Jalapeño Corn Bread

 We started 2016 with a dinner of collard greens, black-eyed peas and jalapeño cornbread – it was a great meal to start the year, and hopefully lucky too.

I have many cornbread and corn muffin recipes. I made this one at New Year's because I had some apple juice in the freezer I wanted to use up.

(I can only find organic apple juice in large jars, but I rarely need more than a cup at a time. So I freeze the extra in small containers ready to be defrosted and added to marinades or baked goods.)

This is a moist and light cornbread. It only uses egg whites; I added the yolks to scrambled eggs for breakfast the next day — they went great with left over cornbread.

I used 2 serrano peppers I pulled from the freezer — freezing makes them milder. Jalapeños tend to be milder than serranos, especially if you remove the seeds before using them. You could use a little red or green pepper instead of the hot peppers if you don't like spice, but it's nice to have a little kick in the cornbread.

Make sure to use organic cornmeal — the non-organic kind is almost certainly genetically-modified. The same goes for the frozen corn, which is fortunately getting easy to find at the supermarket.

Jalapeño Corn Bread
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 cups plain yogurt
1 tbsp honey
1 or 2 jalapeño peppers
1/2 cup grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed

Leftovers are great for breakfast

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a 9x9 or 7x13 inch baking pan.

Stir together the cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg whites, yogurt and honey.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Stir together vigorously.

Seed and mince the jalapeños. Add to the batter along with the cheese and corn. Pour the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top turns slightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the bread to cool slightly in the pan. Cut into squares and serve warm.