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I have a dark secret.

It usually involves cooking.

And dancing.

And the Mamma Mia Soundtrack.

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So if you couldn’t tell by now, I love strawberries.  A whole lot.  They’re one of my favorite fruits and I try to eat them as often as possible during the summer when ripe.

Well a couple of weeks ago my roommates and I went to Costco and I picked up a giant crate of strawberries.  Since it was Costco, there were enough strawberries to feed a small army (or in my case a house full of people).  I did manage to stash a couple of them away in the freezer for future use luckily.  Unfreezing berries for cooking always yields mushy results, which are fantastic for baking.  When I initially froze the strawberries I had no future plans and thought I would hold on to them until I found something delicious to make.  Well luckily, that something found me.  While in Whole Foods last week I decided to buy a magazine but unfortunately they were out of Us Weekly, so I picked up Whole Living instead (I’m joking…Whole Foods doesn’t even sell Us Weekly).

Anyway, I found this recipe for Strawberry Muffins and

I just knew they had to be made.

I think they’ve gone over well with the aforementioned army known as my roommates.  More than have of them were gone in less than 24 hours and the remainder within 48.

I like this recipe for a couple of reasons.  The first being, I modified it a bunch and the muffins were still delicious.  Secondly, it does not produce an overly sweet muffin.  The cake part is wholesome and the strawberries are the sweet parts of the muffin.  As a result, these are good for breakfast on the run.

Strawberry Muffins

Adapted from Whole Living

• 2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup  vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Toss together strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar, lightly mash the berries and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, oil, egg, and vanilla.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture and the berry mixture (with juice). Fold just until combined and divide among 12 muffins.
4. Bake about 17 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

This is a self-imposed challenge. I haven’t prepared my own lunch on a regular basis since…well, ever.
My parents did such a great job making my lunch when I was younger, yet somehow the concept was lost on me. In college, I got accustomed to people making me food at the dinning halls. At work I never had time to buy groceries, so actually bringing something to the office was hard. Plus, grabbing lunch was usually the only time I got to see daylight. During grad school, there are just so many events during lunch that I didn’t need to pack anything.

And now here I am. Working again with time to buy groceries. Gasp. I’ve been buying my lunch everyday at our really nice office cafeteria, but I’ve been thinking (as I like to try and do every so often) that it’s probably more economical and somewhat healthier to bring lunch. So I’ve decided to do just that. Bring my lunch, brown paper bag style.

BUT I’m a foodie. Clearly a regular turkey and swiss won’t do on a regular basis…I need to mix it up! I want to make things that will compare to what I could be getting at the cafeteria so I won’t feel like I’m missing out. So here it is, my sandwich for today:

Prosciutto with sliced sheep’s cheese, basil, baby arugula and black olive tapenade. Ok….arguably healthier than the cafeteria. But then I realized these are expensive ingredients, so perhaps it’s not economical to make lunch. To figure this quandary out, I made a spreadsheet, ex-banker style.

So it costs me approximately $4.37 per sandwich (provided I use all the ingredients to their capacity), which is less than the ~$7.00 spent at the cafeteria. That’s a savings of $13.15/week or $52.59 per month. Hmmm, maybe I should start making this a regular challenge for the summer…suggestions are welcome for other great sandwiches.

…the Hi Rise Bread Co?  It might be tough with all of the election excitement, but it was the post just prior to this!…well it turns out a few days later the bread makes excellent French Toast.  Especially when consumed for dinner.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, the key to super awesome french toast is to add vanilla extract and flour to the egg mixture (in addition to the usual milk, cinnamon, and sugar).  The vanilla helps with the flavoring and the flour thickens the mix and makes it more adhesive.  Then of course tossing chocolate chips (Ghiradelli are a personal fav) and powdered sugar on top doesn’t hurt either.

As a side note, I owe everyone a write-up of my NY trip a couple of weeks ago, hopefully sometime over the weekend/early next week!

In a word: Zoning. Or lack thereof.  There are hidden pockets of stores and restaurants all over the place in Cambridge.  Of course it’s awesome when you find one of these fantastic places hidden away, but at the same time it’s frustrating if you don’t own a car. 

For example, a friend called me up this morning and wanted to go Hi Rise Bread Co. for lunch.  He had found the place through a friend.  This place was tucked away in Cambridge and only 3 miles from my apartment, but not too close to public transportation.  Since 6 miles was a bit of a lengthy walk, I hijacked my roommate’s car (which is completely justified because he went on a 2-week business trip and left me a sinkful of his dishes) and drove off.  

It was DELICIOUS.  I had a grilled sandwich with chicken, harissa, olive spread and tomatoes.  Heaven between carbs (which is basically heaven wraped in heaven).  The sandwich was a bit on the pricey side for a random Cambridge bakery ($10)…but in all honesty, I did not eat again for 8 hours.  I also bought myself a chocolate brioche roll.  It was tasty, but not as good in my opinion.  The roll was a bit on the drier side. 

I would never have found this place if my friend didn’t recommend it.  Who else has places to recommend in Boston/Cambridge/suburbs?