Guest Post: Marvelous Zucchini Muffins With Cubit's Organic Living (Plus A Giveaway!)

Tonight I bring you a tasty guest post & a yummy giveaway to boot! Say hello to Laura, of Cubit's Organic Living fame. She's a rad Toronto blogger, a purveyor of seeds and an all around awesome mama. Enjoy her zucchini muffin recipe, and enter to win below!

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These muffins are one of our favourites. A nice combination of seasonal vegetable and whole ingredients that everyone will happily eat.

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 cup sunflower oil (or another light cooking oil like grapeseed or canola)
1 small zucchini grated
2 large carrot grated
1 cup raisins
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cut steal cut oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350. Line or grease 24 muffin cups.
Whisk eggs, sugar and honey together.
Add the oil, then vanilla, and then the grated zucchini and carrots along with the raisins.

Combine your dry ingredients in another bowl.
Whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and oats together.

Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together slowly.
Divide the mixture evenly into your greased or lined muffin tins.
Bake 18-20 minutes at 350.
Remove from tins and cool on wire racks.

These are so good. Sometimes I throw half a cup of finely chopped walnuts for extra goodness. Enjoy!

GIVEAWAY
Laura has generously offered one of you a lovely prize, including:
A copy of An Illustrated Guide to Growing Food on your Balcony -- a great container gardening resource
5 packs of Cubit's Organic seeds -- for growing some yummy muffin ingredients!

HOW TO ENTER
Please comment with your favourite breakfast ideas, especially for finicky toddlers, along with your email.

For additional entries (leave one comment per entry):

• Follow @sofawned on Twitter
• Follow @Cubits on Twitter
• Like So Fawned on Facebook
• Like Cubit's Organic Living on Facebook

Open to Canada & US. Giveaway ends January 18th @ noon! A winner will be chosen at random & announced here. Merci & best wishes!

Update: The winner is Steph Diaz! Congrats!

Wordless Wednesday (In My Backyard)

On Poppies & Time

 

They've since wilted and dropped their petals, but for a week or so, my yard was host to the yearly poppy-crop... and how delighted we were!







I think I'll make a tradition of photographing Gretchen in the poppies each year. Seems fitting -- a way to mark passage. It's just so beautiful.

Can you imagine... one year ago...





Oh goodness, dear friends. It'll never cease to amaze me how the time ticks away and the newness takes over. It's all a miracle and I hope I'm treating it as such. I do try.

Peace.


Bless.

Wishes for a wonderful weekend.

Wordless Wednesday (Weeds Are Flowers Too, Once You Get To Know Them)

Recently

The Tuesday Diptych Project: Week Twenty Four

Desiree: The remains of my opal basil might have been going to seed, but that didn't stop Gretchen from watering them, and the rest of our garden, with the rain water she found in a bucket, and the yellow cup she found in the yard.

Johanna: A quiet moment of peaceful sleep for our sweet babe. We watch and stare at our beautiful little boy. We feel such a strong love for him, such a strong bond. We are amazed by him and thankful for him.

In An English Country Garden

How many kinds of sweet flowers grow
In an English country garden?
We'll tell you now of some that we know
Those we miss you'll surely pardon
Daffodils, heart's ease and flox
Meadowsweet and lady smocks
Gentian, lupine and tall hollihocks
Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, blue forget-me-nots
In an English country garden

I remember learning this song in choir way back when. It was always one of my favourites. There are other verses as well, but this is the part I've been singing all morning.

Source.

Be Still

A pot of buckwheat honey on the window sill, onion greens in a wine glass, opal basil in a Pyrex bowl.

As the boy was harvesting bits from the garden this morning this lovely scene played out on my kitchen counter & I couldn't help but capture it.

Take time to be still today.

Tomatoes & Berries

Oh my word, there's food growing in my backyard. Some of it I planted, some I did not -- like these berries, which are so sweet & delicious.

My tomatoes, which I should not have planted so close together, are plotting world domination and are growing right out of their containers and will soon be creeping along the ground. This won't be too bad, so long as their thick stalks don't shatter under the weight of all they have to offer.

We're going to have tomatoes galore! I'm in heaven just thinking about all the beautiful things I'll be able to make with fresh tomatoes at my fingertips. Salsas, sauces, toasted tomato sammies & more.

My other plants -- the eggplant, peppers & onions -- are also flowering and seem to be doing quite well despite some leaf damage. As soon as they make some progress I'll be sure to share some photos.

Have a lovely Monday, dear friends. I hope the sun is peeking out for you too!

