Western Deviled Eggs with Pickled Mustard Seeds

A fun twist on classic deviled eggs  -  Western style with diced ham, onion and green peppers and topped with sweet pickled mustard seeds. 

When I was a kid I couldn't get enough of deviled eggs. I loved making them as much as I loved eating them, so my mom bought me a deviled egg serving platter. It was a fancy white plate with grooves to hold about 16 deviled eggs. Every time we went to a party I'd have to make my eggs to bring. I was only 8 or 9 years old - how cute is that?

I don't know if I got burnt out on them, but I haven't had deviled eggs in years. But lately I've been making a lot of hard boiled eggs to have in for a quick breakfast on the go, so last weekend I decided to turn some of them into a fun appetizer for dinner with family.

Ham and eggs are such a classic combination, and add in peppers and onions and you have one of the most popular omelette recipes ever - the Western. No need to buy a whole ham, either. Just ask your deli counter for one sliced of cooked ham sliced approximately 1/4 inch thick.

The first step to getting a good deviled egg is to make the perfect hard boiled egg. There are so many tips and tricks out there - boiling, adding vinegar, baking, etc. I keep it simple and my eggs peel perfectly every time and the yolks are bright yellow - no green ring.

Place the eggs in a pot and cover with water until they are submerged. Bring the water to a boil for one minute, remove from the heat and cover. Set your timer for 13 minutes and as soon as the 13 minutes are up, run cold water into the pot. I do this for several minutes and even add ice. You really want to shock the eggs so they peel comes off clean. By using this method, that thin skin between the egg and the shell sticks to the shell, not the egg, and makes it super easy to peel the eggs.

These pickled mustard seeds were a find at a recent cooking demonstration. I had never had them before, but love the texture and the touch of sweetness they add. What a perfect topping for a deviled egg!

These were so yummy - sweet, creamy, and salty - that I have made them twice in the past 3 days!

Western Deviled Eggs with Pickled Mustard Seeds
Original Recipe by Mary Ellen of Mary Ellen's Cooking Creations

Ingredients

• 8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
• 1/4 of a green pepper, diced (2 Tbsp)
• 2 Tbsp minced white onion
• 2 Tbsp diced ham (see my tip above about buying deli ham)
• 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
• 1 tsp stone ground Dijon mustard
• 3-4 Tbsp mayonnaise (I prefer Hellmann's)
• Pickled mustard seeds to topping

Directions

• Slice the eggs in half and gently remove the yolk (they should pop right out if cooked properly). 
• In a bowl, mash the yolks using the back of a fork. Add the green pepper, onion, ham, salt, pepper, Dijon and mayo. Mix until creamy. Taste and adjust any seasoning. 
• Spoon the mixture evenly between the 16 halves and top with the pickled mustard seeds. 
• Chill until ready to serve. 

Banana-Oat Muffins with Walnuts

Healthy, whole wheat banana muffins with oats and walnuts, sweetened only with maple syrup. 

I can't believe I haven't shared this recipe yet!!! I first made and photographed these muffins a YEAR ago, and have made them so many times since, but somehow the post sat as a draft for a quite some time. So there's no time like now to finally share these muffins with you.

Over the past year I have made several types of muffins using whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour and pure maple syrup instead of white sugar - Healthy Apple-Walnut-Raisin Muffins, Carrot Muffins with Walnuts and Raisins, Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins, and some Banana Chocolate Muffins that I still need to photograph and blog! All of these muffins are so yummy and healthy (you won't miss the sugar!), and are a great choice for breakfast on the go or a mid-morning snack.

One of the best things about these muffins is that it uses up those over-ripe bananas you probably have sitting on your counter. And if you are like me, you also have a bag of over-ripe bananas in your freezer. My second favorite thing is that you don't need to use a mixer at all - just your hand, a whisk, and a spoon. Super simple!

Finally, they freeze so well! I wrap each one individually in plastic wrap followed by foil, and then put them all in a freezer bag. I pull one out of the freezer at night and let it defrost in the fridge overnight, and by the time I'm going to work it is perfect to eat with my cup of tea.

