Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
A Nice Treat for a Kid with Allergies - Mini Banana Muffins
So here I go again diverting from my usual topic of comics and Sci-Fi. Sorry. I felt like I really had to share this.
Max has some allergies. Not a lot, but he can't have eggs, milk, apples or strawberries. That doesn't sound like much be it can be very hard to find food he likes without at least one of these.
For example: he loves loved President's Choice Organic Cereal bars. He can no longer have them.
We used to make him these cute little banana muffins. But we had to stop because there was egg in the recipe. (I got the recipe from my friend Carmel) I really liked these muffins because we controlled what went into them. I really loved that they used maple syrup to sweeten them instead of sugar.
I found a way to modify the recipe so Max could still eat them. In fact, they came out even better than normal. The magic substitute: dessert tofu!
I use Sunrise Dessert tofu. It comes in a variety of flavours including plain. I've tried it with their banana flavour and the maple carmel flavour. The former just adds to the banana flavour of the muffins. The latter is good too but the muffins comes out the slightest bit sweeter.
You can see for yourself that it's a pretty healthy ingredient list. You can try mixing the ratios of all-purpose and whole wheat flours. I use margarine because Max and my wife can eat dairy, but you could use butter if you prefer.
Here's the recipe for the all-together-not-wholly-egregious, allergy-friendly mini-banana muffins for kids and dads and moms:
Dry
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cinnamon
1/4 tsp of salt
Wet
1 and 1/4 cup ripe bananas (about 2 or 3 bananas)
1/3 cup of maple syrup
2 tblsp of melted margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 pkg of dessert tofu
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Mix all the wet ingredients together. (I drain the water out of the dessert tofu but not completely. It's OK to let some into the mix.)
- Mix all the dry ingredients together.
- Combine the wet and dry.
- Spoon the batter into your mini-muffin tin. Careful how much. These things puff up large. (Spray them with non-stick spray if necessary. I do.)
- Bake for 14-16 minutes. (Leave them a touch longer if you like a slight crispiness to the outside. I do.)
- Let them cool.
I don't know how long to leave them in the oven if you are doing full sized muffins.
Good luck.
Enjoy.
UPDATE (9/7/14): After you combine the wet and dry ingredients, let is sit for about an hour in the fridge. The muffins come out less spongy; if you like them that way. I don't know yet what happens if you leave it for longer. I'm tempted to see what happens if you leave it over night.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
I forgot to post it!!
You'll notice that the release date on this chapter is April 4th. I finished it but completely forgot to post it.
No one should be surprised. My wife and I are still not getting enough sleep. Our little baby girl is a screecher! She screeches! A lot. And very, very loudly!
But we found out why! She has acid reflux. I didn't even know babies could get that! It means that eating is a difficult and painful because of stomach acid damage to her esophagus. The doctor put her on some form of "Baby Zantac".
She should be better soon.
Chapter 42 is ready too! I'll post it in a few days. After that I'll be working on Metropolis Yearbook #3
Thanks for hanging in there with me. I appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
This chapter is very, very late.
Chapter 39 came out in January, 2014. This chapter is released in late March.
Sorry.
The short answer is that I have two kids now; a toddler named Max and a brand new baby girl named Zoey. If you're a parent then that's all that need be said.
But let me go on anyway. My wife and I are all alone out here in British Columbia, Canada. Our closest family is four provinces away. We're still trying to stabilize our schedule. I'm happy to report that Zoey is sometimes letting us get a whole 6 hours of sleep at night. Sometimes.
I'm also working a lot more now that my wife is home on maternity leave.
I don't thing I'm going to be able to keep up my release schedule of two chapters a month. I might get back up to that closer to the end of the year but not now.
I hope you can bare with me. I hope that the introduction of Tuck E. Rogers will whet your appetite for more Metropolis. By the way; Tucky is a homage to one of my favourite golden-age science-fiction heroes. Can you guess which one?
Thank you for your continued support.
Have a great day.
Hello
(If you have been enjoying the Metropolis comic strip, then I hope you will consider helping me promote it. Please click here to find out how you can help. I would really appreciate it. Thank you.)
The following is the introduction to Metropolis Volume 1
On the Metropolis blog I talk a lot about why I stopped collecting comic books as a kid. Today I want to talk a little about what brought me back; comic strips.
One day I was feeling nostalgic about comic books as I was surfing the web. I stumbled upon a website that hosted one month’s worth of over 60 different newspaper strips (http://www.oregonlive.com/comics-kingdom/index.ssf). That day, I read strips until my eyes hurt.
The strips that I started to follow were, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Phantom. I was completely re-engaged with all the things I loved about comic books. And comic strips didn’t have any of the things that drove me away from comic books. They were free. They were fun. They had a sense of drama and humour. There were no endless crossovers.
However, there was a downside. I could only read them a few panels at a time. Then I had to wait a day to read the next part (or wait an entire week as in the case of Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant). This can get a little irritating. So I started to read comic strips the way most people watch TV shows nowadays; wait for a few episodes to pile up then watch them all at once. I imagine a lot of people do the same.
That’s why I’ve created Metropolis Volume 1. You don’t have to wait for the two strips per month that I am able to produce. Here is a conveniently packaged bundle of chapters that you can read on your favourite e-reading device. I should warn you now though… I don’t expect to get around to making Volume 2 until around early 2015.
Enjoy Volume 1 and have a great day.
João
Hi
I've finally figured out how to make a Comic Reader file. Not that making one is very difficult, but figuring out how to properly tag one is.
So I've started by making Comic Reader files of the Metropolis Yearbooks (available here). They are available in .PDF format and .CBZ format. Most e-readers will open .PDF files. Some even open .CBZ files.
Maybe some of you don't know that you can enjoy copies of comic books electronically now. Well, yes you can. Old and new comics alike. If you are looking for a good Comic Reader program, look here. I read comics on my ipad with an app called ComicBookLover. You can also get a Comic Reader for the Wii (here); but you need to have Homebrew installed on your Wii. I also recommend Calibre. It's an entire e-book (not just comics) management system that will connect to a lot of different e-readers. It connects to my Kobo no problem.
I also need to mention a wonderful program called Comic Tagger. This is the program I used to create tags for my Comic Reader versions of Metropolis. It's a cinch to use. So if you have a lot of e-comics in your collection or if you make your own e-comics, you should check Comic Tagger out.
Tags are the little bits of information about the comic embedded into the Comic Reader file. They help identify your comic for search and sorting purposes. In much the same way that music files have tags containing artist, singer and album information.
So check out the program and if you use it, be kind and click the guy's donate button. He should get a little money for all his hard work on such a good program. I did.
A while ago I promised to release Metropolis as a Comic Book Reader file. I'm happy to say that it will happen soon. How soon? I don't know. It's hard to schedule with a toddler and brand new baby in the house. I'm thinking it will definitely happen before summer 2014... Possibly sooner.
Sorry there hasn't been a new chapter of Metropolis yet. My wife and I are still working out our lives with the new baby.
Have a great day.
