Muffin Monday

One of my resolutions this coming year (note I didn't use the word goal because this HAS to stick) is to make healthier snacks and meals for my family.  For a good chunk of time I was using a meal planner, and using flyers to buy things on sale and in bulk.  I rarely needed to make an emergency run to the store.  Sometime this past Fall, with the craziness of two kids in programs and a toddler underfoot, my planning slipped.  We started eating out more, I had more meals on the table I wasn't pleased with, and over the holidays I knew I wanted things to change.

Monday mornings are always spent at home, so I plan to make a fresh batch of muffins at the start of each week.  Muffins are great for school snacks, and also great for a quick add on to a breakfast.  I like my muffins less cake like, and more health focused.  I hope you enjoy the recipes I post here that I've baked for my family.

First up today, looking at what I had in my kitchen, I turned to a recipe that I could use apples with.  Here's what I found:

INGREDIENTS

For the apple muffins:

• 1½ cups finely chopped apples (I used Pink Lady // with peel is great!)
• ⅓ cup coconut oil
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1½ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (I used double acting)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon allspice

For the crunchy topping:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

1. To prep ingredients: Microwave or heat the coconut oil until it's liquified. Repeat the same process for the milk to bring it to room temperature. (If you don't do this, the coconut oil will clump together when it mixes with the cold milk.) Add the vinegar to the milk and let it sit for a few minutes to turn into "buttermilk" - or just use real buttermilk instead!
2. For the muffins: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk the coconut oil, buttermilk, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and allspice. Stir until just combined. Fold in the apples. Scoop the mixture into a greased or lined muffin tin - mini, regular, or jumbo sizes will all work.
3. For the topping: Melt the butter for the topping. Add the sugar and cinnamon; spoon over the tops of the muffins. You only need a little bit to get the crunchy top effect, but if y
   ou love those crunchy cinnamon sugar tops, I'd suggest making twice or three times as much topping as what's listed here.
4. Bake the muffins for 15 minutes, more or less by a few minutes depending on size. The muffins should be golden brown with big round tops that spring back when you press them.

NOTES

These are intended to be very simple without a really strong cinnamon flavor (other than the topping) - there is one teaspoon of allspice (which carries some cinnamony flavors) in the batter, but if you are looking for more than just a pinch of spice, I'd suggest adding a teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg to the batter.

These turned out really great.  My littlest quickly ate three of them (I always bake mine into mini muffins).  Even my middle who is my harder to please eater, enjoyed them.  Plus for me is I didn't have to bring out my mixer for them, I was able to do it all by hand.  The coconut oil only took about 45 seconds to melt in the microwave.  One Gala apple was plenty for one batch.  Wanting to avoid the extra sugar, I left the topping off.

If you make them would love to hear what you think!

Here's to a (hopeful, they may not last that long) week of muffin goodness :)

Sweet Sugar

My older brother is a vegetarian turned vegan.  He is also an ultra runner and triathlete.  He's hardcore about his body and his health, and as he has made these amazing changes, I've been turning to him for nutritional advice when stuck with a question for the kids, and now, myself.

He texted me yesterday saying he wanted to "talk about sugar".  I responded that I knew it wasn't good for us (refined), but that I had to pick my battles and sugar wasn't one of them.  We chatted a bit more back and forth, and I went about doing tasks in the house.  As I picked up toys and put away laundry I got to thinking.  Why was I so quick to say I couldn't do without sugar?  And perhaps, if it was my first instinct to say no, I really should say yes.

So I said yes.  And committed it to Facebook (heck, share the accountability and get some others on this band wagon).  So I'm going 30 days sugar free.  Yesterday at 4pm when I decided to do this, I was taking the easy sugarless train.  I was saying no to obvious sugars - candy, syrups in my lattes, things of that sort.  And I wasn't going to check labels.  But I got curious.  I was told no more than 24g of sugar a day, fruit not being counted as it is natural and has fiber.

I started looking at labels.  Curry paste last night had 1g.  Today looking at our Peanut Butter it had ICING SUGAR in it.  Seriously.  Icing sugar.  The soy version had CANE SUGAR.

And the more I delve, the more I see a real change is needed.  I could list here all the scary things about sugar, but you can quickly dig them up with a simple Google search.  I'll get you started with this link my cousin posted yesterday.

I truly thought the kids and I didn't consume much sugar.  But it appears we consume more than we even realize.  I'm not going all crazy, but I am going to start looking for alternatives in our baking, and in the products we use.  Something so prevalent in our diet that can cause heart disease and cancer?  Why would I say yes to that???

Today I've eaten a kiwi and a nectarine I know yesterday I would have passed up.  I'm already grabbing more whole food, and plan tonight to pull out my yogourt maker and get a batch started.

What are your thoughts?  Would you ever think about going sugar free?

Playground Snacks

It's back to school again, and with it comes the struggle for my eldest of getting enough time to eat.  She's a grazer, and (rightly so) she also wants time to play.  Recess is only 15 minutes to do both, so over the past couple of years, we have tried to come up with quick snacks that can fill her up, but are also portable.  Here is one of our favorites.

