Sick again?! Oh and Mini Maple Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancake Muffins

Seriously? Now I'm beginning to wonder if it WAS strep last week since apparently it's come back?? You guys don't need the gory (well, not really, just boring) details, but I'm sick. And tired. And sick and tired of being sick and tired. At least I'm hungry again... yesterday I couldn't eat a thing (couldn't even watch food network!) and that's a foodie's worst nightmare!

So now that I'm hungry again (but can't really eat anything cause I'm still a sicky) I'm scoping out recipes. I find and create my best recipes when I'm hungry. Up on the menu / to-do list are the following:

• Cinnamon sugar cake doughnuts
• Veggie burgers (don't gag, I have an incredible recipe for them)
• Roasted red pepper hummus
• Oatmeal bread (thanks, Dad, for the huge bags of food storage oats)
• Oatmeal raisin cookies (for my big brother who loves them)
• Chicken with apple, onion, and cider sauce
• Vegetable Stuffed Pork Tenderloin en Croute with Creole Mustard Cream Sauce
• White Cheesy Chicken Lasagna
• Peanut Butter Pinwheels (a nod to my childhood / my grandmother)
• Pumpkin (pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pound cake, pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling... I heart fall)
• Chicken and Peppers Pasta
• Chicken Scallopine with Warm Vegetable Salad

One of the other things I'm going to do is buy the book the Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's an incredible-looking book teaching you all about bread. I want to buy it and two of the top recipes I want to make from that book are the homemade bagels and an herbed foccacia. Mmmm. I love bread and I'm really excited that I'm learning to bake.

Look for some updates in the coming weeks on the new recipes!!

For now, enjoy Bakerella's Mini Maple Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancake Muffins:

(see here for pictures)

1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
2/3 c. buttermilk
1 egg
2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips
Warmed butter and maple syrup, for serving

Preheat oven to 350° F and grease two mini muffin tins. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins. Add chocolate chips individually to each muffin (to avoid overdoing the chocolate). Bake 8-9 minutes.

Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan. Serve immediately with warmed butter and maple syrup.

(Note: I overdid the chocolate chips - and this is coming from a choco-holic. Remember that these mini muffins are TINY and any more than 4-5 chocolate chips per muffin is too much. But they are absolutely DELICIOUS. Trevor was sneaking them off a plate 4 or 5 days after I made them. Delish!)