My Muffin Repertoire

So I definitely spoke too soon about the weather…rain, rain, and more rain until later this week. Oh well, I’ll take it over snow any day!!

P.S. I really miss more frequently posting. As you can tell I currently post 2-3 times a week (hopefully) and when I do post I have this influx of material that I talk about and it can be all over the place with topics and pictures. Probably why it seems so daunting to me sometimes…it’s too much! So…maybe…I might try shorter more frequent posts. See how that goes. That’s what I did when I first started the blog back in ’08! Also gives me more of a chance to discuss everyday things, which I also miss (but have been trying to do more of lately).

Back to the regularly scheduled post:

Muffins! I love muffins. Love eating them and baking them. They are my go-to baked good because they are so versatile, can easily be made HEALTHY, and are pretty forgiving when it comes to “exactness” of a recipe. Over the years I’ve made quite a few variations:

Strawberry Almond Oat Muffins

Glorious Morning Muffins

Zucchini Muffins with Streusel Topping

Mixed Berry Goat Cheese Muffins

Everything (banana) Muffins

Whole Grain Banana Muffins (with nuts and choc chips)

Banana Blueberry Muffins

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

Choco-Coconut Banana Muffins

Banana Hazelnut Muffins

Within the realm of muffins, Banana muffins are clearly my most frequently baked. Over ripe bananas lend so much flavor, sweetness, and moistness to a baked good that it makes it easy to cut out other sugars and fats and still have a delicious breakfast treat!

These muffins were inspired by a package of Medjool dates I recently purchased! I know I’m a little late to the “date” party, but they’ve never been my favorite… I love when they are in baked goods, but I find them a little too big and sweet for my taste, even though the sweetness is natural.

However I still wanted to buy them and give them a go.

I referred back to my Everything banana Muffins for this recipe!

Banana Date Muffins pre-heat oven to 375

The Dry Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour


• 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour


• 1/2 cup quick oats


• 1/4 cup Oat Bran


• 2 tsp Baking powder


• 1.5 tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp salt


• 1/4 (heaping) tsp nutmeg


• 2 Tbsp organic brown sugar

The Wet Ingredients:

• 3 very ripe bananas mashed


• 1 T canola oil


• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce


• 1 egg white


• 1 T Maple Syrup


• 1/4 cup almond milk (I used Vanilla Almond Breeze)


• 2/3 cup buttermilk (or use 1 cup buttermilk instead of the Almond milk and buttermilk)


• 1 tsp vanilla

The Add-Ins:

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts


• 3/4 cup chopped dates (chop dates and let sit in a bowl covered with boiling water while you prepare the muffins, drain before adding to the muffin batter)

1. Combine dry ingredients into a med/large mixing bowl. 2. Mash bananas in a smaller mixing bowl (I use a potato masher), then add in rest of wet ingredients 3. Pour wet over dry and mix with a spoon until combined. 4. Fold in nuts and dates 5. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray/canola oil spray or line with muffin liners 6. Fill muffins almost all the way full, and add any optional toppings like raw sugar sprinkled on top or some oat flake

7. Bake at 375 for 17-18 min NOTE: I had extra batter so I filled 2 ramekins as well and put them in the oven at the same time. They were done at the same time as the muffins for me.

Another Banana Muffin success! Bananas, dates, and walnuts are a pretty classic pairing and they did not disappoint.

Especially with a cappuccino of course.

What else should I do with my dates???

Supposed to take a half day of work tomorrow because I have a fun afternoon planned…including a massage! But of course I wake up with a scratchy throat...hmmm. I’ve been downing Emergen-C’s, Vitamin C, and Echinacea all day!

I even just brewed a “tea” with lemon, fresh ginger, honey, and cayenne pepper! Hope it helps :)

Also made this chili for dinner tonight. Made it with 2 jalapeños and ground turkey…so flavorful and delicious.

Early bed time for this chica!

Goodnight!

Everything Muffins!

I’ve been just waiting and waiting to have some extra bananas go brown on me!  This has to the one and only fruit that I actually get excited when it goes “bad”.  I even bought a bunch of extra bananas lately just so I could have some for baking!

