(Contributed by Karen)
Here is a healthy muffin:
1 cup boiling water poured over 2 cups of all bran cereal.
In another bowl mix these items;
1.5 cups sugar (I don't like white sugar so maybe you could use brown or 'sugar in the raw')
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 cups buttermilk (I use orange juice)
2 1/3rd cups flour (I do not use white flour. Make a mix of whole wheat flour and some white flour MORE wheat or rye than white)
1 cup bran flakes
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
Now the fun stuff..... add: raisins, chopped dates, walnuts, grated carrots, chopped apples, fresh pineapple, dried cherries, blueberries and flaxseed....... whatever you want.
Mix the ingredients from both bowls together, mix well, pour into muffin tins. Pour into the tins to half full. The batter keeps in the fridge covered for a month and the muffins freeze well.
I packaged the muffins in
freezer bags so my mom can grab a muffin anytime.
Enjoy these very healthy muffins!
Showing posts with label snack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snack. Show all posts
Monday, September 26, 2011
Pecan Maple Breakfast Cookies
(Shared by Heidi via 100 Days of Real Food)
Pecan Maple Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup whole-wheat flour
¾ cup rolled oats
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup applesauce
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons butter, softened but not melted
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease a cookie sheet.
Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt.
In a separate bowl using an electric mixer beat the applesauce, maple syrup, butter, egg, and vanilla.
While beating the mixture on a low speed add the dry ingredients until well blended.
Fold in the nuts with a spatula.
Drop onto prepared cookie sheet with a spoon. Bake for 8 – 9 minutes or until they start to brown.
Yield: 20 cookies
Pecan Maple Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup whole-wheat flour
¾ cup rolled oats
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup applesauce
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons butter, softened but not melted
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease a cookie sheet.
Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt.
In a separate bowl using an electric mixer beat the applesauce, maple syrup, butter, egg, and vanilla.
While beating the mixture on a low speed add the dry ingredients until well blended.
Fold in the nuts with a spatula.
Drop onto prepared cookie sheet with a spoon. Bake for 8 – 9 minutes or until they start to brown.
Yield: 20 cookies
Pumpkin Muffins
1 1/2 c. flour (I used hard white wheat)
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sugar (I used honey granules)
1 t. baking soda
1 c. pumpkin puree
1/2 c. oil (you could sub apple sauce)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. water (I used plain yogurt)
1/2 t. nutmeg (I used 1/4 for a milder flavor)
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice (optional)
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)
handful of mini chocolate chips (necessary)
Mix dry ingredients. Beat wet ingredients. Mix in pumpkin. Fold wet into dry. Add nuts and chocolate chips. Bake at 350.
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sugar (I used honey granules)
1 t. baking soda
1 c. pumpkin puree
1/2 c. oil (you could sub apple sauce)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. water (I used plain yogurt)
1/2 t. nutmeg (I used 1/4 for a milder flavor)
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice (optional)
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)
handful of mini chocolate chips (necessary)
Mix dry ingredients. Beat wet ingredients. Mix in pumpkin. Fold wet into dry. Add nuts and chocolate chips. Bake at 350.
Soda Crackers
Today I made whole wheat Soda Crackers...my sweet sister-in-law Debbi's recipe. I ended up with something a little more like pita chips than light soda crackers, but they're still pretty good. I think my mistake was that I let the mixer knead the dough too long - the dough was very elastic; when I would roll it out thin and then cut the crackers out, they shrunk back up thick like shrinky dinks. So live and learn - and now you can learn through my mistake. I'm sure these would be more light and fluffy with processed white flour, but since that is not our purpose here...
Combine: 4 c. whole wheat flour, 3 c. water, 2 T. yeast. Place in fridge overnight.
The next day, add: 2/3 c. oil, 3 T. salt, 1 t. soda dissolved in 2 T. warm water. Add 4 c. flour and knead (not too much!!).
On an oiled surface, knead VERY thinkly, cut, prick with fork. Bake at 350 until golden and crisp.
Combine: 4 c. whole wheat flour, 3 c. water, 2 T. yeast. Place in fridge overnight.
The next day, add: 2/3 c. oil, 3 T. salt, 1 t. soda dissolved in 2 T. warm water. Add 4 c. flour and knead (not too much!!).
On an oiled surface, knead VERY thinkly, cut, prick with fork. Bake at 350 until golden and crisp.
Peanut Butter, Brownies, Pizza
I learned two things today. First when I'm not lazy, there are more hours in the day. And second, my food processor is my best friend.
After school, I attacked my planned whole living experiences for the day: homemade peanut butter (I actually made the PB yesterday, but it's easier just to lump it in to today), Rich Peanut Butter Bars (aka, brownies), and whole wheat pizza with "special" sauce.
