Lemon and Orange Chia Seed Muffins

Muffins! They're cake that you can eat for breakfast, what's not to like?

The best part of any food (song, smell, person, or place for that matter) is when you're hit over the head with a very specific memory of a happy place and time in your past causing a big, goofy grin to spread across your face. Lemon poppy seed muffins rock my socks and immediately transport me back to the vacations of my childhood in Florida. Our favorite breakfast spot was the Broken Egg on Siesta Key and their lemon poppy seed muffins were always a tasty treat to start my day.

All that being said, I can't remember the last time I had a lemony breakfast cake speckled with tiny seeds of happiness and I'm sure that I've never made them. These muffins are a collaboration brought to you by two friends of mine - Bob and Sally. 

Olympia and King Solomon's Reef

Ohhhh blogs - they an ever changing beast, aren't they? As people bloggers go through different phases in life they often decide to rename or refresh their little corner of the internet, or start a new blog altogether. I feel 100% confident in my decision to focus on food and the memories tied to sharing food with loved ones and I don't think that's something I'll ever lose interest in. Everyone eats everyday and there's no changing that! 

Something I'm striving for here at Aloha Yinz Mangia is a better balance of recipe posts and adventures outside of my own kitchen. I'm not afraid to admit that reading food blogs isn't always the most entertaining thing to do. Sometimes you're too hungry to even look at food. Other times you just need a recipe and don't read all of the other fluff. There are even posts worth reading which contain a recipe that you know you'll never make, but you'll read and enjoy regardless. 

I love reading blogs and writing this little blog, my friends. Capturing meals and memories will never grow old, although sitting at a desk at 9 pm after having done so for 8+ hours earlier today isn't always a walk in the park, I'm always happy when I've posted another adventure or shared a delicious recipe.

All of that leads me to tonight's post. Lisa and I both began working aboard the Battleship Missouri (aka USS Missouri, Mighty Mo, BB-63) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the exact same day. She's loud, fun, and doesn't sit still so naturally our 8-hour-shift of orientation was made more fun as a result of her presence! We rode the shuttle bus onto base for weeks together while waiting for our background checks to go through, entertaining each other all the while! If there was ever a day where Lisa and I didn't quote Mean Girls together, I'll skip the Spring Fling. She eventually moved back to her hometown of Olympia, Washington and Bryce and I were able to visit with her a few weeks ago during our first trip to the Capital City.

Posing with that sign seems so sadly ironic for friends who met in Hawaii