Cheese Spinach Ham Muffins

Have extra cheese, or milk or cream in your fridge you need to use up?  These are the perfect way to turn nourishing ingredients into a wholesome hearty quick go to meal or snack.  My husband is going to be working long hours for a few days, and needs a quick, hearty grab and go food for meals, so I created a muffin to fill those needs.    It's full of fat soluble vitamins from the milk, eggs, grass-fed cheese, cream and butter.    It's been an adventure trying to find a good raw grass-fed cheese, so sometimes I need to be a little creative to use up those cheese's we get that just a little to strong for our taste buds on their own.

I'm very generous with my recipe ingredients, and tend to fill it up until it "feels" right, but here is the structure for the recipe.  You can use whatever you have on hand,  I thought all the seasonal zucchini would go well inside. I didn't use that this time, but opted for spinach.

   About Muffins:

 You need to mix as little as possible, enough to combine and thoroughly wet all ingredients, but not over-mix. A folding action is good for adding in solid ingredients like ham or vegetables. Batter should be moist enough to scoop into muffin pans, but still chunky.  Over mixing will lead to flat dense muffins.

   Dry Ingredients, Combine in large bowl:

• 1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 1 cup sprouted whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1-2 teaspoon sea salt
  
  Then add, 1 cup grated cheese. ( I also added small  cut cubes of cheese, just using up what I had.)  Mix cheese into flour mixture until cheese is coated

Wet Ingredients,  Combine in separate medium bowl:  (You can mix and match liquid ingredients depending on what you have!  You can use yogurt or sour cream, etc.)

• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cream
• A few spoonfuls of sour cream, yogurt or creme fraiche
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Add to the dry ingredients with a few swift strokes.

Fold  in cut spinach, grated zucchini or vegi of choice.  Also add in bits of ham or bacon on this step. If batter is still too dry add more milk.

Bake at 350.  Make sure oven is hot before placing muffins in oven (they need immediate heat to rise up.)   Bake for ~20 minutes. They are done when toothpick comes out clean and are crispy on the outside.  You can toss some cheese on top if desired.  Serve warm.