Red Pepper & Feta Salad and Cheesy Spinach Muffins

Well I had a little baking frenzy today making some delicious gluten-free chocolate brownies (not quite healthy enough for the lunchbox though!) and tasty little cheesy spinach muffins.  I feel very virtuous - how good a housewife am I?  However, I'm already feeling that I made a mistake with the brownies as I can't seem to go 10 minutes without popping back to the kitchen for another nibble...  this is not good for the old "losing a few pounds" quest that I'm on this month.  Hmmm, why did I make chocolate brownies you ask?  Because they taste SO good!!!

Anyway, as the brownies weren't in the lunchbox they don't quite qualify for inclusion in this blog but the pepper salad and cheesy spinach muffins are so good that you're really not missing out.  Here are the recipes...

Red Pepper & Feta Salad

This is a recipe which I've been meaning to try for ages from Nigella Lawson's "Nigella Bites" book (click here for the recipe). I only wish I'd tried it sooner - it is divine and I think will be oft repeated in my lunchtime scavenges. I had a few red peppers in the fridge so grilled and peeled them all then chopped the leftovers into strips and put into a sterilized jar covered with olive oil so that I can easily replicate this delicious salad whenever I like... that is, unless I eat them all in the next 24 hours which is highly likely!

Cheesy Spinach Muffin

Ok, a bit of a feta overload but I thought the pepper salad could do with a little starch to add some bite so I decided to play around in the kitchen and create a new gluten-free savoury muffin. The result was a little flat as I had to use a roasting tin that was far too big for the amount of mixture (my muffin tin is currently residing in someone else's kitchen - it reminded me I must go and get it back!) but the flavour was excellent. They could do with being a little less stodgy though so next time I think I'll use less polenta and be a bit quicker with my mixing and throwing in the oven.  Here's the recipe in case you want to replicate it...

1 cup gluten-free flour

1 1/2 cups polenta

1 pinch baking powder

200g chopped spinach

1 cup grated cheddar (about 45g)

1/2 cup chopped feta cheese (about 60g)

1 cup milk

1 egg

a scattering of pine nuts

1 pinch nutmeg

fresh black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 210˚C. Combine flour, polenta, baking powder, milk & egg. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Pour into a greased muffin case (fill full) and sprinkle with sesame seeds to decorate (if you like). Bake for 30-40 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean). I think next time I make this I will be using less polenta, perhaps more flour, a bigger pinch of baking powder, more feta and perhaps a little pinch of paprika to liven it up a little.

Snacks for today were some sliced mango and a peeled mandarin - yum!