I give you:  The Everything (banana) Muffin

Basically I couldn’t decide what to put in, so I added it all: 
Banana, coconut, blueberries, and chocolate chips!
preheat oven to 375
The Dry Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup quick oats
• 1/4 cup Oat Bran
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 (heaping) tsp nutmeg
• 2 Tbsp sucanant (or any other sugar)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

The Wet Ingredients:

• 3.5 very ripe bananas mashed
• 1 T canola oil
• 1-2 tsp coconut oil (I used a heaping tsp…it was still more in solid form)
• 1 egg white
• 2 T Agave (I actually used TJ’s Agave/Maple Syrup blend)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 small  pint blueberries
• 1/4 cup choc. chips
  

Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until combined, but don’t over mix!

Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray, I use canola oil spray.  Divide batter evenly among the 12 cups.  My muffin tin was pretty full, but I like a “fuller” muffin.
optional:  sprinkle tops with raw sugar before baking.

375 for 18 min

These came out AWESOME!!!  Sometimes when I make a muffin like this I always wish I added just a little more sweetener, so this time I did and it was the perfect amount!

Sweeteners should be adjusted for bananas…if you only have 2 banana’s you might want to add a little more sugar to make up for it.

The 1+ tsp of coconut oil was very subtle, if you want more of a coconut flavor use more/all coconut oil in place of the canola.  This is another great way to add flavor without adding more sugar.

Nicely browned tops and very moist!

(mmm gotta love the melty chocolate chips)

I enjoyed a warm muffin with a cappuccino that morning (this past Sunday).

Make These :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

SNOW!!!!! And lot's of it! We got about 10" here in the Boston area yesterday. Luckily so many people were freaked out by it (lots of schools and businesses closed), that the roads actually weren't that bad when I left work yesterday. I left around 4pm, so only about 1 hour earlier than normal (but last one to leave at my company), and not too many cars were on the road so there was no traffic!! Wooohooo! Last year when we had a rapidly accumulating snow storm...it took me over 3 hours to get home (normally 30min)...that was awful.


What better thing to make it really feel like Christmas time than snow??...I know, PRESENTS!! My roomie and I exchanged gifts on Thursday night because her friend from work had come over to exchange gifts and little did roomie know that her work friend and I went in on these awesome shoes she's been wanting. These are them, but in a more purple/pink color combo...and of course not on sale when we bought them.

We also sipped wine during presentsI'm usually not a huge red wine fan (trying to get better though), but I LOVED this one! It was super cheap at Trader Joe's too


I also got her a pair of dark purple leather cashmere lined gloves.

Now my turn!! She got me so many fun things!!

#1: Fun pink sparkly cupcake ornament! Which I immediately placed on the tree#2 - (the box was from Anthropologie so I got excited)

B Mug! Similar to Amy's!
#3: Incredible set of sticky notes!!
Ahhh they are so cute!!

#4: Gift card to Penzey's Spices! they have a shop a couple towns from here...whoohoo!They have like every spice, but also some really fun spice blends...can't wait to try some new ones :)

Last, but not least, #5: Cookbook stand!I have wanted one of these for a long time, and was going to register for one! It's an adjustable stand with a glass protector for the top of the pages so they don't get dirty (I get messy when I cook and bake!)

Perfect Presents Jocy!! (thats my roomie)

Last night we stayed snowed in, so we took the opportunity to get some presents wrapped! And maybe had some more wine...
I also made banana bread to give to Brian's mom...she's on Weight Watchers and doing great so I was going to portion out pieces for her that are 2 points worth!

Dry ingredientswalnutsI was looking at a few different recipes online, then adding my own tweaks...but I guess I got a little distracted because after it went in the oven I realized I forgot vanilla (no big deal) and OIL!! Woops! I mean I was going for low calorie, but I usually add at least a little!

However, I tried it this morning and it was great!Yankee Swap Update:

Due to the snow, and a big storm coming again tomorrow, Brian's mom decided to post pone the Yankee Swap til after Christmas some time.

Thanks for the gift ideas!! I'm almost positive I will go the Starbucks route. I also get another chance at making this banana bread even better...I guess we will just have to eat this one ourselves...shucks! ;)

Calories Burned Shoveling

Double exercise for me this morning. I schlepped out to the gym for some running :) Then later when I was back, we shoveled the driveway!

I also...

Enjoyed coffee in my new mug
Had the most AMAZING grapefruit EVER!
Broke into the cheese and baguette my roommate bought for a wine and cheese party that she never went to last night

My mom and I first tried this cheese at WF's...its so rich, creamy, and amazing

So I decided to make a little breakfast sandwich with baguette, cheese, 1 egg, and 1 slice of Canadian bacon

So far no plans...but I can't sit still much longer :)