Munchie Monday: CRAM Muffin Variation

 Chef AJ wrote a book entitled The Secrets to Ultimate Weight Loss.  It is a very good book.  It includes many recipes that are very pleasing.  The recipe I based my recipe on is called CRAM Muffins (Carrots, Raisin, Apple, and Millet) on page 142.  If you are looking to upgrade your health, you might want to find this book.

What I did:

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
2 large frozen bananas, thawed
3 large and 6 baby carrots
1 large Ambrosia apple
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cap apple cider vinegar
one large handful raisin

In a food processor bowl, shred the carrots and apple, then add the thawed bananas, oatmeal, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and baking powder, and vinegar.  Change to the S-blade in the processor and process  for a couple of minutes until the oats are well shredded.  Throw in the raisins and mix well then divide into silicon waffle pans.  Press down firmly.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree F for 30-40 minutes.

  

Let cool completely then remove from the pans and enjoy.

When we first took them out of the pans we ate one.  I was not impressed.  A couple of hours later I returned to the kitchen and found that Dear One had eaten the rest of the small pan of waffle muffins!  So surprising.  And very pleasing.

You will notice, if you buy the book, or go to YouTube and watch Chef AJ make these muffins, I did not use ground millet nor did I remember the applesauce.  To boot, I only used one apple.  I am sure the first muffins would be absolutely scrumptious with more apple, even without the millet.  I used a little extra oatmeal in place of the millet.  We have millet but I could not find it at the last minute.

Food Friday: Neal Barnard Muffins from Woman's World

 By a fluke I saw a copy of Woman's World at the checkout at Piggly Wiggly.  Dr. Neal Barnard's face was on the front page.  That was a good reason to buy that magazine.  There was a recipe inside by Dr. Barnard.

Healthy Muffins

2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown or raw sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups fresh spinach
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen pineapple
1-2 very ripe bananas
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup plain soy or almond milk.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and zest.  Set aside.  In a blender blitz the remaining ingredients until cream.  Pour into flour mixture; stir just to combine.  If the batter seems dry, add another tablespoon or two of milk.  Spoon into lined muffin tins.  Bake at 375 degrees F. until pick inserted in center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.  12 muffins.

What I did differently:

--left out the zest of the lemon

--left out the vanilla

--added 1 cup of fresh blueberries

--also I cooked them at 350 degree F.

They came out greener than I was expecting, but....they do not taste bad at all!  I wish I had added some chopped walnuts.  Next time, if there is a next time, I will add the nuts.

Dear One ate quite a few!  That made me happy.

Food Friday: Banana Zucchini Muffins

Yesterday I saw some muffins that Sherry M made and for which she posted a picture on Facebook.  They looked excellent.  I asked if it was a secret recipe and she immediately posted it.  I wanted to make those muffins right away.

Today I went to the Food Lion on my way home and picked up several beautiful zucchinis that were in the front of the store, right behind the hot table that sits there tempting me with Southern Fried Chicken and other delicious-looking fried foods that I almost always manage to avoid...but it is a sore temptation.  Food Lion is cruel to place that hot table at the very front of the store.  In my opinion...

The zucchinis were nice and fresh so I got enough to make the muffins plus some zoodles which we will have tomorrow for supper.

Here is Sherry's recipe:

Zucchini Banana Muffins by Sherry W

½ cup butter, melted
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 medium banana, mashed
1 ½ cups grated zucchini
1 ½ cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Add sugars, egg, and vanilla to melted butter.

Stir in mashed banana and grated zucchini.

Stir in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Divide batter into muffin cups, and bake for about 20 minutes.

The only things I did differently were that I added the last of our freezer walnuts, chopped, then in the second silicon pan of muffins I added chocolate chips.  Dear One feels chocolate chips only belong in Chocolate Chip Cookies...so tomorrow when he goes out to serve with the missionary elders I will bag up those chocolate chip banana zucchini muffins for the Elders.  If there are any still there when morning comes.  

As you can see, I put them into silicon pans.  The idea I am working from recently is that the less added fat we eat, the better for our health.  There is no need to grease silicon.  The only glitch in that system is that you/I need to remember that the food needs to sit in the pan for fifteen minutes AT LEAST after removing from the oven to cool down.  If you do not wait, then only part of the baked treat will come out of the muffin cup.  This is most annoying...and not because of the pans but because I forget to let them sit.

