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Fat Free Strawberry Muffins (vegan)

5 Apr
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Happy Easter!

This past weekend was Easter. Normally we host Easter but this year my parents decided to host, and I was looking for something new to bring to add to their spread.

Since embarking on our new fat-free menu plans, I’ve been doing a lot of what we like to call “healthifying” and “defatifying” of our old recipes in order to make them something we can all eat.

It’s easy enough to do to almost any recipe: wheat flour instead of white, or half wheat/half white, egg substitute instead of eggs, fat free plain yogurt instead of oil, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter instead of butter.

Even though it’s not hard to change over a recipe to make it healthy, it was such a great find when I came across the blog Fat Free Vegan Kitchen on Facebook. I was thrilled because it meant the work was done for me. The recipes are already fat free. What a relief.

When Susan posted some yummy looking strawberry muffins on her blog in the week leading up to Easter, I knew I’d found my new contribution for Easter brunch. The recipe called for everything I had on hand, including strawberries. For our brunch I doubled it and it made 15 muffins.

The response to this new recipe was outstanding. Everyone who tried them loved them, and there were only a few left at the end of the day. It’s definitely a recipe I’d make again, and I absolutely loved that for us they were worry-free because they were definitely fat free.

I hope you’ll venture on over to Fat Free Vegan Kitchen and check out some of Susan’s other recipes. And, I hope you’ll try these delicious muffins! You’d never know they were fat free. With summertime coming, we’re heading right into fresh strawberry season. Hang onto this recipe!

**For our modifications, I used skim milk instead of non-dairy. I used a dash of sugar instead of stevia, to sweeten the batter a bit, and I added more confectioner’s sugar to thicken up my glaze a bit. It seemed too runny to me at first.**

I’ve included all of Susan’s instructions as well as her notes and nutritional information. I find her blog very helpful and informative.

The glaze on these was delicious!

The glaze on these was delicious!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup strawberries, whole
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup non-dairy milk (as needed)
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar (optional)
  • 4 teaspoons strawberry puree or all-fruit spread (optional)
  • a few drops vanilla extract (optional)DIRECTIONS
  • Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a mini-muffin pan by oiling it lightly or filling with paper liners.
  • Place the strawberries in a food processor or blender and process until they are pureed. Measure out 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the puree into a small bowl and set aside any remaining puree for another use. Add the maple syrup, non-dairy milk, lemon juice, and vanilla.
  • In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the strawberry mixture. Mix until just blended–do not overmix. Fill mini-muffin cups with about 1 tablespoon of batter each. Bake at 350 F, checking after 10 minutes. When a toothpick comes out clean, remove and allow to cool completely. Frost if desired (see Notes below).

Notes

To prepare frosting, combine 6 tablespoons confectioners sugar, 4 teaspoons strawberry puree or strawberry all-fruit spread, and a few drops of vanilla extract. Stir well. If frosting seems too runny, add more sugar; if too stiff, add more puree. Frost center of muffins lightly just before serving (if you use too much, it will drip off), and refrigerate any leftovers.

To make these completely sugar-free, replace the maple syrup with more strawberry puree, and add stevia to taste.

Preparation time: 15 minute(s) | Cooking time: 10 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): about 20 mini-muffins or 6 regular-sized ones

Nutrition (per mini-muffin, without frosting): 35 calories, 2 calories from fat, <1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 73.9mg sodium, 48.4mg potassium, 7.8g carbohydrates, <1g fiber, 2.8g sugar, <1g protein, 1 points.

Nutrition (per serving, with frosting): 47 calories, 2 calories from fat, <1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 74.1mg sodium, 48.5mg potassium, 10.9g carbohydrates, <1g fiber, 5.7g sugar, <1g protein, 1.3 points.

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Strawberry Compote for your next breakfast or brunch

22 Mar
We've made this twice already since finding the recipe in a magazine.

We’ve made this twice already since finding the recipe in a magazine.

Being a breakfast/brunch fanatic, when I saw this compote in a FamilyFun magazine recently, I knew I had to try it.  I love compotes of all kinds.  We already have a great recipe for a blueberry compote and one for a peach compote, but I’d yet to try a strawberry compote.

