Quinoa Corn Muffins

Today I spent the day grocery shopping/cooking with my big, Montana. In the morning I went to pick up everything we needed at the farmers' market. I also stopped at Stop & Shop and got 9 boxes of pasta for $2.90. (I will probably go back to get more!)

We decided that I would make a quick light lunch, then we would make a baked pasta dish and a muffin. (All will be posted here!) All were some funky kitchen experiments that I have been plotting for weeks. The most experimental were the Quinoa Corn Muffins (you can see the recipe here).

The recipe calls for sprouted quinoa. This was strange. You just rinse the raw quinoa seeds, then soak them overnight, and they sprout. As in, they start to grow into a plant. As you can imagine this was a very new concept to me, although apparently it is very common among people who only eat raw foods. But I decided to try it anyway because the recipe suggested that they would be easier to puree for the recipe if they were sprouted, which turned out to be true. I also tried using agave nectar as my sweetener. I didn't really notice anything in the muffins, but they turned out to not be too sweet anyway and I used 2 Tbsp of agave nectar.

Sometimes I get very engrossed in my cooking and I forget to take pictures. Sorry! The final result was interesting. This recipe did not taste like a corn muffin at all. It had its own flavor. Not bad, but not a corn muffin, and not sweet at all - more like a bread you would eat with some kind of soup, maybe. We tried them with a little almond butter, which dominated over the flavor of the muffin, and we also concluded that it would be good with a fruit spread, or if you added cranberries when baking (very Thanksgiving-ish). I might try making these again, but if I do I will probably use about half as much quinoa and twice as much cornmeal. One benefit, though, is that the quinoa is a complete protein, so this is a good vegetarian source of protein if that's what you're looking for. I think this might be a little too natural-foods for me, and I will need to adjust the recipe if I make it again. I might also add a little more sweetener! Also, judging by how little the muffins rose I think it's time for new baking powder...