Sunshine Muffins

I made these delicious and healthy muffins this morning and thought I'd pass along the recipe. (if I can remember what I put in them) ARG! One of these days I'll remember to write down the ingredients as I'm adding them!

These muffins have at least one serving of fruits/vegetables, with very low fat (so you can put a full pat of butter on each side, as shown above. No I really didn't eat that, I just did it for the photo, and then I let my scrawniest kid eat it). Your kids (or spouse) will never even know they're good for them.

As you can see, they were kid tested and approved.

Recipe:

1 1/2 cup flour (or you can use half AP and half whole wheat)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 eggs
2 Tbs. honey
zest from 1/2 an orange
1 large banana, mashed
1 large carrot, shredded
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin tin or prepare with liners.
Stir together first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Mix remaining ingredients in large bowl, add dry ingredients and stir. (not too much)
Divide batter evenly, into prepared muffin tin.
Bake 15 minutes or until centers are done.
Makes 12 regular muffins.

Enjoy!

Simple Pleasures

One of our favorite sounds is listening to our children laughing.
It is so pure and innocent. So genuine and unabashed. So when we find something that makes them laugh, we do it over, and over, and-well you get it.
I hope you enjoy this just as much as we did.

Spaghetti Squash with Sausage Sauce (hey that kinda rhymes)

Mmmm fresh hot spaghetti! Or is this spaghetti?
I guess I can't trick you if read the title.
One of my favorite foods to experiment with is spaghetti squash.
It's also great in place of regular spaghetti if you want to cut out carbs, or if you just want to add more veggies into your diet.
I'm not into cutting carbs, so I usually make rolls to go with.

Sorry I didn't take a picture of the outside of it. They are usually yellowish, large oval shaped squashes.

For those of you who have never cooked it, I took a picture to show you how to scrape it out once it is cooked. Scrape it out with a fork, so that the strands stay long.
For a large squash cut it lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds. Oil the outside of the squash, and a cookie sheet, place the squash scoop side down on the sheet and roast in the oven for an hour, or until the inside is tender. Then use your imagination to prepare a sauce or topping.

Enjoy!

Orange Madelines with Cardamom Glaze

Crispy edges, soft, cake like inside. Sweet and buttery, yet with a refreshing citrus flavor.
When I first bit into these, everything around me stopped moving. The voices of my children could no longer be heard. Even the snow outside stopped falling.

Okay maybe not, but I can honestly say that when I first tasted these delectable, little cookies, I could not believe how light and delicious they were!
You have to make them and see for yourself. Read the recipe in its entirety before you start. I had no idea that I would be beating the mixtures for a total of 10 minutes or more!
They are totally worth every minute of time you put into them.
You need a madeline pan to make these.

The tiny black flecks would be the cardamom in the glaze. Cardamom has a peppery taste, and it lends a little earthy, balance to the sweetness of the cookie.

So are you drooling yet?


Recipe:

2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. orange extract
1 tsp. shredded orange peel ( a micro plane zester makes the best zest.)
1 cup powdered sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray pan with non stick spray. Sift together flour and baking powder in small bowl, set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs, orange extract, and orange peel on high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat another 5 minutes or until thick.
Gently fold in flour mixture, then melted butter, mix until smooth. Spoon mixture into the cups, filling about 3/4 full. Bake approximately 8 minutes, or until edges are light brown. Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, loosen cookies with a knife, then invert pan on a rack. Cool thoroughly before glazing.

Glaze:

As usual, I didn't measure the ingredients! Sorry. I'm going off memory here, and you know how that goes.

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbs. milk
1/4 tsp. cardamom

Mix all three ingredients together. The glaze should be runny so it soaks into the cookie, instead of standing on top. The cookies are already really sweet so you don't need much glaze per cookie.


Enjoy!

Lunch

Healthy meal alert! For those of you who are allergic, I suggest you don't read this post.

I've been eating salad for my lunches lately, as well as trying to incorporate more whole grain and fiber into my diet. Fiber is great, it makes you feel full faster, and helps you lose weight. Not that I'm trying anyway.
Yesterday's salad was awesomely healthy and delicious. It was the perfect blend of fruit, ( tomatoes. :) ) vegetables, meat, (protein) grains and legumes (proteins and carbs). I'm not going to write down the recipe for it, because it's kind of self explanatory, but I will write down the ingredients:

baby spinach blend
baby romaine blend
sliced grape tomatoes
slivered deli ham
leftover, homemade rice and lentil pilaf (lentils have so much fiber and iron!)
balsamic vinaigrette
a few"everything" breadsticks To help fill in the cracks. I don't know about you, but I can't eat just a salad and be completely full and satisfied for too long.

Enjoy!

Cuteness

Madeline found daddy's mittens and actually put one on herself.

Found daddy's mittens? What a good kitten, now you shall have some pie, meow, now you shall have some pie.

Ok, I really am not that weird, it's a Mother Goose rhyme.