Homemade Peanut Butter
We have been pretty good about buying "natural" peanut butter over the last couple years; however, those jars of "natural" peanut butter still include a lot of sugar and are still somewhat processed to increase shelf life. So I figured...what do I have to lose giving it a try?
It was SO easy.
I dumped a pound of peanuts into the food processor and turned it on. After the peanuts started to break up, I dribbled a bit of oil over the mixture through the little hole thingy at the top. I let the food processor keep going until the peanuts turned to paste. The kids thought that was pretty cool. Then I dribbled a couple teaspoons of the delicious honey I got at the farm yesterday on to the paste.
That was it. And it's good! Michael even said it tastes better than the "normal" peanut butter. The only one who doesn't like it, surprisingly, is my best eater, Audrey. She's not so fond of the straight peanut taste. But 3 out of 4 ain't bad.
Rich Peanut Butter Bars (aka, Brownies)
I decided I needed to put the homemade peanut butter into some sort of snack for the kids today. I still don't have my honey granules from Bread Beckers, so I went to the Bread Beckers cookbook for help. I have a bucket of Sucanat which came with us from Georgia, so I found a recipe that called for it. Sucanat is evaporated cane juice. Regular Sucanat has a rather strong flavor, so it cannot always be substituted for refined sugar. It can almost always be substituted for brown sugar, however. If you don't have Sucanat, use regular sugar or even light brown sugar.
Anyway, this recipe from the Bread Beckers cookbook already calls for Sucanat, and the end product turns out very brownie-esque...which the kids really liked (with the exception of the Princess who still had an issue with that peanutty peanut butter). They were very quick and easy too!
Rich Peanut Butter Bars
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. Sucanat
2 eggs
1 c. whole wheat flour (I used hard white)
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. cocoa
1 t. vanilla
Melt butter and peanut butter together. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well blended. Press into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake in preheated 350 oven for 25-30 minutes. Cool and cut into squares.
Pizza
So I got stuck with dinner duty tonight. Ugh! Even though I am only at this time focusing on healthifying snacks, I thought I'd take the challenge and make dinner worth it too. And all I had to work with was some ground beef. So I decided on pizza.
The kids always opt for cheese pizza, sometimes with some kind of meat. They don't opt for pizza with green peppers, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, or onions. So I waited until they went outside to play, and I dumped big hunks of green pepper, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, and onion into my food processor and pureed it a la Deceptively Delicious style.
I then added tomato sauce (someday I am going to try my hand at making my own tomato sauce) and threw it in a saucepan. I added seasoning, a couple of bay leaves, and some molasses. Molasses takes away some of the acidity of the tomato sauce and enhances the flavors.
OK, so I don't really know if that's what it does, but my mom used to always add it to her sauces. Plus I wanted to sound all Food Network-y. But here is something I do know about molasses (I read it anyway): Blackstrap molasses is the only kind that has any nutritionl value.
Anyway. Then the crust. This recipe comes from Marilyn Moll who owns Urban Homemakers, which is where I purchased my grain mill, Bosch mixer, and other start-up bread making stuff. This is quite possibly the easiest pizza crust I've ever made.
I had a sudden panic attack at 4:00 this afternoon because I hadn't yet looked over the pizza dough recipe, and I worried that I wouldn't have enough time to make it, let it rise, shape it, let it rise again...BUT this dough does not need to rise! Here is the recipe:
Basic Pizza Crust
4 c. whole wheat flour (I used hard white)
1 T. yeast
1 T. olive oil
1 T. honey
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 c. warm water
If you have a pizza stone, preheat it now. If you don't have a pizza stone, get one; pizzas are so much better from a stone! I only have one and need to get another one because 1 pizza doesn't feed all these growing children anymore.
OK, so put the warm water in your mixer bowl and then add the rest of the ingredients (maybe go easy on the flour at first - not all at once). With your dough hook, mix ingredients and add enough flour to make a stiff dough that pulls cleanly from the side of the bowl. Continue to knead with the dough hook for 3-5 minutes until dough is elastic.
Roll out pizza dough on cornmeal and then place on heated stone. Brush with olive oil and prick with a fork. Pre-bake in 400 oven for 5-8 minutes.
Remove and add sauce, toppings, and cheese. Bake about 10-15 minutes.
So why no photos of my masterpiece pizzas? Well, if you know me, you know cooking is really not my thing. My pizzas did not look all that pretty. But they sure tasted good!
After school, I attacked my planned whole living experiences for the day: homemade peanut butter (I actually made the PB yesterday, but it's easier just to lump it in to today), Rich Peanut Butter Bars (aka, brownies), and whole wheat pizza with "special" sauce.
