I finally admitted defeat this weekend. For the first time this year, I bought bread. I also bought pre-chopped vegetables, hummus, and pre-washed lettuce. Why do I force myself to do all these things from scratch? Preparing my snacks and lunches for the work week has been seriously cutting into my favorite Sunday activity (sitting outside with a margarita and a book, of course). The only things I’m still making from scratch are hard-boiled eggs and muffins for Dave.
I’m lucky that so far the quick bread chapter in the Tuesdays with Dorie cookbook has been seriously overlooked, so I can double task lunch prep and TWD. (The celebration cake chapter is DONE, which, for me, is cause for celebration.) It also helps that muffins are so easy and bake quickly.
These are a perfect example of why I can’t bring myself to buy muffins. These aren’t perfectly healthy, but they’re certainly better for you than anything storebought – not to mention how sweet and tender and soft they are as well. I’m definitely willing to sacrifice a bit of Sunday margarita time to make muffins like this.
Natalie chose this recipe, and she has it posted on her site. I used raisins for the dried fruit, but these were so perfectly spiced for fall that I wish I’d used dried apples instead.
One year ago: Applesauce Spice Bars
Two years ago: Granola Grabbers
Yumm! These count as whole grains, right? They look delicious with that bit of jam. Mmmm.
Wei-Wei
I love these photos! (And by love, I also mean “am super jealous.”) Thanks for baking with me!
These are beautiful! Fruit + nuts is always healthy in my book 🙂
Ohh, these look so good! I’m loving all the Oatmeal Breakfast Bread posts around the interwebs — looks like a great recipe!
Muffins seem like the way to go with this recipe. Love your photos.
Mimi
your photos are gorgeous! and don’t beat yourself up about the store bought bread and precut veggies–margarita time is important!
haha, I had the same intentions of not buying bread this year but broke down in July- a mix of the insane heat and bad morning sickness forced me back into reality! I’m with you on the muffins though, why buy them when they are easy and much tastier to make at home! This was a wonderful recipe! Your pictures are wonderful too!
With all that applesauce and buttermilk in the recipe, I can imagine how fantastically tender and moist this bread is. And the spices and dried fruit – I could definitely make some sacrifices for this recipe too.
Lovely photos! This definitely was worth the time to make. These were the perfect thing to pack to eat at work.
i am glad we are thru with those fanciful cakes, too, and hope we get down to more recipes like this– it was so good. your pics are great…how’d you manage to get oatmeal and applesauce to look so gorgeous??