It was shown over crepes, which we love, but right away I could picture it over homemade waffles, over pancakes, french toast and even as a topping for our healthy mini cheesecakes.

The first time I made it, it was a hit right away. I served it with the mini cheesecakes as a dessert, but I spotted a cute little girl who shall remain nameless to protect her identity, eating it right out of a bowl with whipped topping, spoon in hand, no cheesecake in sight.

It was that good.

The second time we made it, it was for crepes, which we are actually having for dinner. We put out a variety of fillings and toppings, (remember our crepes buffet from a past post?) and this strawberry compote was a perfect topper and even a perfect filler, for strawberry banana crepes. I had a combination of fresh strawberries and bananas along with the compote in mine.

Heavenly.

So, with many people choosing the brunch option for the upcoming Easter holiday meal, I thought I’d post this recipe today, in case you decide to include it in your menu. The recipe is delicious, fast and easy, a check plus in my book. I keep a variety of frozen fruits on hand so we used a one pound bag of frozen strawberries from Aldi’s for this recipe.

STRAWBERRY COMPOTE *from FamilyFun, February 2013
INGREDIENTS

1 pound fresh or frozen strawberries, quartered plus more for garnish if desired. (I did not quarter them, as they were frozen.)

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Super-easy directions make this a great recipe for a busy day.

Super-easy directions make this a great recipe for a busy day.

DIRECTIONS

1.) In a medium saucepan, stir the strawberries and sugar together. Let the mixture stand until the fruit’s juices release, about 30 minutes. (If you are using frozen strawberries, heat them with the sugar over medium heat until they’re defrosted, about 2 minutes *mine took longer.*)

2.) In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and lemon juice. Combine them with the strawberry mixture. Simmer the sauce on medium-low until it thickens, about 10 minutes, then set aside.

See what kinds of things you can think of to serve this with!

Again, mine took a little longer to thicken, but here is what it looks like when it's done, so cook until it is thickened. You'll be able to tell.

Again, mine took a little longer to thicken, but here is what it looks like when it’s getting thicker, so cook until it is thickened. You’ll be able to tell.

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Muffins for your Monday Morning

4 Mar
These muffins were a great healthy start to our day, baked by Don last weekend!

These muffins were a great healthy start to our day, baked by Don last weekend!

If there’s one thing I can say about Don, it’s that he’s a team player for sure. He’ll pitch in and do whatever is needed, whenever he can. Last weekend we had a particularly busy morning and I wanted to make muffins for breakfast–we were both craving homemade muffins–but with all the other things I needed to do, I wasn’t going to be able to get it done, so Don said he’d do it.

Don loves to cook, hates to bake. He likes being able to wing it with his cooking, throwing in this or that, and baking is an exact science. You throw the wrong thing in and that’s the end of your recipe.

So the fact that he volunteered to bake muffins for us, was really great. I gave him a basic muffin recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (pg. 60 if you have their New Cook Book) and showed him all the variations he could choose from as long as we had the necessary ingredients.

The option he chose to go with was an oatmeal muffin and he threw in raisins. He’s always loved Oatmeal Raisin cookies, so this option did not surprise me. I love baking with raisins, they’re so sweet  and I devoured these muffins too. Everyone did, some with jelly once they realized the raisins were not chocolate chips, and some without jelly.

This means Don can no longer claim he can’t bake. The secret is out. Next time I’m in a bind, he’s on.

Here’s his recipe, taken from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. I’ll give you the basic muffin recipe first, with our modifications, and the oatmeal variation at the end, just the way the cookbook does.

Muffins
Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour  (whatever the recipe, we do half wheat, half white flour)

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 beaten egg

3/4 cup milk (we use skim)

1/4 cup cooking oil (we use nonfat yogurt instead of oil)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/4 tsp. salt. (Salt is not listed in the ingredients though; I don’t know why.)

Make a well in the center.

Combine egg, milk and oil; add all at once to the flour mixture.

Stir just til moistened (batter should be lumpy).

Lightly grease muffin cups or line with paper bake cups; fill 2/3 full.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or til golden. Remove from pans, serve warm.

Makes 10-12 (we got 12).

Oatmeal variation:

Prepare as above except reduce flour to 1 1/3 cups and add 3/4 cups rolled oats to the flour mixture.