Homemade Peanut Butter
We have been pretty good about buying "natural" peanut butter over the last couple years; however, those jars of "natural" peanut butter still include a lot of sugar and are still somewhat processed to increase shelf life. So I figured...what do I have to lose giving it a try?
It was SO easy.
I dumped a pound of peanuts into the food processor and turned it on. After the peanuts started to break up, I dribbled a bit of oil over the mixture through the little hole thingy at the top. I let the food processor keep going until the peanuts turned to paste. The kids thought that was pretty cool. Then I dribbled a couple teaspoons of the delicious honey I got at the farm yesterday on to the paste.
That was it. And it's good! Michael even said it tastes better than the "normal" peanut butter. The only one who doesn't like it, surprisingly, is my best eater, Audrey. She's not so fond of the straight peanut taste. But 3 out of 4 ain't bad.
Rich Peanut Butter Bars (aka, Brownies)
I decided I needed to put the homemade peanut butter into some sort of snack for the kids today. I still don't have my honey granules from Bread Beckers, so I went to the Bread Beckers cookbook for help. I have a bucket of Sucanat which came with us from Georgia, so I found a recipe that called for it. Sucanat is evaporated cane juice. Regular Sucanat has a rather strong flavor, so it cannot always be substituted for refined sugar. It can almost always be substituted for brown sugar, however. If you don't have Sucanat, use regular sugar or even light brown sugar.
Anyway, this recipe from the Bread Beckers cookbook already calls for Sucanat, and the end product turns out very brownie-esque...which the kids really liked (with the exception of the Princess who still had an issue with that peanutty peanut butter). They were very quick and easy too!
Rich Peanut Butter Bars
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. Sucanat
2 eggs
1 c. whole wheat flour (I used hard white)
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. cocoa
1 t. vanilla
Melt butter and peanut butter together. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well blended. Press into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake in preheated 350 oven for 25-30 minutes. Cool and cut into squares.
Pizza
So I got stuck with dinner duty tonight. Ugh! Even though I am only at this time focusing on healthifying snacks, I thought I'd take the challenge and make dinner worth it too. And all I had to work with was some ground beef. So I decided on pizza.
The kids always opt for cheese pizza, sometimes with some kind of meat. They don't opt for pizza with green peppers, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, or onions. So I waited until they went outside to play, and I dumped big hunks of green pepper, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, and onion into my food processor and pureed it a la Deceptively Delicious style.
I then added tomato sauce (someday I am going to try my hand at making my own tomato sauce) and threw it in a saucepan. I added seasoning, a couple of bay leaves, and some molasses. Molasses takes away some of the acidity of the tomato sauce and enhances the flavors.
OK, so I don't really know if that's what it does, but my mom used to always add it to her sauces. Plus I wanted to sound all Food Network-y. But here is something I do know about molasses (I read it anyway): Blackstrap molasses is the only kind that has any nutritionl value.
Anyway. Then the crust. This recipe comes from Marilyn Moll who owns Urban Homemakers, which is where I purchased my grain mill, Bosch mixer, and other start-up bread making stuff. This is quite possibly the easiest pizza crust I've ever made.
I had a sudden panic attack at 4:00 this afternoon because I hadn't yet looked over the pizza dough recipe, and I worried that I wouldn't have enough time to make it, let it rise, shape it, let it rise again...BUT this dough does not need to rise! Here is the recipe:
Basic Pizza Crust
4 c. whole wheat flour (I used hard white)
1 T. yeast
1 T. olive oil
1 T. honey
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 c. warm water
If you have a pizza stone, preheat it now. If you don't have a pizza stone, get one; pizzas are so much better from a stone! I only have one and need to get another one because 1 pizza doesn't feed all these growing children anymore.
OK, so put the warm water in your mixer bowl and then add the rest of the ingredients (maybe go easy on the flour at first - not all at once). With your dough hook, mix ingredients and add enough flour to make a stiff dough that pulls cleanly from the side of the bowl. Continue to knead with the dough hook for 3-5 minutes until dough is elastic.
Roll out pizza dough on cornmeal and then place on heated stone. Brush with olive oil and prick with a fork. Pre-bake in 400 oven for 5-8 minutes.
Remove and add sauce, toppings, and cheese. Bake about 10-15 minutes.
So why no photos of my masterpiece pizzas? Well, if you know me, you know cooking is really not my thing. My pizzas did not look all that pretty. But they sure tasted good!
Banana Bread
Today was a busy day. For one, last night the moment Irene made her exit, our power went out, prompting us to take our frozen and refrigerated food to a friend's house. Our power was only out for a couple of hours, but I waited until this morning to go get our food.
