Easy Grain-Free Blueberry Muffins

I have noticed that the food I make myself just seems to taste better. I know this is a very selfish thing to say. In fact, this kind of selfishness is quite common. We humans overvalue the things we make for ourselves. For example, that Ikea furniture that we put together. It's not the greatest furniture ever but assembling it adds to its value for us.

I was reading about this in Dan Ariely's book The Upside of Irrationality. "Pride of creation and ownership runs deep in human beings." Ariely says that creating food is a good example of this. Even semi-homemade items taste better to us: steps such as adding some herbs to a bottled pasta sauce, mixing curry paste with chicken pieces, or adding eggs to a cake mix. These at-home adjustments give us a feeling of agency over our food, and hence the food tastes better to us.

But often homemade really does taste better, right? It's not just psychology that fresh from the oven muffins taste better than store bought. Adding fresh chopped parsley to a bottled sauce does, indeed, make it taste more fresh. (Although there is a line beyond which I don't think this is true; adding eggs to a cake mix may not actually taste better than a not-at-all homemade factory cake.)

Coconut and Nut Snack Bowl

This simple snack bowl has got me through many sugar cravings. I have found that cinnamon and coconut are both tastes that I find sweet, even when there is no sweetener involved. This lovely little bowl contains almond butter, coconut oil, flaked coconut, and some walnuts, all sprinkled with cinnamon.

It was Sarah Wilson who first put me onto cinnamon and coconut. The added cup of chai tea makes it even better. I have been eating variations of this snack in the afternoons and also as a "dessert"; my main sugar cravings are mid-afternoon and late evening after dinner.

Almond and Orange Cake

Every time I try to eat an orange at breakfast it squirts into my eye. As a result, I have given up on oranges in the a.m. and I had a couple of leftover oranges in the fridge. Luckily, I found a new great use for oranges - make orange puree. I used the whole orange, skin and all.