Other variations included: Blueberry, Cranberry, Jelly, Date Nut, Cheese, Banana, Pumpkin, and Corn muffins.

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Quinoa Muffins

25 Jan
These muffins are hearty, healthy and taste great!

These muffins are hearty, healthy and taste great!

I’ve mentioned previously that I really love getting ideas from Pinterest. I first had quinoa at the White House when I had lunch there for the first Kids’ State Dinner. After that I was hooked on quinoa and I searched for lots of different ways of cooking it.

Today’s recipe was originally a Pinterest recipe for Martha Stewart Quinoa Muffins.

We had to healthify it a little bit. I’ve put the link to the original recipe above, and I’ll make notes to tell you how we changed the recipe to suit our needs.

Everyone in our house likes these muffins. I’ve made them twice now, once following the original recipe back in the fall, and once a few weeks ago with our modifications. If you haven’t cooked with quinoa, I encourage you to try it. I like having another ingredient option for my cooking and baking. The last time I used it, I cooked up a big batch and used some for the muffins, some for a side dish with dinner another night, and some I ate like oatmeal in the mornings for my breakfast. It’s quite the versatile ingredient.

QUINOA MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, such as safflower, plus more for pan (We used 1/4 cup plain, nonfat yogurt.)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan (We used 1 cup wheat flour, 1 cup white flour.)
  • 3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup raisins (We used craisins for half the batch and chocolate chips for the other half the batch.)
  • 3/4 cup whole milk (We used skim milk.)
  • 1 large egg (We used egg substitute.)
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Splitting the batch in half allowed for using both craisins and chocolate chips as filling options.

Splitting the batch in half allowed for using both craisins and chocolate chips as filling options.

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa and 1 cup water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cover, and cook until water has been absorbed and quinoa is tender, 11 to 13 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, brush a standard 12-cup muffin pan with oil; (we used fat free nonstick spray) dust with flour, tapping out excess. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, raisins, and 2 cups cooked quinoa; reserve any leftover quinoa for another use.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, and stir just until combined; divide batter among prepared muffin cups.
  4. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

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A new year, a new direction for The Whole Bag of Chips

31 Dec
Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It’s New Year’s Eve!

It is the very last day of 2012!

You know what that means? It means that it’s New Year’s Resolution time for many. I know that last year I talked a little bit about the fact that because our entire family runs on a school year schedule, I’m kind of programmed to set my own personal goals and resolutions for the “year” in September, rather than January.

And that’s still true, but this new year is going to be a bit different, and you’ll be seeing it with some changes to The Whole Bag of Chips as well.

This blog is designed so that it often follows the twists and turns of our family’s life. As with any family, there are always lots of twists! We like to keep things exciting at our house.

Some of you may know that for years we have had a variety of stomach issues here. I know I’ve mentioned it in some of my posts. It’s one reason we don’t eat out often (besides the financial reason), it’s the reason I do my “sweets” after school rather than at night before bedtime, and it’s the reason why we work so hard to make our meals from scratch, and try to eat as healthy as we can.

That said, we still love our homemade desserts.

A lot.

However, in an interesting twist, it was recently suggested to us that eating a strict low fat/healthy fat/healthy carb diet might  be beneficial in helping us to fight the chronic belly aches here at our house. It was suggested that one of us may have something similar to an allergy to fats.

The first reaction I had was similar to the day I was told that one of my kids was allergic to dust.

She’s doomed.

But, in keeping with my overachiever, Type A personality, my next reaction was to take a deep breath and find out all that I could about cooking a low fat/healthy fat/healthy carb menu for my family.

Immediately.

We needed to see if this suggestion held any water.

And it did.

It was recommended that if we wanted to truly try this out and we were looking for recipes, that The South Beach Diet might be a good one to try for guidelines and new menu ideas. I checked one cookbook out of the library the very next day and read the entire thing cover to cover in about two days’ time, the first weekend of December.

December.

Christmas month.

Cookies, desserts, parties.

Not the easiest time to make such a switch, but I was going to give it 100%.

