Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins

I'm baa-aaack!

I'm really hoping that I have some readers left after abandoning this blog for six weeks with no explanation.

Multiple areas of my life have suddenly become quite busy (in a very good way!), leaving me little time to cook anything more exciting than a Lean Cuisine or my new go-to speedy dinner.  I've been going out to dinner a ton, so I'm still eating some good food...it's just not being made by me. In related news, if you live in the D.C. area, get your ass to Graffiato for dinner and thank me later.

I squeezed in an hour of baking last Sunday to whip up these muffins, and I'm soooo glad that I did. Early in April, I bought a couple Texas-sized muffin pans from a store in New Jersey. I wanted to make those huge muffins you buy at a bakery or coffee shop. I kind of can't believe how well these turned out. Like a good bakery muffin, the domed tops have a slight crunch to them, while the inside is moist, tender, and chocolate-studded.

These are best served hot from the oven the day you make them, but I froze the leftovers and they're still pretty good if you thaw them in the microwave for about 60 seconds. 

Orzo Salad with Chickpeas, Dill, and Lemon

Random fact: I hate bringing lunch to work.

Am I the worst food blogger ever for preferring a sandwich that's been expertly prepared by the staff of Taylor Gourmet, to a sandwich I've made at home?

Probably.

However, until I can get up at the butt-crack of dawn to roast my own meats, Taylor Gourmet wins.

A Taylor Gourmet opened roughly 5 steps away from my office last year, and I've become slightly addicted. Every time I walk into TG, I feel like I've died and gone to Heaven. Except, this Heaven is made of meat and bread, and not the white puffy clouds I've always pictured. There are no angels, just office drones in pencil skirts and Tory Burch flats. Then, I walk through the exit doors and get hit up for some change by one of 19th Street's urban campers, and I realize that I'm just in DC, and that Heaven will most likely not be decorated with pickle bucket light fixtures.

There are just two problems with working in such close proximity to Meat Heaven: 1) It gets pricey, and 2) TG doesn't publish nutritional facts. I'd venture a guess that many of their sandwiches are pushing 1,000 calories, if not more.

Since part of being a grown up is doing things we hate, I made lunch and brought it to work to save myself some calories and some coinage.*

Guess what?! It was delicious. I happily ate this for lunch 3 days in a row, and only had a slight twinge of longing for my beloved sandwich shop. I put a couple big scoops of this over a bed of baby spinach, and felt totally virtuous about eating my greens.

*In the unlikely event that some of you reading are fellow Strangers with Candy fans, yes, that is a slight homage to the brilliantly dirty "Packing a Musket", by Jerry Blank.

Lightened-Up Blueberry Lemon Greek Yogurt Bread

Oh, hai.

Remember me?

That girl who wrote an ode to tacos and then disappeared for two weeks?

Stuff got busy, man.

Annie came to visit. We drank Prosecco and ate lots of cheese at Cheesetique. Work was super busy, too. I went up to New Jersey for my Mom's birthday and Easter, where I finally got to enjoy a beer (okay, 4 beers) again after my Lenten fast.

I finally got my butt back in the kitchen on Tuesday night, and baked this lightened-up blueberry lemon Greek yogurt bread. I think we all know that most quickbreads are just an excuse to eat cake for breakfast. This is not cake. This bread is dense, but moist. It's sweet, but not dessert like. It's a true breakfast bread, and it's lightened-up enough that you can eat a huge slab of it without feeling guilty. I have enough guilt about the quantity of Reese's Eggs I've consumed over the past few days. Please tell me that some of you are having this problem too? I hid them in the freezer, which just made them taste even better.