Thursday Thinking - Rough

Rough has been on my mind the last few days . . .

1.rough rəf/ coarse
While I really doubt that any recipe is original -- with billions (or is it trillions) of people having lived since the time of Adam and every one of them needing to eat repeated times a day to stay alive, I imagine edible ingredients have been mixed and remixed to make the same concoction thousands of times. To claim originality would be presumptuous.  Nonetheless, here's a recipe I mixed this week that I haven't seen before.

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Rough Muffins

1 1/2 cups wheat bran (found in the bulk section of health or grocery stores)

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup oil (or you may want to substitute applesauce)

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped almonds (optional)

1/2 cup coconut (optional)

Measure wheat bran into mixing bowl and pour buttermilk over it.  Let it soak ten minutes.  Add coconut flour, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar.  After well mixed, add oil, eggs, and vanilla.  Mix until all is thoroughly moistened.  Stir in almonds and coconut.  Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full of batter and bake in a 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let them set for 5 minutes and then remove from muffin tin and cool on a wire rack. 

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As you can see, these muffins have an ample amount of roughage in them.  With wheat flour having 3.4 grams of fiber per cup, wheat bran having 25 grams of fiber per cup, and coconut flour having a whopping 64 grams of fiber per cup, each little muffin packs a lot of bulk.  Which means that you feel very full after having eaten only two of these muffins.

Mind you, they aren't the most flavorful muffin you'll ever eat, but they are healthy and I like them, especially because I feel full for such a long time after eating them.


2. rough rəf/violent; difficult; to give a beating to, manhandle, or subject to physical violence

Calvin and I both read Elizabeth Smart's book, My Story, this week.  (Remember she is the 14 year old girl that was abducted from her Salt Lake City, Utah home back in 2002.)   My.  She had it rough.  Really rough. We both appreciated the book and were glad we had someone to discuss it with as we read it.

It was a disturbing read.

It was an encouraging read.

Chapter 40 was plain inspiring.  Best self-help advice I've ever read in a book.

It was a difficult story to tell and Chris Stewart did a good job of untangling a very convoluted, yet repetitious and harrowing account.

Thank you to Elizabeth Smart for teaching us and Chris Stewart for helping her deliver that message.



I literally have been chewing - mentally and physically - on both of these rough things all week . . . as well as the rough news of the missing Malaysian plane and Russia's march.