And so, here it is, December 31, almost a full month into our experiment, and although the chronic stomach pain has not completely disappeared, we have seen an improvement, enough that we want to keep up with this new way of eating. Our family is not on the diet, per se, not following the strict Phase I, II and III plan, but rather using the facts in the beginning of the book about fats and carbs and sugars, along with the recipes throughout the book, to overhaul our menu.

Therefore, in keeping with many people’s top New Year’s Resolutions: losing weight, and staying fit and healthy, The Whole Bag of Chips recipes will be featuring the recipes that we have been using in our meals as of late. We have switched our entire family over to this “diet” so that we are all eating the same thing and all eating as healthy as possible, together.

I tried to keep my healthy versions as close to my regular versions as possible.

I tried to keep my healthy versions as close to my regular versions as possible.

When it came time for Christmas Cookie baking, I made two sets: a regular set of our favorites for our trays and a healthy set of our same favorites, using modified ingredients, for our family. We did not want to give up the things we loved but yet we needed to try to keep to as low fat a diet as possible, even at Christmas.

So today, in preparation for your New Year’s Day breakfast, I will post for you a breakfast recipe that you can use tomorrow morning if you would like to start your 2013 eating healthier too.  The recipe is a modified version of our homemade pancake recipe along with a delicious hot peach compote recipe to go on top. Neither is far off from what we normally would make (in fact this pancake recipe hardly differs from our own), but they both are in keeping with the low fat/healthy fat/healthy carb guidelines. One is a South Beach cookbook recipe and one is from the Farm Girl Gourmet blog that I found online.

Happy 2013 and enjoy!

PANCAKES (from the South Beach Diet Cookbook)

My entire family loved this compote and it was so easy! I'd double the recipe next time.

My entire family loved this compote and it was so easy! I’d double the recipe next time.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups whole wheat or whole grain pastry flour (We have always had whole wheat flour at our house all the time and will often do half wheat, half white flour in our recipes.)

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1 egg white (we just did two eggs instead of one egg and one egg white)

2 cups buttermilk (to make buttermilk use 1 T. white vinegar to 1 cup milk, so two and two here)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons canola oil (I used plain nonfat yogurt instead of oil, which is a tip we learned a few months back. We love how fluffy it makes our pancakes and waffles.)

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg and egg white until very foamy. Whisk in the buttermilk, vanilla extract, and oil.

Stir into the flour mixture just until the batter is combined and pourable.

Heat a large, nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat.

Pour 1/3 cup batter into the skillet to form a 4″ pancake. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the bottom is browned.

Turn and cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown.

I had everything I needed for this recipe at home already.

I had everything I needed for this recipe at home already.

FRESH PEACH COMPOTE (from the Farm Girl Gourmet blog)

INGREDIENTS

1 pound fresh peaches, skinned, pitted and sliced (or frozen)  *I used a bag of Aldi’s frozen peaches.
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

In a medium saucepan, add the peaches, brown sugar, water and cinnamon, bring to a boil.

Turn heat down to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until mixture is thick and liquid is syrupy.

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Happy Veteran’s Day

12 Nov

Patriotic waffles as we remember our soldiers today!

As I type this, it is Sunday, Veteran’s Day 2012.

It’s a day to remember our veterans, those who have served so that we can be free.

I attended a wonderful Veteran’s Day ceremony on Friday at one of the schools I visited and I literally had goosebumps as the whole room pledged allegiance to the flag.

We often take our freedoms for granted, and I am grateful today for the opportunity to remember why we are free.

Thank you to all who serve and all who have served!

Since I’m posting a picture of our patriotic waffles, I will re-post a recipe for waffles that I posted a while back, too.

Enjoy them as you remember why we have the day off today!

All-American Waffles

serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

1 egg, separated (put yolk in two quart bowl and white in small bowl.)

1 cup plus 2 TBL milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 TBL canola or vegetable oil ** I recently earned that you can substitute the same amount of nonfat plain yogurt for the oil!

1 cup plus 2 TBL flour

4 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

Separate the egg,  putting egg white aside in small bowl.

In larger bowl, combine the egg yolk, milk, vanilla and oil. Blend together, by hand, with wire whisk.

Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the liquid ingredients and blend with wire whisk. (There will probably be some lumps.)

Beat the egg white with electric mixer until stiff. Fold into the batter with wire whisk until just blended.

(Do not beat egg whites into batter,  just fold in.)

