spinach feta muffins for muffin monday

a few weeks ago, i was going through the blogs i frequent on a regular basis, then on annapet's blog i saw that she was baking muffins for the first time. the title of her post had muffin mondays on it, and i thought that it was such a clever idea. after reading the post, another blogger, anuradha, invited invited her to do this. i was intrigued and click on the link that led to her site. i was drooling when i got there. a whole slew of baked goods right in front of me ripe for the picking. anyway, after a few weeks of reading though other people's post for muffin mondays, i've decided to join.

i emailed an, author of baker street, if i could bake with them. when she replied telling me i could, i was excited. on her first email she told me that she'll send me the details about the recipe we're doing that coming thursday. i told shawn about this new thing i am joining and he thought that it'd be fun. ever since i started this new blog, i told myself that i would join blogging things like this. i also planned to be more friendly and try talking to other bloggers - but i seem to be failing at that right now. i think i should really try harder.
thursday came and in my inbox was the recipe we were going to make this week. when i read spinach feta muffins, i immediately planned on what i'm going to do with it. since it's very greek, shawn suggested that i should add olives but unfortunately i'm not a big fan of olives so i ignored that suggestion. it would've been good though. anyway, i thought I'd stick to the original recipe, but I felt the need to tweak it a little bit. so what i ended up doing is increasing the amount of some of the ingredients and adding garlic because I think it'll go well with the other stuff in the veggie filled recipe.

after making it, I was kinda apprehensive because there was so much spinach that it might end up overpowering all the other ingredients, but when I took a bite, it was perfect. I could taste the feta, sundries tomatoes, a hint of parsley and the bite of garlic. after eating one, I decided that I will make a spread just to make it better. don't get. me wrong, the muffins were good by itself, but I'm a spread kinda guy so I wanted something to smear on my muffin (no pun intended). since I have cream cheese in the fridge, some chopped green onions, a dash of of ground black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice would surely go well with what's inside the muffin. after smearing it on one of them, I was right, a spread would totally enhance everything. so, let me just give you the recipe and make sure that you try it out.

spinach feta muffins

ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
250g (about 1/2 bunch) spinach, trimmed, washed, dried, shredded
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, drained and chopped (optional)
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan
1 cup milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp granulated garlic
finely grated parmesan, extra to top cooked muffins

instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Line with muffin liners or brush muffin pans with canola oil to lightly grease.

3. In a large bowl, sift flour and add shredded spinach, feta, tomatoes and parmesan, stir to combine.

4. In a measuring jar or another bowl whisk together milk, oil, egg, dried parsley and granulated garlic until well combined. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and use a metal spoon to stir until just combined (do not over mix).

5. Spoon mixture into prepared pans. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Turn out onto wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

cream cheese spread

1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped green onions or chives
juice of half a lemon
salt to taste

cream cream cheese and mix in all other ingredients. adjust salt amount to your taste. smear on to your muffins. enjoooooy!

by the way check out what the other bloggers did with this recipe.

Asian American Cooking
Baker Street
Cook That Book
Mind Your Bees and Trees
When Adobo Met Feijoada

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.