How are your gardens growing this year? Anything special to share?

Among The Rose Campion

"Silene coronaria is a species of flowering plant in the carnation family, Caryophyllaceae, that is native to Asia and Europe. Common names include Dusty Miller, Mullein-pink, Rose Campion, and Bloody William."

Each day Gretchen & I pick some of these flowers as we walk down our short front path. She likes to carry them in her hands as we walk to daycare, or sometimes we'll bring one up to daddy's office to say hello.

I think they're the prettiest ladies in our yard.

Our Strawberry Summer

The other day we went strawberry picking in our own backyard. Last month I bought one plant from the farmer's market, and so far we've been treated to a handful of berries from it. Some have also gone to critters who steal them away in the night, but I suppose that's alright too.

Gretchen was eager to help me pick the berries from their little hiding place along the fence.

Pint sized berries for pint sized hands.

We also discovered a whole slew of berries which just happened to be growing near our porch. These berries are white on the inside instead of pink and have a slightly different sweetness to them.

A first taste of summer.

I was also happy to find a tangle of raspberry bushes in amongst the wild strawberry plants. This backyard holds so many surprises, and lovely ones at that. From poppies to bleeding hearts to berries -- such a fabulous place for Gretchen to explore.

Strawberries are the epitome of summer to me now, just as they were in my childhood when I would pick them from behind the shed where they grew along the fence line.

I hope Gretchen feels that same connection as she grows older.

Summer, berries, sweetness, sunshine & family. Simply beautiful memories.

Wordless Wednesday (Don't You Think Daisies Are The Friendliest Flower?)

The Tuesday Diptych Project: Week Twenty

Desiree: My heart is completely giddy with anticipation. The plants in my tiny garden are beginning to bud with the promise of fresh veggies! I think I'm most excited about the beautiful jalapeños which I'll use to spice up every dish possible until we run out. The wait really does make feel so much more special.

Johanna: Childhood memories. Loot bag surprises. Birthday parties. Little Miss Mimi. Turning 4. I can't believe it. Where does time go?

The Pepper Problem

The other day I noticed that the leaves on my bell pepper plants aren't looking so great. I'm not sure if this is the result of some illness? Or bugs? Or is it merely because of all the rough rain we've been having lately?

If you have any idea what's happened to them, please let me know. My other plants don't seem to be damaged at all.

I hope they'll be alright!

What Does Working From Home Look Like?

Today, it looked like this: I spent my morning under the new fuchsia umbrella that I finally got around to purchasing just the other day. It was such a pleasure to enjoy the backyard from my pretty new vantage point.

I worked away, writing and posting, and refilled my mug -- once or twice. Ate some rye bread & butter, enjoyed some plain yogurt and strawberries from the market.

Across from me sat my herbs -- coriander, although I usually say cilantro... rosemary, opal basil & kitty catnip.

Isn't she a beauty?

Eventually the netbook needed to be plugged in, so Ryan found me an extension cord (what a gentleman) and now, at nearly 3.30pm, I am still sitting outside. Enjoying the breeze, contemplating dinner, getting a little more work done & missing my little girl who I'll be retrieving from daycare in an hour and a half.

Also, while I'm here, remember the big news that I mentioned before, in this post? Well the news is that Ryan is now working from home too! Yes, he's finally left the evil cellphone company and is doing tech support from home (in his new little office) for a fabulous hosting company and he loves it! It's been a bit of a change having both of us at home all day, but we're getting used to it. We might have to work on learning how to leave the house more since it feels like we're ALWAYS here now, but thankfully we both love our home (and being around each other!) so it's been mostly great.

I don't for one moment take for granted the amazing fact that we've been able to find jobs which allow us to stay home. I know that when I was little and my mother ran a home daycare it was so wonderful to have her around all the time. However, when I was a little older and she was working 2-3 jobs and traveled a lot, it was a much sadder time for me. Ryan's mother also worked a lot when her sons were small and I feel extremely fourtunate for the opportunity to be with Gretchen as much as possible. Yes, she does attend daycare a few days a week, but it's all about balance, right? That's definitely the Attachment Parenting principle that I struggle with the most, but I suppose that's a whole other post!

And on that note I'm off to each a late lunch & finish this last cup of tea. I hope you're all enjoying your day as well, mes amis. Lots of love!

PS. I've implemented a new little commenting scheme for the blog, so let me know a) if it's working and b) if you like it. Merci!
PPS. Check out my latest post over on Mom Ok'd!