When waffle iron is ready, drop batter into the four squares and use according to directions.

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What’s For Dinner Wednesday: Dinner on the Run

10 Oct

Even if we all have just one commitment, if they all fall on one night, that makes for a tough schedule to keep and we don’t want our nutrition to suffer.

Lately on Facebook, I’ve seen a lot of people asking for ideas for healthy and nutritious “dinners to go,” not as in take-out or fast food, but more as in, “What can I feed my kids on a night where we have to run from school to soccer to CCD,” type of a thing. Although we do try not to over-schedule our kids, I find that if you have more than one child, along with adult commitments too, it’s nearly impossible not to have a jam-packed schedule after school even if each child chooses just one activity. You multiply that times a large family and some nights you have no choice but to have a quick meal or to eat on the run.

The good thing about these Egg Muffins is that you can put anything you want in them, and people can tailor them to the likes and dislikes of the members of their family.

Recently I tried a new breakfast idea that I saw on Pinterest, originally from the Kalyn’s Kitchen blog  for Egg Muffins, and as we were eating them, I thought it’d be a perfect idea for dinner on the run, even though it was breakfast at the moment. It even said that you could use the leftovers from breakfast during the week if you refrigerated them. Another thing to think of when you have a large family: there aren’t often leftovers anymore! But, if I were doing this ahead of time, we would not eat them for our Sunday breakfast.

A couple of other things I liked about this meal were: 1) I thought they’d be great for a brunch item and 2) When you have several different sets of taste buds living under one roof, the ability to make one meal in a variety of ways is great. You can fill these with whatever you’d like.

When I made ours, I started out slow, just using two different fillers: spinach/cheese and ham/cheese. The ham/cheese filled muffins were the more popular of the two, although I liked them both.

With five of us, everyone had two and there were two left over which I put in a sandwich sized ziploc bag and later in the week I reheated them for my lunch after work one day. It was perfect.

If you’re looking for something healthy and different for those on-the-run nights, give this recipe from Kalyn’s Kitchen a try!

See her recipe below.

Filling goes into the cups first, then the eggs on top.

Egg Muffins

(Makes 12 muffins, recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from The South Beach Diet book.

15 eggs (for silicone muffin pans, use 12 eggs for metal muffin tins. You can use less egg yolks and more egg white if you prefer.)
1-2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (optional, if you have food allergies or don’t have Spike, use any type of seasoning blend that’s good with eggs.)
1-2 cups grated low fat cheese (I like sharp cheddar or a blend of cheddar/Jack cheese, use less cheese if using meat)
Optional, but highly recommended, 3 green onions diced small.
Optional: chopped veggies such as blanched broccoli, red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, etc. (Using veggies will reduce the fat content)
Optional: diced Canadian bacon, lean ham, or crumbled cooked turkey sausage

Yum!

Preheat oven to 375 F. Use regular or silicone muffin pan, 12 muffin size. If using silicone pan, spray with nonstick spray. If using regular muffin pan, put two paper liners into each slot, then spray liner with nonstick spray.

In the bottom of the muffin cups layer diced meat, if using, vegetables, if using, cheese and green onions. You want the muffin cups to be about 2/3 full, with just enough room to pour a little egg around the other ingredients. Break eggs into large measuring bowl with pour spout, add Spike, and beat well. (I used to add a bit of half and half or milk, but lately I like the way they turn out without it.) Pour egg into each muffin cup until it is 3/4 full. I like to stir slightly with a fork. Bake 25-35 minutes until muffins have risen and are slightly browned and set.

Muffins will keep more than a week in the refrigerator without freezing. Egg muffins can be frozen and reheated, but I like them best when they’re just refrigerated. For best results, thaw in refrigerator before reheating. Microwave on high about 2 minutes to reheat.

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Farewell to Summer and Hello Chocolate Chip Muffins

27 Aug

Goodbye Summer! See you next year!

Summer has come to an end.

For us, school begins tomorrow, so even though officially it’s still summer on the calendar, it’s all over. In my mind, summer really ends when Don starts back to work full time, the second week of August. So it’s been over for a while, really.