NO BAKE GRANOLA BITES

YIELD: MAKES ABOUT 30 BITES

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups quick oats
• 1 cup crispy rice cereal (like Rice Krispies)
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup honey or agave nectar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine all the ingredients together in a large bowl, mixing gently so the crispy rice cereal doesn't get crushed. Mix until well-combined.
2. Using a cookie scoop (or roll small amounts in your hands), drop rounded tablespoonful-sized portions onto a parchment or wax paper lined cooking sheeet. I used my cookie scoop and then rolled the scooped portion out between my palms.
3. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. At this point you can serve them or combine the chilled granola bites in a large tupperware-type container or ziploc bags to freeze or refrigerate. They will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to a week or for a few months in the freezer.

I'm not a big fan of pre-packaged granola bars, especially the no nut ones as they seem loaded with sugar.  I will say that this one is also quite sweet, but I prefer it as it is made from scratch.  I minimize some of the sweetness by cutting the chocolate chips in half, and I add in raisins or craisins.

The whole batch makes a cookie sheet full that I immediately toss in the freezer.  When they are all frozen I transfer them to sandwich bags, and back into the freezer they go.  While I'm making lunch in the morning I'll put a couple into her lunchkit for snacktime, and by the time snack rolls around they are good to eat (I have eaten them frozen though and they are just as tasty).

Pinata Cake!

My littlest just turned two, and I turned to the internet for some inspiration for her cake.  She has a rainbow dress that she loves, paired with rainbow tights (she dresses herself and has a strong opinion on clothes!).  A Google search on "Rainbow Cake" brought back this amazing pinata cake.  

I'm not sure who was more excited.  Me or my middle about candy spilling from the centre.  For no particular reason I settled on Gummy Bears.  He particularly wanted gum balls :) The rainbow and bears kind of made me nostalgic for the eighties and the Care Bears ;)

A few days before the party, I decided that if the outside was rainbow, perhaps the inside should be as well.  I used this Funfetti homemade cake recipe.  It was fantastic.  I made the cake on Friday and it was served on Sunday afternoon.  Even two days after the party it was still super moist.  Only change I would do, is the sprinkles could probably be cut in half.  I made three batches of it so I could make a double layer of the 9", as well as a dozen cupcakes.  The rainbow cake served all of our guests - 13 adults and 9 kiddos leaving the cupcakes for us to eat at home after the party was done.  The sprinkle amount you will need (as called for in the recipe) is one complete jar per batch.

After putting the gummy bears in, and finishing up the cake, I kept it stored in our undeveloped basement for the two days prior to the party to keep it cool.  I wasn't sure how the gummy bears would fair in the fridge.

Here's the finished cake (with the name smudged out).  I used Twizzlers Rainbow licorice for the front, and regular marshmallows cut into quarters for the clouds.  The birthday wish was piped on with Royal Icing.  The tiny marshmallows are a US speciality and are the Jet Puffed Mini Mallows.

The site said they recommended cutting it on the side so the candies would spill out.  Unfortunately that didn't work.  I have two theories on it.  One, the gummy bears are kind of sticky.  My son is probably correct that using gumballs or a hard candy would be better.  Second, I think my candy well wasn't deep enough.  A larger hole probably would have been better, as when the cake was cut the candies were kind of squished in.

 Once we got the cutting the center of the cake, THEN the bears spilled out.  No loss though, the kids were all thrilled with the candy in the cake, and my daughter was thrilled because it was CAKE!  I recommend this fun cake as well as the Funfetti cake.  Both were fantastic.

Robots!

Can you believe that as I type this it is SNOWING?  We have lived in our city for 11 years now, and I'm starting to agree with my husband.  Why do we live here?  The grass is starting to turn green though, so Spring is on the horizon.  It just has to be!

Despite my April blog silence, there has been some baking going on (of course there is what with it being my middle's favorite activity!).

My eldest turns seven in one weeks time (holy cripes!), and a few weeks ago I got busy planning for her birthday cake.  She is on a princess tangent.  It started at her 5th birthday (Ariel), her 6th (Cinderella), and this year she has asked for Snow White.  I have a few awesome cupcake books, and decided to check there knowing that there was one to make a red apple.  (I will share more on her cake next week after it's come to fruition!).  In the cupcake book, my middle spotted a robot cupcake.  And boy does he love his robots.  I decided that what the heck, why do we need an occasion to make a cake?  To make it faster (and for him to be more involved), after preschool one day, we stopped at the Wal-mart and picked up a box cake mix, and frosting.  On a side note, frostings have gotten fancy.  I usually make them from scratch, but I guess when you buy them now you also buy flavoring?  Who knew.  Not me, so no flavoring was added to ours, but trust me, "plain" store bought icing is plenty sweet.

We set to work.

What do you think?  I think ours/his turned out much better than the one in the book ;)  And my son was SO excited to show it to his sisters and his Dad.  They were also more than happy to indulge :)