Ten Pounds of Delish.

For supper last night, I made an "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of a chicken stew.  It was one of those nights where the cupboards are starting to get a little bare, and the fridge just had all sorts and sundry bits of randomness throughout it, with nothing really substantial to feed the whole lot of us.

But, I did have a wee little bird in the freezer.
And you know what they say.....
"A bird in the freezer (small though it may be)...is better than a big one...that's still at the store."
Or... something catchy like that.

So, anyway...
I chucked that baby into a stewpot - frozen and all - and cooked 'er down...down...down.
Then, I picked all of the meat off her bones, and chucked the carcass right back into that pot with a whole lot of other randoms like garlic, onions, carrots - etc. and made some homemade stock.

And for supper, we had "Whatever was left in the fridge Chicken Stew" for supper.
Broth and bird with a little bit of leftover quinoa and rice, half a head of brocolli, a partial head of cauliflower,  some baby carrots, an onion, a fistful of mushrooms, a zucchini, a bunch of green beans, the remnants of a partial bag of frozen corn, and even a couple of sweet potatoes cubed in there for good measure.  I tossed in some basil, some garlic salt and powder, and just a bit of Creole seasoning for taste, and called it good.

And you know what?
It was rather delish.
A cozy bowl of comfort, indeed.

So, it only seemed fitting to make some sort of "Everything but the kitchen sink Muffin" to go alongside said soup.
Plus, I might have been having a craving.
But, there are no prep pictures of cute little boys helping their Mama in the kitchen.
Yesterday was wild and hairy for just about the entire day...so last night's meal was a get 'er done, dealio.

Get in.  Get out.  Get 'er cleaned up.  And get them Hoolies abed for the night...
It was just one of those days.
Kind of like being on Survivor.

But, anyway - here's the recipe for the muffins we had last night for super...and for today for breakfast...and again for mid-morning snack.  They are healthy and hearty, and they weigh about ten pounds each.

I doubled the recipe to make 24 ginormous muffins.  The recipe below will give you a dozen good sized ones, or you could also fairly easily spread them out to make 18 smaller sized ones if you don't feel like being as piggish as me...

Here you are:
"Pumpkin Blueberry Bran Muffins"

4 cups bran cereal (The recipe called for raisin bran.  All I had was regular bran cereal.  No biggy).
2 cups fat-free milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
2 cups flour (spelt, whole wheat, half unbleached white-half wheat, whatever.  I used a couple different kinds).
1/2 cup brown sugar (or honey or maple syrup)
6 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon (I used 2).
1 tsp. salt
fistful of frozen blueberries --- especially if you didn't use raisins in your bran
fistful of flaxseed
....and really whatever else your little heart desires.  This is just all I had.  Chia seeds would be good.  Or any other kind of frozen fruit.  Whatever.  They are that kind of a  - "chuck what you have into the batter" - type of muffin.

1.  To the four cups of cereal, add the milk to soften the flakes.  Mix with spoon.
2.  Add pumpkin and eggs.  Mix well.
3.  In separate bowl add the flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and anything else dry that you've added.
4.  Mix dry ingredients with bran flakes mixture.  Add frozen blueberries.
5.  Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 or more full.  I loaded mine right up.

Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick tests done.  This will vary depending on the size and weight of your muffins!  Serve hot and piping.

Dee-lish.
A poorman's supper of comfort.

And then I took a bath and promptly rolled myself to bed...