Rhubarb Muffins Thursday, Jun 13 2013

I was excited to get some rhubarb again this year, and decided to try this new recipe from Simply in Season. They turned out wonderful! So moist, and perfect combinaison of sweet and sour from the rhubarb. It’s definitely a recipe I’ll turn to time and again in rhubarb season!

Rhubarb Muffins

1 cup buttermilk, sour milk, or plain yogurt*
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, diced
1/2 cup nuts, optional

Mix together buttermilk, brown sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until just moistened.Stir in rhubarb and nuts. Pour in greased/lined muffin tins.

Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp flour

Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of batter. Bake at 375F approximately 20 minutes, until toothpick in center comes out clean.

*I make my own buttermilk by adding 1 Tbsp vinegar to my milk and letting is sit a couple minutes.

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Strawberry Muffins Tuesday, Jun 11 2013

This is a recipe slightly modified from Simply in Season. It’s so simple to put together, and deliciously moist! It’s definitely a recipe I’ll be making again and again!

Strawberry Muffins

1 1/4 cup strawberries, mashed*
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix together sugar, oil, and eggs. Stir in strawberries. Add in dry ingredients, only stirring until combined. Pour into greased/lined muffin tins and bake at 375F for approximately 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

* I used thawed frozen strawberries.

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Flax-laden Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins Thursday, Apr 4 2013

I’ve been trying to add more fiber into our diet these days. This recipe I caught my eye since they contain so much ground flax, which is so high in fiber content! I thought they would be dense, but they worked beautifully, and my whole family is eating them up! One would never know there is so much ground flax in them. 🙂

Flax-laden Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

3/4 cup butter/margarine
3 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups mashed banana (approx 4 bananas)
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 cups whole grain flour
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup ground flax*
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Beat together butter, vanilla, eggs, sugar, bananas, and lemon juice. Add in dry ingredients and mix until mixed in. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes.

* You can easily grind flax seeds in a coffee grinder!

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Lemon Crinkle Cookies Monday, Mar 11 2013

There’s a recipe that I’ve seen going around Pinterest for a while, Lemon Crinkle Cookies, and while they look so good, they are so full of sugar that I could never bring myself to make them!! I decided to try a healthier version of them, and it worked! We all love them, and it’s such a nice variety to the typical oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies that are popular around here. 🙂

So, I reduced the sugar significantly, and used whole grain spelt flour (wheat would work too), and my husband still thought they were really sweet. 🙂  We all loved them for sure.

 

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup wheat/spelt flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients, except powdered sugar, slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly.

Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. I then shook each ball briefly in my fingers to shake off extra powdered sugar. Place on greased baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until bottoms begin to barely brown. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

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Basic Biscuits Sunday, Mar 3 2013

I really like my other biscuit recipes, but I’ve been trying a few new recipes from the “More with Less” cookbook, as I’m thinking it’s one of the only two cookbooks I’ll be bringing with me to Africa. I LOVED this biscuit recipe! I am most definitely going to keep doing this one instead of my other ones now. 🙂

One day, my oldest wanted a hot dog in a hot dog bun for lunch. Since I don’t usually have hot dog buns on hand, and I was out of regular bread (which we fold to make a hot dog “bun”), him and I made this biscuit recipe together and shaped the dough into logs. Then, after they were cooked, we cut a “U” shape on the top and created a quick hot dog bun. Worked for him! 🙂

Basic Biscuits

2 cups flour*
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk/kefir

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening. Mix in milk/kefir until soft ball forms. Knead gently 20-25 times. Roll or pat dough to 1/2″ thick and cut. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and at 425F for 10 minutes.

Cheese biscuits: Add in 1 cup grated cheese into flour mixture, before cutting in shortening. Increase milk to 1 cup.

* I do 1 1/2 cups whole grain (wheat/spelt), and 1/2 cup white. Or half white, half spelt.

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Squash Bars Friday, Mar 1 2013

I had 1/2 a spaghetti squash leftover the other day, and didn’t know what to do with it. I found this recipe in the cookbook “Simply in Season” and decided to give it a try. It turned out delicious! My husband and boys couldn’t stop eating it. I’ll definitely be repeating this easy and yummy recipe.

