Spiced Carrot Muffins

I was browsing around Martha’s website and found a recipe for these.  They looked and sounded wonderful.  Since I had a huge 5 pound bag of carrots that I needed to eat and I couldn’t think of a better way to use them up…well..besides a yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting….but with the summer months on their way I thought better of it and sided on making these more healthy muffins. They were definitely the next best thing!

I made a few changes to the original recipe, due to it being much more dense and thick than I had expected it to be.  My final recipe is below.  These were fantastic.  Perfect addition for breakfast or snack.  I’m sure they would be great with honey, cinnamon butter as well 🙂 But as I said above, I’m trying to behave.  🙂

Ingredients

Adapted from Marthastewart.com

Makes 12

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons apple-pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups shredded (about 5 medium) carrots
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions

1. Line twelve cups (each 2 1/2 inches wide) of a standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, pumpkin-pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In another bowl, whisk together yogurt, butter, and eggs. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and add yogurt mixture. Stir until just combined. Fold in carrots.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. (If desired, muffins can be baked immediately in a 375 degrees oven for about 20 minutes.) Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes, then cover tin with plastic wrap, and freeze until ready to bake, up to 3 months.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake muffins (still frozen) until a toothpick inserted in center of one comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Bar Review: Kind Plus Almond, Walnut and Macadamia

This bar was completely not what I had exptected.  I was so looking forward to a nice chewy bar to break up and put in my Fage and strawberries!  Nope thats not what I got!  This bar is soooooooo hard, your teeth with get a work out-becareful!! I must say though the flavor of the bar was A.mazing!!! I loved the Huge chunks of macadamia as well, they totally made the bar. 

Even though the nutritional specs are great (eerrr..aside from 210 calories..Yikes) and it tasted great, I don’t think I would buy this kind of bar again.  They are expensive (I got this one on sale but originally the are $1.70) and very high in calories.  Not to mention very hard, I had a hard time even breaking it to put in my yogurt.   I was a bit fearfully this little bar was going to cost me hundreds of dollars(in dental work)!

INGREDIENTS:
Mixed Nuts (Peanuts, Almonds, Walnuts, Macadamias, Cashews, Brazil Nuts), Honey, Glucose, Soy Crisps (Soy Protein Isolate, Tapioca Starch, Salt) Soluble Dietary Fiber (Maize), Natural Flavour VITAMINS: Vitamin A Acetate, Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C). D-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vit. E)

NUTRITIONAL INFO.:
Calories 210
Fat Calories 130
Total Fat 15g
Saturated Fat 2g
Trans Fat 0g
Monounsaturated 9g
Polyunsaturated 3.5g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 65mg
Potassium 180mg
Total Carb. 11g
Dietary Fiber 2.5g
Sugars 7g
Protein 10g
Vitamin A 50% • Vitamin C 50% • Calcium 4% • Iron 6%
Vitamin E 50% • Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) 10% • Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 4%
Vitamin B3 (Niacin) 20% • Phosphorus 10% • Magnesium 15% • Zinc 6%

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Whole Wheat Pita Chips

This is a great recipe!  It is so versatile and easy to make.  You can get as creative or keep it simple, it doesn’t matter they come out tasting great every time.  These chips were gone in minutes!  They are healthy and give you the satisfying crunch you crave when reach for a chip.  They are great paired with hummus or veggie dip or even have as a side with your soup and sandwich.  I love making my own pita chips because you can control the salt and its fun to choose your own seasonings.  The possibilities are really endless.  Plus when you make them yourself they are WAY cheaper than buying them packaged and they the fresh out of the oven taste is hard to beat.  Below is the basic recipe I use, remember you can change the toppings however you like. 

Whole Wheat Pita Chips

12 Bread pita pockets

1/2 C olive oil

1/2 t black pepper

1 t garlic salt

1/2 t dried basil

 

Preheat oven 400*. 

Cut pita’s into 8 triangles.  Line on a cookie sheet

Combing Olive oil, pepper, salt and basil.

Brush on to the triangles.  Flip and brush the other side.

Bake for about 7 min.  Keep a watchful eye on them, they burn easy.

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Bar Review: Coconut Cream Pie Larabar

I’m most definitely not a ‘bar person’.  It was not until I started reading food blogs that I started buying a few bars here and there.  Overall, even after trying quite a few bars, I’m still not a person that loves bars.  I think most of them have way too many ingredients (some of which I have not clue what they are), have way too many calories, never satisfy my hunger, taste like cardboard. 

