Spinach & Cheese Muffins

I know, this blog has seen better days. But good times are here to come, I hope! :)
And to kick start that, here's a nice breakfast muffin recipe. Healthy, packed with nutrients and eggless!

My kitchen help is back, after a long holiday of 4 months during which I had to cook all meals of the day - breakfast, lunch and dinner. I slacked off often and felt guilty about providing the husband with a decent meal. Its tough to have a full time job, and still cook all three meals of the day, especially if you want all three of them to be healthy and fresh. I know, a lot of women do that, but am certainly not in that lot! Sad, but true! And I realized it pretty early in life! :-)

So I have a hired kitchen help, a boy who is very good at what he does, and is smart, sharp and fast. He can cook an entire three course meal in an hour and still manage to retain the taste. He takes instructions very patiently, and cuts my veggies exactly the way I want them to be cut. He is a huge help when I want to try anything new and has a very cute curiosity to new dishes that I make... Family and Friends who have seen him and eaten what he cooked at my place love his cooking, and so do I. Him not being around for 4 full months has certainly taken a toll on our eating habits and the husband and I were more than overjoyed when he finally announced he is back in town! Clearly, he is our most important person! ;-)
And to welcome my kitchen and our tummies to a lot of good food, I decided to try one of the recipes I had bookmarked a while ago!

I took the ingredients and the flavor from this recipe, but I changed the quantity of each of these ingredients. Since I wanted it to be a healthy recipe, and since my stomach cannot stomach even an ounce of all purpose flour, I used whole wheat flour, with flax seed powder which is generally mixed into the wheat flour in my house. You can replace the wheat flour in this recipe with an equal quantity of AP flour. Also, if you have to use egg, use one egg instead of the yogurt.
We use full cream milk in our house, but the milk is laden with cream, all of which we cannot consume (for the sake of those bulging waistlines :)), which is why I boil the milk and remove the cream twice. You can use 2% toned milk if that's what you get, but I've noticed that full cream milk is more tastier than the toned one.
Instead of the coriander chutney, you can use a bunch of fresh coriander leaves, or if you prefer, mix a Tsp of coriander powder along with the dry ingredients. As indicated, this is optional and is entirely for the taste and flavor, and for the sake of our palettes which crave Indian flavors, no matter what! :)
Also, feel free to use any cheese, the original recipe says cheddar, but I used regular Amul cheese slices.

The muffins were slightly heavy because of the moisture contained in the whole wheat flour. Nevertheless, they were bursting with flavor and were perfect for breakfast. Just serve these warm with tea, or with sauce and lo, you have a healthy breakfast-on-the-go! :)

Recipe inspired from – What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today

Spinach & Cheese Muffins
Level – Easy
Preparation Time – 20 min
Baking time – 40 min

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1 1/2 C
Flax seed powder - 1 Tsp
Baking powder - 2 Tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp
Salt - 1 Tsp
Whole milk, de-creamed - 1 C
Yogurt - 2 Tbsp.
Spinach leaves, washed and chopped fine- 1 C
Cheese - 2 slices
Onions, finely chopped - 1
Garlic cloves, finely chopped - 4-6
Green chillis, finely chopped - 2
Olive oil - 1 Tbsp
Coriander chutney - 2 Tsp [Or Coriander leaves - 1/4 C]
Green pepper, ground - 1/2 Tsp [Optional]

Instructions

Prepare a 12 hole muffin pan by lining the muffin liners and pre-heat the oven to 185C
Sauté the onions, garlic cloves and chillis till the onions are golden brown
Mix the flour, baking powder and soda and sieve together twice.
In another bowl, mix the milk and curd together . Stir in the cheese and coriander chutney.
Mix the chopped spinach leaves.
Add the sautéed onions to this and mix well.
Now fold in the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
Pour a scoopful into each muffin liner and bake for 30 min or till the top is golden brown and smells delicious.
Serve warm with sauce or coffee or tea.