I can’t complain. He has lots of days off in the summer, I have lots of days off in the summer, we do lots of fun things in the summer, we had an AMAZING opportunity this summer that really changed our lives, with the Kids’ State Dinner trip.

So I can’t complain, but I’m still sad to see it go. I still kinda want to cry as I think of the school year beginning again. I’m not ready to let it all go.

I *really* love summer.

Caroline is starting middle school, Elizabeth’s going into fourth grade and Alexandra into second. It’s going to be a busy year, a different year with them in two different schools on two different schedules. I’m sure it’ll take some getting used to.

And so, though it’s Monday and I usually post my “What We’re Doing for Fun This Summer” posts on Mondays, I can’t today, because I’m sad that summer is ending.

What I can do though, is share a new recipe with you.

Each year on the first day of school I make muffins for breakfast the night before. It’s a busy morning on the first day, hectic, and we also have a special tradition where my parents come up to see the kids go to school, just as my grandparents did  each first day of school when I was younger.

This year I’ve made several new muffin recipes and I’m not sure which two kinds I’ll be making for tomorrow’s first day, but I tried a new recipe for chocolate chip muffins last week. It might be in the running. I could use a chocolate chip or two about now, I think.

I found this recipe last week on Allrecipes.com when Alexandra asked for Chocolate Chip Muffins for breakfast. It said, “Easy, quick and good,” and I was sold. It was indeed all of those things and I’d make them again for sure.

Maybe for tomorrow morning.

The first day of not-summer.

CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

I got to use my mini chocolate chips which were part of my birthday gift from my mother-in-law, Mary Lou, the ones she got me from Hershey Park, in this recipe.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 3 tablespoons white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease bottoms only of 12 muffin cups or line with baking cups.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, chocolate chips, and salt; mix well. In a small bowl, combine milk, oil and egg; blend well. Add dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy.)
  3. Fill cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle tops of muffins before baking with a combination of 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoon brown sugar.
  4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan. Serve warm.

    I loved the sugar/brown sugar topping on the tops of these muffins. It was light but still sweet and crunchy.

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The most exciting news EVER….

24 Jul

What could my exciting news be??

I have THE MOST EXCITING NEWS!!!!

You won’t believe it.

I’ve been keeping this a secret for SO LONG, more than a month, and it was SO HARD!

Okay I told *a few* people.

And of course my immediate family.

But that’s it.

Do you want to know??? I know you do!

Okay here it is.

I would sit down if I were you. It’s big.

Caroline and I are going to Washington DC.

We’re going to meet THE FIRST LADY!!!!

That’s right! Michelle Obama!! We’re meeting Michelle Obama!!!

Yes, seriously!

Okay. Let me regroup. Here’s how it happened….

Back around the end of May, my editor at the Cranston Herald, Meg, received a press release from Senator Jack Reed’s office announcing a recipe contest that Epicurious was putting out in conjunction with the White House. One winner, a parent/child team, would be chosen from every single state. You can read a similar press release here.

Now Meg is a big fan of The Whole Bag of Chips. She emailed me the press release and said, “You should enter this with one of your kids.”

I took a look, and thought, “Hmmm….maybe I should.”

So I broached it to my kids, but there was one problem: you could enter with one child at a time, ages 8-12, but if you entered with more than one child, only one could win and if one was a winner, the whole family doesn’t get to go to Washington, just the one winner and their parent.

Right off the bat, Alex is seven, so I couldn’t enter with her. My first initial thought was to enter with Caroline because she cooks more in the kitchen than Liz and is slightly more independent in the kitchen, and additionally, she’s 12, the top age. She couldn’t enter again if it ran next year.

But, Elizabeth, upon hearing about the contest said, “Well, I’m between 8 and 12 I want to enter too.” So I explained the whole thing about not being able to win with both, even though I could enter with both.

Elizabeth said, “That’s okay, if Caroline won, I’d be happy for her.”

Caroline said, “I don’t know. If you won, I think I’d be too sad. I don’t know if I can do it.”

I was stumped. I didn’t know what we should do. We had some time though, I let them think on it, and I hoped that Caroline would come around and both of them could enter.

One day at the beginning of June, I received an email from Caroline that said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” (I’m pretty sure she wrote that email from in our house, with me right in the house with her, but it didn’t matter to me. She wanted to do it.)

