It’s been a year and a half, and I think I missed some kind of initiation or tutorial. Do any of you have that dream where you’re in college and you somehow missed an entire semester’s worth of classes? In my case, it’s always a math class, and I head to the final with no clue how to do anything. It’s the worst dream ever.

When I started JAB, I figured I would just post dessert recipes that took sugar highs to a new extreme. I hoped that with time, my little blog would grow. To an extent, that’s totally happened. Every recipe I post is 100% tried, tested, and devoured by yours truly with a crazy amount of passion and enthusiasm. If you’re seeing it on the blog, that means I love it.

I’ll tell you what JAB is not doing: making money. Amassing bazillions of followers on social media. Becoming a viral baking blog in the vast world of the Interweb.

To a degree, that bothers me. I’m not going to lie and act all sunny and cute about this. The blog takes a lot of work, and its returns are fairly low. But while I find that a tad frustrating and am constantly tweaking and working to make it better, I’m not stopping. I want to continue to write (and oh, how I love writing), learn more about taking photographs, and hang out with the food blogging community. It’s a ton of fun and if it didn’t take so much time, I’d probably do it forever. We’ll see how it goes.

But friends who read and comment, feel free to tell me what to do. I hate unsolicited advice, but if I ask for it, share it. Suggest away!

So many good ideas come from friends. Such is the case with these muffins. This recipe has been making the circuit among people in my social circle for years. It’s quick, easy, and very popular with kids. I adapted it to make it gluten-free. If you don’t want to use the oat flour, the muffins will rise without getting that little well in the center. But they taste amazing either way!

Here’s the thing about these muffins: you have to keep an open mind. Ready? The carrots in them are baby food carrots.

Before you run screaming out of the room, let me just try and get you to see things my way. I used to be totally grossed out by baby food, but that was before I had any reason to buy it. Turns out, baby food is just pureed fruits or veggies. And the carrots in the jar are…carrots. Already pureed. Nothing else. If you can wrap your mind around that and be okay with it, then these muffins are the answer to your prayers.

One bowl. No butter. Totally healthy. And, should you choose to make them GF, they’re fantastic. And they taste so good. I serve them as a side dish, or with breakfast. They make a good snack too. In any scenario, they are gone. The recipe makes twelve, and that’s about how many seconds these will last.

Look, I don’t really know all that much about being a big-time blogger. I haven’t given up my day job as a teacher, nor do I plan to. I love teaching. That’s a separate point. However, I do know about baking, so I’ll keep these recipes coming your way for some time to come. Even if only relatively few people see them!

No, don’t worry. This is not the start of a new trend. But every now and then, I feel compelled to offer up one of my favorite savory recipes. And this is definitely one of my best ever happy ones!

I invented this soup a few months back, and it is divine. It’s also divinely simple. It’s thick and creamy, but there’s no cream in it, so it’s healthy, too! It’s also very rich. One bowl is pretty much a meal, as long as you’re having it with a piece of excellent bread. Yes, you’ll want a good crusty loaf to have along with this.

The base begins with onions and cashews, which get browned in the pot along with ground ginger before you add the carrots and chicken stock. You pretty much simmer the heck out of the carrots before pureeing everything with still more chicken stock. It’s so easy, and I guarantee that people will be bowled over (no pun intended, I promise) when they try this soup.

The secret to creamy soup that contains no cream is all in the ratio of liquid to vegetables as well as the thoroughness with which you puree everything. This recipe contains almost two boxes of chicken stock, and I puree everything with an immersion blender until there are no small bits of anything left.

Now, a word about immersion blenders, a.k.a. my favorite kitchen tool. You could do all this in a regular blender by transferring batches in and out, but just rethink that for a minute. Immersion blenders are not expensive (unless you buy a top-of-the-line one) and they save so much mess and dishwashing. They’re convenient as heck. I bought my first immersion blender seven years ago and never looked back. My regular blender is now pretty much a margarita machine.

Once all of your ingredients are pureed and your soup is ready, you have a dish that everyone loves! Well, nearly everyone. Two out of my three kids love this soup. That’s pretty good stats. And when I served it at a dinner with 14 people, everyone gobbled it up and most demanded seconds.

It’s freezing out, and good healthy soups are where it’s at. I’ll get back to dessert in my next post, but for now, make this for dinner!