Banana-Oat Muffins with Walnuts
Adapted from: Cookie and Kate

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup 
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp granulated sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and fill your muffin tins with cupcake liners (12)
• In a large bowl, beat the oil and syrup together with a whisk. 
• Add in the eggs and beat well. 
• Stir in the mashed bananas, milk, baking soda, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.
• Add the flour, most of the oats (save some for topping) and the walnuts; mix with a spoon until just combined. 
• Divide the batter evenly between the muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining oats and a pinch of sugar.
• Bake for 23-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
• Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool. Remove the muffins from the tin after 5 minutes and let them cool completely before storing. Muffins will store for 2 days at room temp or 4 days in the fridge. If you plan on freezing any, freeze them on the first day for best results. 

Celebrating 10 Years with our Best Recipes

Today Mary Ellen's Cooking Creations turns the big 1-0!! Ten years of sharing recipes from my kitchen - I can't believe it!

It's funny to think back on how much has changed in ten years both with this blog and with me personally. When I look back through the blog year by year I can remember things happening in my life by the way I was cooking and the food I would make. Kind of like when you hear an old song and it brings back a memory. My food brings back so many memories of times in my life. Oh how things have changed! Ten years ago we were both in our early 30s -

Ten years ago I had never cooked risotto. I had never baked something that didn't come in a box. Believe it or not, I had never worked with bone-in chicken (except that one time I made chicken soup from scratch in high school). There were so many dishes and ingredients I hadn't heard of, or wasn't brave enough to try. I (thought) I loathed mushrooms and blue cheese and eggs. Things like homemade tomato sauce, pan sauces, homemade frosting and whipped cream did not exist in my kitchen. And my knife skills? None. I still used to put my index finger along the top of my cheap knives.

But then after being married for about three years, I took an interest in cooking, mostly because both my husband and I were getting sick of tacos, stuffed peppers, pepper steak, and cheese nip chicken. Sadly, that's about all we ate when we were both home... Thank goodness for work travel!

When I first jumped into really cooking, I immediately discovered that I did not enjoy measuring and preferred to go by taste, look, and smell. I soon started to read recipes and decide what I'd change before even trying the recipe. I had some failures and some successes, and learned a LOT along the way. Weekly I was trying at least 2-3 new recipes, and Saturday nights were dedicated to date nights at home where we'd cook something new and fancy together (yes, my husband is an awesome cook and loves being in the kitchen whenever he can!). I don't think we ate the same thing more than twice for at least 2 years because I was in love with experimenting and creating new recipes. That is when I decided to start this blog - it was really just a way to keep track of recipes. I had no idea where it would take me.

During those first few years, favorites were discovered and put on rotation, however I never lost that love of creating new recipes. Over the years my food has evolved to suit our lifestyle, and these days, instead of spending hours on one recipe, I focus a lot more meals to feed my family. Although every now and then I do get a full day in the kitchen and love it!!

Writing this blog has taught me and brought me so much more than just cooking.

Entertaining and planning menus is one of my favorite things to do. I love sitting with my notebook writing out ideas and I totally appreciate that my husband lets me run them by him a million times. Luckily he enjoys it too, and we love creating holiday menus together. We often start talking about Christmas months before the big day!

Photography has also become a hobby of mine. I know I still have a lot to learn and hope to find the time to take some classes soon, but on my own I can see much improvement. Those early food pics were pretty homely, as my husband would say! (so please, as I share some old recipes below, be mindful of that :)

And finally, it's crazy to think that I wasn't even on Facebook when I started this blog. There was no such thing as Twitter, Instagram, Yummly, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tumblr, etc. I could go on and on! It has been fun connecting with people through those platforms and learning the best ways to use them to connect with all of you (and meanwhile my 6 year old sees a logo and knows what social media platform it belongs to - it's like second nature to them!).

