.

Here are some more tricks for using “bad food”:

• Freeze sour milk. I know that sounds sick, but you can use sour milk for baking. (Hello, buttermilk.)
• Save vegetable scraps for stock. 
• Save fruit scraps for a nice smelling house. Just boil them in water and your house will smell great in minutes.
• Put oil and vinegar in an almost empty Mayo container to make salad dressing.
• Make “Overnight Oats in a Peanut Butter Jar” with almost empty peanut butter jars.
• Keep bacon grease for cooking.  
• If you don’t like the heels of bread, throw them in the food processor and use them as bread crumbs.

We waste so much because we can. Plain and simple.  Put yourself in someone’s shoes who doesn’t have the luxuries we do, and maybe you’ll think twice before you throw something out.

What do you do with “bad foods”?

Cottage Cheese Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened or coconut oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup creamed cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor, cream the cottage cheese until smooth.
3. In a mixer cream butter, sugar and cottage cheese until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla.
4. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended.
5. Add milk and only stir just to blend — do not over mix.
6. Carefully fold in blueberries. Batter mixture will be thick.
7. Grease and flour a muffin tin (or use muffin tin holders).
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are slightly browned and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Wonderful Selina  has awarded me with the Sunshine Award!

I’m very excited about it.  Thanks so much Selina, you’re wonderful! 🙂


The rules for the Sunshine Award are: 
1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
2. Tell us some things about yourself.
3. Nominate 10 other bloggers and let them know you awarded them!

1.  Thanks, Selina! 2.  Hmm… I can’t sleep without a fan on, I have 4 animals (a dog and 3 kitties), I love summer, my favorite color is silver, I’m impatient, I can’t stand being late, I love to fish, reading is my alternate world, I plan to live in a small town when I settle down, I’m addicted to reading blogs, I wish blogging could be my career, and I didn’t know anything about food photography until a few months ago. 
3.  Like I said last time, I read so many of your blogs in a day, there’s no way I could name them all, and I would like to give it to ALL of you.  🙂

Remember the Chicken Taco Salad I made the other day from Just Tell Me What to Eat!? Well, they also have a recipe for Barbecue Chicken Pizza that is to die for.  If I didn’t sell you on buying the book the first time, I hope that the pictures of this pizza will, because it’s so worth it!  The book gives the recipe for every little detail including the dough and the barbeque sauce!


It’s amazing!!