I am generally not a vain person or one for gratuitous pictures of myself on my blog, but I felt the need to memorialize my face sans makeup on the morning of my 29th birthday. The way I see it, I will never again be as fresh facesdor wrinkle free and I would like to remember that. Some people say 29 is the worst year because you’re dreading turning 30 the whole time, but I don’t feel that way. Being 29 means I am done worrying about silly things and appreciating every day.

When I took this picture I was in the middle of making some Olive Oil Muffins. I used Buckwheat Flour and Agave this time. I added an extra 1/4 C flour to compensate for the extra liquid from the agave. Buckwheat Flour is very hearty and thick, so I think perhaps it absorbed a lot of the liquid. They are still tasty, but a little drier than usual.

I had two minis with Spiced Blueberry Preserves and a slab of Vanilla Almond Butter I received from Naturally Nutty yesterday.

That flavor smells so deliciously vanillay, but not that strong in flavor. Maybe it’s just me, but my first bite of it tasted like Cookies n’ Cream Ice Cream.

I believe the other flavors have sugar, so I must wait until the end of the Cleaner Life Month to try them.

Have a great day and don’t forget to enter the Healthy Living Summit Ticket Giveaway and the Musselman’s Healthy Picks Apple Sauce Giveaway.

In the winter I baked with olive oil quite a bit and remember how delicious and unique the results were. Today I wanted to make some muffins, but was out of butter and any other oil, so I went back to baking with olive oil.

I modified Tina’s Chocolate Chip Olive Oil Muffins, which she created based on a recipe from Jenna.

Chocolate Olive Oil Muffins

You Need:

• 2 flax eggs (2 T flax + 6 T water)
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 – 4 T of Soy Milk

Steps:

1. In a small bowl combine the water and flax, stir and let sit for a few minutes.
2. In another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
3. Add the olive oil and flax eggs and stir.
4. The batter will be thick so add enough soy milk to make them a little thinner, but not too thin! Start with 1 T and add as needed.
5. Bake in sprayed mini muffin pans for 12-15 minutes at 350*.

Makes 8 mini muffins, two of which I had as a snack this afternoon.