Since my life and this blog are completely entwined, I can't help but think of how my personal life has changed over the past ten years. Ten years ago I was in my early 30s, married almost 4 years and working in the corporate world, traveling the country (and world) for pharmaceutical and medical meetings. After the birth of my daughter I decided to move on from that life, and now I consider myself very lucky that I am able to work part-time for now so I can be there for the school bus, school events, and extracurricular activities with my amazing 6 year old daughter.  Ten years ago I wasn't even thinking of kids yet, and now this little one is almost 7! How awesome is it that she loves to get in the kitchen with me and we can pretty much get her to try (almost) anything. Most recently she tried mussels and loved them! She's an energetic little girl and keeps us on on toes - our little first grader who loves acting, dancing, cooking, singing, playing outside, reading, writing, making lists, playing games and telling jokes. Things haven't always been easy over the past ten years - although blessed to be in our forever home, it has been a continuous work in progress and it always seem like something is going wrong or breaking. We have both dealt with unemployment, secondary infertility, pregnancy losses, and the death of our first dog, Daisy Mae. During all of those times, I always turned to cooking as my therapy. Family and cooking have been my one constant through all of these ten years. 
So take a trip down memory lane with me as I share my most popular and/or favorite recipes. These are recipes that have been shared the most, liked the most, and recipes that have been favorites of my family. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My top post of all-time comes from May of 2008 - Time for a Party. In this post I shared a menu for a party including this recipe for tortilla pinwheels, and now I see them pinned all over Pinterest. They are a hit! I take them to every party and get asked for the recipe several times at each party. Sometimes simple is the best! 

My husband has contributed several recipes, desserts, and wine reviews to this blog. Two of his recipes are in my top searched, pinned and shared recipes! He loves making this Maine Lobster Stew, has made it for the last 2 years on Christmas, and is always looking for excuses to make it again. I'll take credit for helping with the plating and taking the photos. 

Another recipe of his that sends a lot of people to this blog through searches is his Beef Negimaki. After ordering it several times at our local sushi place he decided to make it on his own. We both agreed it was even better than the restaurant's! Since this post is from 2009 the pic isn't great, but what I do love about this post are the step by step photo instructions for cutting and rolling the beef. 

My top breakfast post of all time, and one that I make often, is a grab and go breakfast - Egg Muffins for Breakfast-on-the-Go. 

I'm so happy that this next recipe is in my top ten of all time because it is one of my favorites - Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes with a Lemon-Garlic Aioli. "Too hot to cook" and "grilled chicken salads" are both so commonly searched, and lead my followers to this post for Yakitori Chicken with Cold Veggie and Soba Noodle Bowls. This is one of my top chicken recipes as well as a top salad recipe. 

With close to 200 chicken recipes in this blog, it was really, really hard to narrow it down to my favorite. I have so many, from this French Onion Braised Chicken and this Gruyere Chicken with Mushrooms, to Shredded Chicken with Chiles and Chicken and Dumplings. I finally chose a popular recipe, and it is fitting that it is a bone-in recipe - Garlic Herb Roast Chicken with Vegetables. 

Soups are cooked in my kitchen once a week over the cool and cold months, so with over 80 soup recipes in this blog it is hard to choose a favorite. This Potato and Corn Chowder with Bacon is one of my most popular, and it is one of my favorites because it is so hearty and well, bacon!

It's funny that ten years ago I had never made risotto, and now I have over 20 risotto recipes on this blog. Risotto is in my top ten search words, so I picked one of my favorites for this anniversary post - Three Garlic Risotto. I have been making this one for years (it was probably one of the first risotto recipes I ever made!) but finally just blogged it recently. 

Still, after ten years of doing this, I only use my crock-pot for shredded/pulled chicken, pork or beef. My top slow cooker and top pulled pork recipe is this amazing Guinness Pulled Pork. I'm so happy it gets so much love because it definitely gets a lot of love in this house! Korean Pulled Pork Tacos

My personal favorite pulled pork recipe is the pork for these Korean Pulled Pork Tacos. These are pretty popular on Pinterest, too! 

And sticking with the pork theme, this Stuffed Pork Loin with a Mushroom Wine Gravy is one of my most popular posts. It is a great recipe, perfect for holidays or entertaining, and the tutorial for cutting and rolling the pork is spot-on. This post, and the picture, are from 2008 - 

This is a newer recipe and it quickly became my second most popular appetizer - Cheesy BLT Stuffed Jalapenos, and it is easy to see why. Look how yummy! 

Let's finish this off on a sweet note! I don't bake that often - my husband is actually the baker in the house. This cake recipe has become a favorite of both of ours, and is my most popular dessert recipe on the blog - Philly Fluff Cake. 

Thank you to all of my readers and followers for making the last 10 years possible. I have enjoyed sharing and learning with all of you, and I appreciate all of your comments, likes and shares. I look forward to continuing this journey in my kitchen and with this blog, and hope you will be there with me! Thank you!