One brand that I have found that I absolutely love is Larabars.  For the most part I like most of the flavors I’ve tried, they taste good, the calories are reasonable, they have very few ingredients! But honestly they don’t hold me over very long thats for sure.

Living in a small town, finding a variety of flavors is hard to come by.  But I finally made it to Whole Foods and found the Coconut Cream Pie flavor I’ve been dying to try!  I was not disappointed!! This by far is my absolute favorite bar I have ever had! 

Only downside: these bars are pretty expensive($1.50 per bar) and a bit high in calories(200 per bar), not much protien (3g per bar).

The Ingredients are outstanding:

Dates, cashews, almonds, unsweetened coconut, extra virgin coconut oil.

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Oatmeal Blueberry muffins

I had a plethora of blueberries in my freezer that I desperately needed to use up.  So I did some searching for a healthy blueberry muffin.  I love blueberry muffins so much but considering bakery style muffins are usually loaded with butter and sugar I decided there has to be a better option. 

Much to my delight I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and with a few mondfications to make them a bit healthier these turned out to be just what I was looking for. 

These by no means are the enormous sugar/butter laden bakery style muffins I so dearly love, but they are a sweet healthy change to my usual oats for breakfast.  When paired with a warm cup of tea these lovely muffins make a great afternoon snack as well. 

INGREDIENTS

             1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (reserve 2 T)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup blueberries, rinsed and drained

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix in milk, egg, and apple sauce; mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Toss blueberries with 2 T flour, to ensure that they do not fall to the bottom of the muffins.  Fold in blueberries. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.
2. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

These muffins were gone in a matter of days…..Jonathan and little Ava loved them.  I love how these muffins are just the right amount of sweet.  If you are looking for a super sweet muffin this is recipe is NOT for you.  They are lightly sweetened. 

My poor computer is still broken.  Posts maybe sporadic.  😦

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I *HEART* SALES!!!

Today while browsing the organic section at my local grocery store I came across these lovelies that were on sale for $2.46 a box!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was so thrilled!!! I have been waiting months and months to try these.  After I heard kath raving about them I ran to the store to pick some up…much to my dismay they were a bit out of my budget! They are about $5.76 a box.  I just can not pay that much for a box of granola bars, right now….hopefully some day I will but for now I will most definitely be keeping my eye on them to go on sale.  I can not wait to try them in the morning with my oatmeal! A full review to come……..

 

 

 

REVIEW:  Wow!!! My whole bowl of oatmeal was completely transformed!! These planks added so much chew and flavor to bowl!!!! I love the whole almonds and dried blueberries with the sweet notes of vanilla.   On top of being A.mazingly delicious their nutritional value  is GREAT!! http://www.honest-foods.com/products.html

I highly suggest trying these planks out if you have not done so already. 

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What I’m snacking on…..

……….To keep all the holiday treats out of my mouth!

This holiday season I’m determined not to gain 10 pounds!  I’m finding if I eat healthy balanced meals and wholesome snacks I don’t want or need to be reaching for the fudge or sugar cookies. 

This is my very favorite snack that fills me up so well and keeps me going for hours.  I used to hate yogurt so much, it made me gag and I just detested eating it.  But then I discovered GREEK YOGURT!!!!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Greek yogurt with fruit, granola and on special occasions honey!! This has become my best go to snack when I’m hungry and  its not quite dinner time.  This easy parfait is super easy to make and sooo fast (less than 2 minutes tops)! 

So this holiday season create a simple, beautiful, delish snack instead of gorging yourself with holiday cookies! 🙂

This parfait included: Greek yogurt, orange slices, pomegranate seeds and homemade granola.

Granola:

Adapted from various recipes on the internet

2 Cups rolled oats

1/4 Cup shredded coconut (you could also add nuts of your choice or dried fruit)

1 T honey

1 T maple syrup

2 T canola oil (or vegetable oil)

1 T brown sugar

1 t almond extract

1 t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300*. Mix all ingredients well. Spread onto a well greased pan and bake for 17-20 minutes. Make sure to stir your granola half-way through the cooking time. Keep a close eye on it towards the end, due to burning easily.

Store in air tight container for 1.5 weeks.

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