While I was retrieving our food, I stopped by a farm. I've said before how much I love all of the farms around here; you don't see this in the south. We have 3 or 4 of them within a mile or two of our house. If you remember, I visited one last year at the end of the season. All I got was some not-so-good end-of-the-season corn. Today, though, I was seeking two specific things: farm fresh eggs and local honey. I got both at one stop...eggs only a couple hours old and honey from hives right there on the property. ("They" say consuming local honey can help if you have allergies; we'll see if "they" are correct.)
I also had other things to do like teach the kids school, sign Michael up for swim team, and find some new running shoes for me that will hopefully help my painful ankles. As expensive as they are, they ought to enable me to comfortably run a marathon.
All this to say, today was more of a prep day than a day to focus on making elaborate new and healthy snacks for the kids. I did, however, have some yummy banana bread on hand that I had made the day before Irene visited so we would have a ready-made breakfast.
In college I had this yellow cookbook that, though lost, I can still picture in my mind. I also still use some of the recipes from it, like the banana bread recipe. Here it is:
Sift together:
1 3/4 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
In separate bowl, eat until frothy:
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil
2 eggs
Add:
1 c. mashed banana
Add wet ingredients to dry and fold. Bake at 325 for about an hour.
I used freshly milled flour in this - hard white wheat. I only use my hard red wheat in bread as it does definitely have a stronger whole wheat taste. Honestly, you really can't taste that much of a difference between the processed white flour you'd find in the store and freshly milled hard white wheat, but the health benefits for the freshly milled flour are plentiful! Don't be fooled by "whole wheat" flour in the store either; it is still processed in order to allow for a long shelf life. I will tell you more about fresh milled wheat later this week when I make bread.
Anyway...for the sugar, I used the last of my honey granules; thankfully, I have my new bucket arriving sometime this week from Bread Beckers. I didn't quite have enough bananas to make a cup, so I filled the rest of the cup with organic plain yogurt, which I actually think made the bread more fluffy; I may make yogurt a regular add-in!
I meant to add some ground flaxseed because, honestly, that can be added to ANYTHING, and it's so healthful! But I forgot. I also often add chocolate chips and/or finely ground nuts of some kind (the kids don't like big pieces of nuts in bread or cookies).
So that was their snack today - whole, real food, just leftover whole, real food! Tomorrow hopefully there will be less running around so I can get more creative.
While I was retrieving our food, I stopped by a farm. I've said before how much I love all of the farms around here; you don't see this in the south. We have 3 or 4 of them within a mile or two of our house. If you remember, I visited one last year at the end of the season. All I got was some not-so-good end-of-the-season corn. Today, though, I was seeking two specific things: farm fresh eggs and local honey. I got both at one stop...eggs only a couple hours old and honey from hives right there on the property. ("They" say consuming local honey can help if you have allergies; we'll see if "they" are correct.)
I also had other things to do like teach the kids school, sign Michael up for swim team, and find some new running shoes for me that will hopefully help my painful ankles. As expensive as they are, they ought to enable me to comfortably run a marathon.
All this to say, today was more of a prep day than a day to focus on making elaborate new and healthy snacks for the kids. I did, however, have some yummy banana bread on hand that I had made the day before Irene visited so we would have a ready-made breakfast.
In college I had this yellow cookbook that, though lost, I can still picture in my mind. I also still use some of the recipes from it, like the banana bread recipe. Here it is:
Sift together:
1 3/4 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
In separate bowl, eat until frothy:
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil
2 eggs
Add:
1 c. mashed banana
Add wet ingredients to dry and fold. Bake at 325 for about an hour.
I used freshly milled flour in this - hard white wheat. I only use my hard red wheat in bread as it does definitely have a stronger whole wheat taste. Honestly, you really can't taste that much of a difference between the processed white flour you'd find in the store and freshly milled hard white wheat, but the health benefits for the freshly milled flour are plentiful! Don't be fooled by "whole wheat" flour in the store either; it is still processed in order to allow for a long shelf life. I will tell you more about fresh milled wheat later this week when I make bread.
Anyway...for the sugar, I used the last of my honey granules; thankfully, I have my new bucket arriving sometime this week from Bread Beckers. I didn't quite have enough bananas to make a cup, so I filled the rest of the cup with organic plain yogurt, which I actually think made the bread more fluffy; I may make yogurt a regular add-in!
I meant to add some ground flaxseed because, honestly, that can be added to ANYTHING, and it's so healthful! But I forgot. I also often add chocolate chips and/or finely ground nuts of some kind (the kids don't like big pieces of nuts in bread or cookies).
So that was their snack today - whole, real food, just leftover whole, real food! Tomorrow hopefully there will be less running around so I can get more creative.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)