You will notice that I cooked the muffins in the silicon pan but put the pans on a cookie sheet to slide into the oven.  ALWAYS use a pan under silicon unless you love messes to clean up when you try to put the floppy pan in the oven by itself!  That is my experience, anyway.

These muffins are quick, easy, and so moist and delicious. (And who doesn't have a banana that is too ripe to enjoy eating by itself and just is calling out to be in a recipe like this?!) I only ate one and had to remove myself from the kitchen immediately or fall prey to temptation again...

Food Friday: The Best Pumpkin Muffins

We were having a potluck at the office this week. (We do it as a reward for ourselves the week after zone conferences and two weeks after Transfers.  We need a little something about then...) I was making some vegetarian shepherd's pie and was not too confident it would be well-received.  What to make to go along with that delight?  I had some pumpkin so I looked for pumpkin muffin recipes.  This is what I found: 

The Best Pumpkin Muffins (Ever)

Tonight I am copping out a bit by not putting the recipe here, but on the other hand, I followed the recipe precisely.  Well, except that I used a heaping tablespoon of the homemade pumpkin pie spice I made last week instead of whatever she said in the recipe.

The other reason I am giving you the recipe as a link is that I think lots of people would love her blog.

As you can see, I put the muffins in a silicon muffin pan with jack o'lantern faces on them.  That part was not too successful though the heart pan turned out okay muffins. I will stick to using that particular silicon pan for molding chocolates.

You cannot see the faces here but they worked pretty well, and the messy smaller pan was pumpkins that were pretty much okay when they came out of the molds.  The ones in the orange mold were a little too thick, but then, it was not real chocolate.  It was that nasty candy melt stuff so it was possible to bite into it.  Real chocolate is too hard, in my experience.  At least, the way I do it, it is too thick so it is too hard and you worry about breaking off a tooth when you start to consume it.  Oh well.

Maybe I will go on an all-vegetable-and-fruit with a few beans and grains fast for a while so I won't feel the need to make junky food items like the above.  The muffins tasted pretty good, though, and were nice and moist. I HATE muffins and other things that are supposed to be moist but instead are dry.

And the shepherd's pie was quiet edible, in fact.  Dear One finished up the last of it tonight!  Big surprise.  Happy surprise.

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Cornbread/Muffins

This week is Transfer Week.  This means Departing Dinner.  Sister J and I will be helping President and Sister B prepare the dinner. President B will put many racks of ribs in his new Traeger grill which we will warm up. We will bake potatoes, make coleslaw, prepare an ice cream "bar" with bananas, strawberries, nuts, and hot fudge sauce.  We will also make cornbread and cornbread muffins.  Sister J made some muffins with her recipe to take to Church for a Linger Longer.  She shared some with us, along with some fabulous honey butter. Yummy!  Really yummy.

My plan was to make one of the cornbread recipes that has creamed corn in it.  On the strength of that plan, without looking up recipes, I purchased three inexpensive cans of creamed corn.  I was speaking with Daughter M shortly thereafter.  She told me she had the BEST RECIPE EVER for cornbread!  Nice thought.  I am not much of a cornbread fan.  Usually it is dry, crumbly, and flavorless, so I was not holding out much hope. 

That being said, I was wrong!  Completely.  These were so good that I ate two of them immediately.  Rats!  This is the recipe she gave me.  Just look at the ingredients and you will grasp how tasty they are.

Quick and Easy Cornbread/ Cornmeal Muffins

1 cup cornmeal
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup melted butter
2 Tablespoons honey
4 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups whole milk.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9 by 13 pan.  In a large bowl mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Pour in the vegetable oil, melted butter, honey, beaten eggs, and milk and stir gently just until all the flour/cornmeal has been dampened.  Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for 45 minutes.  M says you want to see some cracks and light browning.  Remove from oven and let cool.

What I did:  I cut the recipe exactly in half and use my silicon muffin cups--well not exactly muffin cups but little round cake cups.  (The difference is that the cups I have had straight side, not sloping sided like muffin tins have.) This half-batch made twelve fat cakes.

This is the muffins that are bottom-side up, just as I removed them from the the silicon pans.  I set the timer for 15 minutes to let the muffins cool before trying to remove them from the pans.  I have not had good luck in the past when I failed to let the food cool for 15 minutes before trying to extract them.

You can see that the sides are straight and the bottoms are nicely browned.  The tops were not as brown but still okay.  Will you believe me when I say there are no remaining muffins in our house less than 24 hours later?!  In our defense,  I did pass along nearly half of them to our other senior missionaries.  It makes me happy to think they will enjoy them.