Squash Bars

2 cups winter squash or pumpkin (cooked and puréed)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

Beat together squash, sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla and salt. Mix in dry ingredients. Pour into greased 11×17″ pan. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

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Puffed Wheat Cake Monday, Jan 7 2013

I was introduced to this dessert in college (in Saskatchewan). It’s the same type of dessert as rice krispies squares, just that easy, but, in my opinion, so much better! 🙂

When I was engaged, my “SK mom” made me a recipe book. It’s a book I treasure, and use often! One of those recipes is Puffed Wheat Cake.

Another fun little story behind this is regarding the puffed wheat itself. My Mom grew up on a farm, and they used to feed their ducks puffed wheat. So she grew up calling puffed wheat “céréal de canard (duck food)”. I also grew up calling them “céréal de canard”, and didn’t actually know it wasn’t their real name until my teens. 😉  While I call them puffed wheat now, in my heart, it’s still “céréal de canard”. 😉 So, here is the recipe for Duck Food Puffed Wheat Cake!

Puffed Wheat Cake

1/2 cup butter/margarine
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa
9 cups puffed wheat
250g marshmallows (8oz, or, 30 large marshmallows)

Place butter, corn syrup, brown sugar and cocoa in large pot. Melt on medium heat until just bubble. Turn off heat, add in marshmallows and stir until melted. Add in puffed wheat, mix. Pour into 9″x12″ casserole dish, press down with buttered spatula (or marshmallow sticks all over your spatula). Let cool, and enjoy!

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Peanut Butter Cookies Friday, Dec 7 2012

 

My Aussie friend gave me this recipe. They are melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter cookies. 🙂  They tend to crumble easily (esp after the first day), but they taste so good so I keep making them! 🙂

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour (I’ve used wheat/spelt)
1 tsp baking soda

Cream butter, vanilla, sugars, peanut butter, and egg. Add in flour and baking soda, and mix. Roll into small balls, place on greased cookie sheet, and press cookies down slightly with a fork, first crosswise and then lengthwise for a crinkled effect. Bake 15 minutes at 350F.

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Cool Individual Apple Crisps Monday, Nov 19 2012

 

I found this idea online, and was excited to give it a try! Not only does it look cool, it’s also so much easier than the traditional apple crisp, as there is no need to peel and slice all the apples. Very cool, and I’ll definitely be making apple crisp this way again!

I like how it also limits the portions, because when it comes to apple crisp, my husband and I can eat waaaaaay too much! 😀

 

 

Cool Individual Apple Crisp

4 apples

 

Crisp Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup  flour (white or wheat)
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup butter/margarine
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix ingredients together to make a crumb.

Wash apples, cut in half, cut out the core.

Divide on top of each apple half. Place apples on a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, until apples are soft (insert sharp knife). The length of cooking will vary greatly depending which type of apple you use. Macintosh apples will cook much faster than gala.

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Lemon Cranberry Oatmeal Pancakes Wednesday, Oct 31 2012

(I love my son’s expression: “Another picture, Mom??? I just wanna eat!” lol)

My friend Tammy has a blender pancake recipe for Cranberry Oatmeal Pancakes on her site: Tammy’s Recipes. We’ve been enjoying that recipe since getting our Vita-Mix, and I’ve been wanting to tweak it to involve lemon, as lemons and cranberries just seem to go together in my mind! 🙂  So, here it is!

Lemon Cranberry Oatmeal Pancakes

1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/8 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

Beat together in mixing bowl, cook on a frying pan. Make sure to stir before pouring new pancakes, as the cranberries drop to the bottom of the batter.

Blender pancake instructions: Blend up 3/4 cup wheat berries with the 1 1/4 cup milk for 2 minutes in a Vita-Mix or 4 minutes in a regular blender. Add remaining ingredients and blend just a little bit until all mixed. Pour into griddle (but remember the cranberries since to the bottom, so give it a little stir before each time!).

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