Still Feeling Peckish

I swear there are 2 amazingly reliable ways of getting rid of leftovers in the house – either make frittata or muffins. Both these items can absorb any combination of leftover vegetables or meats and still taste crazy good. The trick is to keep one or two items in the pantry that will up the ante, like sun-dried tomatoes or a handful of olives.

Because I’m predominantly a weekend cook (given that I’m practically running 2 jobs at the same time in this season of my life), I find that I’m the one that tidies up the fridge and pantry every weekend. I’m blessed to have a helper, D, for the past 10 years, who is a fantastic cook in her own right, but because I think I’m the slightly OCD person who likes to reorganize and can’t stand clutter, I end up being the one who clears the wilting celery, the yellowing kale or the forgotten half onion that has been sitting in the vegetable drawer in the fridge. I’m also the nazi that ruthlessly chucks things out according to sell-by dates or if I see tentacles starting to emerge from a neglected container…

And I’m pretty awful when it comes to bargains – recently I came across some half-priced spaghetti squash and kale in the supermarket, I could not resist picking these up (yes, I also clear up other people’s leftovers!). So half the kale went into these muffins and the other half into a vegetable soup, and the spaghetti squash also made its way into the muffins. The rest is waiting to be incorporated into frittata for a potluck tomorrow.

I don’t know where this frugal streak came from but I suspect its intrinsic to being Chinese. It is likely that the Chinese were the originators of the nose-to-tail way of eating; in fact there is a Chinese saying that we are allowed to eat anything “whose back faces the sun”…which pretty much means any animal on fours. Which is why Chinese are not cannibals and are somewhat divided about whether monkeys are fair game…I’ve always been horrified by accounts of how my dad had to eat monkey brains as a child because it was thought to have the best nutrition for kids who needed to study and use their brains! Yes Chinese do eat anything and it is also said that if Adam and Eve were Chinese, that there would not have been any original sin because they would have eaten the snake first.

So here is my low carb savory muffin recipe – any of the vegetables can be substituted. For example I had kale and sun-dried tomato and leftover spaghetti squash in this, but I’m sure that red peppers, spinach or mushrooms would be great in these as well. The muffin is a great to-go breakfast item or a savory snack for tea.