And so, we did it.

Elizabeth and Don with their contest entry, a tuna wrap and all the fixins’!

On June 9, after dinner we got down to business.  Separately we had to come up with our meals, cook up our meals, type up our entries which included the recipe with ingredients and step-by-step instructions and a photo of a complete meal including side dishes and beverages, as well as a short essay.

We have a tiny kitchen. We had to take turns.

Elizabeth had chosen to enter with Don because their healthy lunchtime recipe was one he makes for her lunch a lot: a tuna wrap with lettuce and tomato. On the side she had celery and carrots and a glass of coffee milk (a delicacy here).

Lunch anyone?

Caroline and I came up with an egg white omelette with broccoli and mozzarella cheese because she will only eat egg whites, and she loves broccoli. On the side we had wheat toast and mixed fruit (kiwi and nectarines).

We sent in our entries that night. The deadline was June 17, the night before the last day of school.

That Friday afternoon, following the deadline, I received an email. Caroline and I were finalists for our state. I couldn’t believe it. I asked Don if he’d gotten one, but he had not.

We had to tell them.

I let Caroline see the email first. Then we told Liz. I was worried at how she’d react. Her eyes got bright, but she said, “Caroline, I’m so happy for you. Here, have my lollipop stick,” and she handed her the empty stick. That was the end of it.

I emailed Meg, “We’re finalists! OMG” and began filling out all the paper work needed to complete the next level of the contest. We had five days to get it filled out, notarized and postmarked.

Then, we waited.

We knew from the rules that there could be up to three finalists per state but that’s all we knew; that and the fact that only one of those finalists would win.

And waited.

We wondered. We’re a small state. How many entries could there be?

And waited.

It was agonizing. The original notification date was supposed to be by July 16. I slept about ten seconds the night before.

But we didn’t hear anything.

I checked in. “Just checking to see if all the winners had been notified yet?”

No. Not yet. No one.

We were still in the running. The winners would be notified that week.

So we waited and waited some more. Every day seemed like a week. I checked my email ten million times a day if we were home, to see if we heard anything yet.

By that Thursday I checked in again. A formal email went out. Competition was tough this year. They needed more time. The official notification date would now be Tuesday July 24. We’d hear either way.

And now here it is, Tuesday, July 24.

And guess what???  Well you know already. WE WON!!!!

Caroline and I will be traveling to Washington to represent the state of Rhode Island at the Kids’ State Dinner, which will be held next month!!

I’m so incredibly excited!! But even more so, I’m so incredibly proud of my kids. I’m proud of them for taking the risk to enter, proud of them for being healthy eaters, for being cooks in the kitchen, and for loving each other and us, enough to want to compete against each other and yet be willing to support each other at the same time. To me, and I’m choked up as I write this, that says a lot about the strength of their bond with each other and their bond with us. I love my kids so much, and I’m so, so proud.

I am incredibly proud of my kids!!

I will keep you updated as the trip takes place and you can be sure there will be photos to go along with it. They are creating a free downloadable eBook containing all the recipes from all the winners for each state, so our recipe will be published in that cookbook. I’ll let you know when that becomes available as well.

We won. Can you believe it?

Our healthy lunchtime recipe: Egg white omelette with broccoli and cheese.

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Muffins on the brain

22 Jun

All I could think about was having another muffin!

I did.

I had muffins on the brain.

Ever since I did the peach muffin post a couple of weeks ago, all I could think about was making more muffins.

The following weekend I wanted to make the peach muffins again, but I decided it was too soon for peach. But, it wasn’t too soon for blueberry! I just happened to have fresh blueberries in my fridge.

I’m sure I have a blueberry muffin recipe somewhere. Probably dozens of them. But, I was lazy. I googled a recipe for blueberry muffins and I was not disappointed!

I was directed to my favorite spot: Allrecipes.com for “To Die For Blueberry Muffins” and they were.

To.Die.For.

It was the streusel topping that did it, I know. I’m a sucker for a cinnamon sugar topping.

Here’s the recipe. Try it yourself this weekend and see what you think. I know you’ll have muffins on the brain when you do!

Super easy ingredients. I threw in the whole pint of blueberries.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup butter, cubed
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
  2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
  3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
  4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

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