Cornbread Birdie Muffins

[Terry57]

3 cups Stone Ground Cornmeal
3 cups Whole Grain Flour (We used Almond Flour)
1 1/2 cups Rolled Oats
1 1/2 cups 7 Grain Cereal
1/3 cup Pumpkin Seeds
1/3 cup Slivered Almonds
3/4 cup Millet
1 TBS Curry Powder

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add 3 cups mixed vegetables to dry mix and make sure all veggies are throughly coated. We used carrots, snap peas, peppers and beets, but you can use any kind.

In a blender or food processor puree the following:
6 Eggs
29 ounces of Pumpkin
1 cup unsweetened Carrot juice or water

Add liquid ingredients to dry/veggie ingredients and mix well. The batter is stiff, so it is easier to use your hands.
We used mini tart pans, and put 1 TBS of mix for each muffin. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-23 minutes. If you use a regular sized muffin pan, the increase amount in each one and add 7-8 minutes to baking time.
*Before baking, you can put a hole in each muffin so they can be hung on a skewer for feeding.

And Talli enjoying the finished product

 

[JerseyWendy]

VERY very nice, Terry!!! Thanks so much for sharing. My portions are in the mail, right? :54:

 

[Christinenc2000]

Terry how long will they stay fresh enough to feed ?

 

[Terry57]

Christine, I froze most of mine, just kept enough out for a couple of days. They freeze really well, and then you would have plenty for a long time

Wendy, I was hoping you would just come on up and we can make some together!

 

[Christinenc2000]

Great thanks !

 

[weco]

And your per dozen charge for custom orders is?

 

[Terry57]

And your per dozen charge for custom orders is?

Hmmm, you may be onto something there, Walt

 

[Allee]

Excellent job, Terry! The muffins turned out great and obviously beautiful Talli finds them quite tasty!

 

[Minimaker]

Talli is gorgeous, what is she? Is she some kind of conure?

 

[Terry57]

Talli is gorgeous, what is she? Is she some kind of conure?

Thank you! Talli is a Blue Headed Pionus

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

You knew I was gonna be baking for Miss Zilla tomorrow didn't you?

She does love her birdie breads and this one looks like a good one!

Looks like it makes a lot though. Oh well, I'll just have to make a trip to the bird hut early in the week to share some with all the birds there!

 

[Terry57]

Amanda, it does make a ton, but they freeze really well and actually stay together after thawing. So make sure to save some extras for Miss Zilla, my fids went crazy for them
Please let me know how she likes them!

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

I will save and freeze plenty for her! She would never allow me to give them all away! She is an Amazon "food junkie" you know! And baked goods are her favorite above anything else!

I will let you know, but I'm sure she will love them, they come out of the oven baked right?

I may use 1/2 pumpkin and 1/2 sweet potato since I am trying to get her to eat more sweet potato...she is the only amazon I know who doesn't like sweet potato any way but french fried!

 

[Terry57]

You could probably use all sweet potato if you wanted.
I have been baking a whole sweet potato, and before putting it in the oven I shove a knife into it and make slits, and rub the outside with cayenne and cinnamon. The birds love that, it flavors through the cuts as it cooks. Maybe she would like that? I also roll some into balls after cooking and coat with some red pepper flakes. Ekko loves them that way.

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

OOOHHH OOOHHH OOOHHH more ways to try to get her to eat them!!! :jumping40

YAY! I'm gonna try those ways soon! Gonna gotta buy more sweet taters!

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

Got any way to get her to eat Broccoli? Kale? Spinach?

 

[Terry57]

OOOHHH OOOHHH OOOHHH more ways to try to get her to eat them!!! :jumping40

YAY! I'm gonna try those ways soon! Gonna gotta buy more sweet taters!

LOL! I have tried everything I can think of to get some of them to eat them, hoping it works for Zilla as well
On a side note, when my kids were small, I tried to figure out ways to fix things so they would eat...now fast forward to my kids being grown, and I am now sitting and thinking up ways to prepare food so the birds will eat it. SMH.

 

[Terry57]

Got any way to get her to eat Broccoli? Kale? Spinach?

Broccoli, some will eat just cut into smaller pieces, some like a chunk clipped to the side of the cage. Kale and spinach, most like it best clipped as whole leaves/stalks to their cage, but some like it chopped fine and mixed with their chop.

I also found a recipe for kale chips I want to try with some variations... (It originally calls for seasoning salt and olive oil)

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with oil and sprinkle with cayenne or red chili flakes.
Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

 

[Minimaker]

I made my own version of this recipe with what I had on hand and I added chopped kale in. Do you think that ruined the nutritional value of it? I have such a hard time getting Taz to eat greens, so I snuck some into the birdie bread. And mine was heavy on the berries, because that boy will hardly eat anything fresh otherwise. I used much smaller diced food so maybe he'd actually eat it and just because he's a small bird anyway and can't handle big bites. I used the kale, egg shells, carrots, conure seed diet, a small amount of millet, raspberries reduced down on the stove into a sugarless jelly form, fresh backberries in a cornbread base. It's what I had in the house at the time-but it was inspired by your recipe. I think next time I'll load it up with even more fresh foods, I don't think I put enough in this time. But it was my very first try making bird food from scratch so I'm on a learning curve.

Taz actually ate it up so well I was shocked. After 8 years of living as a breeder bird on a poor diet, he's a seed junkie. And not even good seed, he chooses the bad over the good seed in his bowl. To see him pass up his seed for birdie bread was so surprising and delightful Thanks for posting this Terry.

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

I have tried many different ways of making this basic recipe. Zilla will eat all of them. I always try to get some grated sweet potato, zucchini, acorn squash, broccoli, carrots, apples, pears, whatever I have on hand that she normally turns her beak up at she will eat if it's baked into birdie bread! I use mashed sweet potato, home made apple sauce, rolled oats, etc... I figure the more good stuff I pack into it the more good stuff she will eat!