Healthy Apple-Walnut Muffins

Back to school time means needing to have a lot of grab-and-go snacks around in addition to needing a lot of snacks for the lunch box.

My little one started first grade last week and since her lunch is so early, she is coming home so hungry! I'm sure some of that has to do with the fact that she's too excited and distracted at lunch to eat. I see how long it takes her to eat dinner most nights - I can only imagine the level of craziness, noise and distraction in a cafeteria with 100 other 6 year olds.

I try to pack lunches and snacks that are healthy and filling, low in sugar, and easy to eat. Muffins make the perfect snack for all of those reasons.

These muffins were inspired by carrot muffins that I made several months ago. They start with whole wheat flour and don't use any sugar - pure maple syrup provides some sweetness. Since apple season is starting, I was inspired to create a fall muffin with grated apples. Walnuts and raisins provide some other textures and flavors.

These are very simple, straight forward muffins to make (this is coming from someone who doesn't enjoy baking all that much so you know they have to be easy!). I was able to make 12 full sized-muffins and 8 mini-muffins with the ingredients below.

I had one of these this morning at work and it held me over for a long time. I think I will be making these several times this fall - the perfect mid morning snack, lunch snack, or afternoon pick me up!

Healthy Apple-Walnut Muffins Adapted from: Healthy Carrot Muffins with Raisins Ingredients

• 1 3/4 c whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 cups peeled and grated apples (note - don't grate your apples until you are ready to add them to the mixture as they will turn brown)
• 1/2 c roughly chopped walnuts
• 1/2 c raisins tossed in 1 tsp whole wheat flour (Optional)
• 1/3 c extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 c pure maple syrup
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 c vanilla fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin tins with papers 
• In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom. Add the grated apples, chopped walnuts, and floured raisins and stir to combine.
• In a medium bowl combine the oil and maple syrup, beating together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well, and then add the yogurt and vanilla and mix well. 
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a big spoon until just combined (a few lumps are ok). 
• Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups and sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a pinch of sugar. 
• Bake for 13 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
• Place the muffin tins on a cooling rack to cool. Once completely cooled, store covered for 2 days or in the fridge for up to 4 days. 

Peanut Butter and Banana Granola Bars

I have always wanted to make my own granola bars. Something healthy, and something I can feel good about eating and giving to my daughter. You can definitely feel good about these bars, packed with real, healthy ingredients and no added sugar. 

The granola bars I made started with toasting walnuts and oats with some cinnamon. 

The glue that brings it all together is a mixture of mashed banana, peanut butter, vanilla and honey. 

For another texture, I added dried mixed fruit - raisins, cranberries, and golden raisins. 

Once everything is combined you spread it out in a baking dish lined with parchment paper. It bakes in the oven for 25 minutes. Once cool you put the dish in the fridge to set. 

I was worried that they would crumble or fall apart once I took them out but nope - look at this huge bar! I used a glass Pyrex baking dish so my bars were on the thicker side. I cut this large bar into 9 bars. For thinner bars, you could use a cookie sheet with a short edge. 

These bars are dense but very tasty and filling. They are not sweet at all so if you are looking for something like the big brand, storebought bars, you'll need to add a bunch more sugar. But if you are looking for a healthy, good for you bar with lots of textures and flavors, this is it! 
Peanut Butter and Banana Granola Bars Adapted from: Spoon University
Ingredients

• 2 cups of rolled oats
• 1 c chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 c creamy, natural peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 c mixed dried fruit (I used the raisins, golden raisins, cranberries mix from Trader Joe's)

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
• Mix your oats with the nuts and cinnamon. Spread on a cookie sheet and place in the oven to toast for 12 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes.
• Mash your bananas with a fork. Mix the bananas, peanut butter, vanilla extract and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until combined and warm, about 5 minutes.
• Place the oat/nut mixture in a large bowl and mix in the berries. Pour in the banana/peanut butter mixture and stir until fully combined.
• Line a baking sheet or glass baking dish (the size is up to you!) with parchment paper. Spread the granola mixture out evenly in your dish, using the back of a spatula to flatten.
• Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool completely and then place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 
• Remove the bars from your dish using the parchment paper ends as handles. Use a sharp knife to cut the granola into bars.