My favorite blog, the first site I go to when I sign on to the computer each day, is Soulemama. I’ve been reading Amanda Soule’s blog for years now and it has changed my life. I am grateful for the internet, for blogs, and the way they can expand our lives. I am most grateful to Amanda and her family because their willingness to live and share their authenticity has blessed my life in so many ways.
I discovered Soulemama not long after I had my first child six years ago. New to motherhood, I looked to Amanda’s example. She reminded me of my own mother, of my grandmothers, and since my own family lived far away, her daily words and photos became a comfort and a guide as I stumbled into parenthood. Her blog was a good friend I sat down with every day.
Inspired by the Soule’s way of life, their commitment to living simply and encouraging family connections, I became more aware of the choices I was making as a parent and how they affected my family. I wanted to live more deliberately.
I am so grateful for Amanda’s blog and books. Because of them, I learned to make my own bread, which we couldn’t live without now. I learned to knit, which has saved my life on more than one occasion (remind me to tell you sometime how knitting got me through a failed divorce settlement meeting). I learned to sew, to cook from scratch, to make art and music a priority in our home, to watch and learn from my children rather than try to mold and direct them, to let nature guide our days, and to slow down and pay attention.
I also have Amanda to thank for these delicious Strawberry Ginger Muffins. Adapted from her Berry Muffins (recipe published in this book, which I wrote about here last year), these are my family’s most favorite muffins. They are healthy, and simple, and taste incredible.
As a single parent, living in the suburbs of a western desert, I sometimes think I couldn’t be more unlike the Soule family on their dreamy homestead in Maine. But then I pull a batch of these muffins out of the oven, and as we gather around the table I can imagine Amanda, surrounded by her little ones, doing just the same thing, and I think, perhaps we’re not so different after all.
Strawberry Ginger Muffins
adapted from The Rhythm of the Family
Ingredients
1 cup spelt flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup honey (or to taste)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 drops ginger oil*, or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 cups strawberries, washed and sliced
Directions
Grease each individual cup in a 12 cup muffin pan, set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and pour in wet ingredients. Stir only until just combined. Gently fold in strawberries.
Batter will be thick, almost like dough. Spoon batter into greased muffin pan, filling each cup approximately 2/3 full. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden and a tester comes out clean.
* I use doTerra ginger oil and it is superb in these muffins. Ground ginger works as a satisfactory replacement, but the oil is preferred.
“Wonderful things happen in our family when we choose to move slowly through our days. When we stop running and rushing about, we discover more time, energy, and space for the things most important in our lives. By slowing down, our connections with our children and as a family inherently become deeper, our creativity thrives, and we find meaningful ways to fill our time.” Amanda Soule, Rhythm of the Home
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