Seriously Healthy Whole-Wheat Muffins

Being that it was St. Patrick’s Day recently, I had myself some leftover buttermilk from when I made Jodi’s amazing Irish Soda Bread (fail-proof recipe!). What should I do with this extra buttermilk? I could make another loaf of that delicious soda bread or…I could try a new recipe! I wanted it to be healthy and something guilt-free. With my buttermilk-searching glasses on, I scoured through healthy recipes until I found one I wanted to base my recipe on. Luckily, trusty ol’ King Arthur Flour had a great one! I healthified it even more than it already was (I cut the sugar) and whipped it up. These muffins are so good without being sweet and they pack a serious punch of fiber. They are also incredibly easy to make. Major plus! Takes under thirty minutes.

Jan302016

Healthy Apple Muffins

Yay, a recipe post! We haven’t had enough of these lately, but we are coming back at ya! I recently started a project where I want to start doing at least one cookbook recipe a week and tailor it to fit my needs. Lucky enough and exciting enough, I started with A Feast of Ice and Fire (for the non-book lovers, this is a Game of Thrones cookbook!!). Hungry got this cookbook for me for Christmas and I seriously love it. The recipes are so amazing with a slice of text from the book that the recipe’d food came from! Most recipes also provide the medieval version (how they would’ve made it in the Song of Ice and Fire series) and also a modern version.

I chose to start with Applecakes. As you can see in the pictures below, Applecakes were something that the men on the Wall ate (like Jon Snow). The way they tie it back to the books absolutely makes it for me! Applecakes were basically like a medieval donut back in the day. I chose to do the Modern Applecakes recipe which resembles more closely to a muffin. I also healthified it! Less butter and less sugar. But let me tell you, these are absolutely delicious. The moistness that comes from the chunks of apple is wonderful. And you can just picture the characters eating them too, which makes it all the merrier.

Viserion paid a visit

Feb062014

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Muffins

A muffin we don’t have to regret eating! Hurray! Ever since I got my new hand mixer (thanks, mum), I’ve been wanting to try out the recipes that came with it in a little booklet. This muffin recipe is from that booklet (Cuisinart), but I changed it to what I wanted it to be. These muffins are perfect to me because it’s a good ball of energy when I don’t have a lot of time to eat (mostly between clients). They are tasty, without being overly sweet, and leave you feeling great (rather than the sugar-coated, fat-loaded ones you will find elsewhere). I also made a maple orange butter to go along with it, but let’s save that for another post. This recipe is super easy too! I always value that.

Yum yum yum

Prep Time: 5-7 minutes
Bake Time: 18-20 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups whole-wheat flour
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup whipped butter
1/2 cup raisins

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Grease up your muffin tin. I made 12 muffins, but you can make 24 mini muffins and it will take less time to bake

2. Put the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder into a big bowl and mix

3. Put the eggs in a smaller bowl and beat them until they become foamy.

4. Add the evaporated milk and butter into the egg mixture

5. Pour the small bowl of wet ingredients into the large bowl of dry ingredients. Mix everything together

6. Fold in your raisins, can be any type, I chose golden raisins

7. Spread your mixture evenly into the muffin tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes for 12 muffins, 14-16 minutes for 24 mini muffins.

And that’s it! Really simple, huh? My favorite pair is simple and healthy. It can’t get much better than that, at least in my opinion. Use this recipe to stay hungry and fit!

Question of the Day: What’s your favorite type of muffin?

BONUS KITTY PIC

Sajah loves the sheepskin from New Zealand!

Dec042013

Healthy Banana Nut Muffins

These muffins are one of the best guilt-free, low-calorie, satisfying snacks for your everyday needs. Also, our bananas were nearly black. And that’s when you know it’s time for one of the many banana recipes. And being right after Thanksgiving, this was an easy choice. I added pecans for a little extra protein and healthy fat. Also, they were leftover from our sweet potato casserole. You gotta use what you got! This recipe is ridiculously easy, in fact I made two batches. And it’s uber healthy with plenty of fiber since it uses whole-wheat flour. Only takes about 15 minutes to cook and less to prepare.

Look how black these are

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Baking Time: 15-18 minutes

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 bananas
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup hot water

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease your muffin tin
Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, & baking soda) in a small bowl

In another bowl, pour the honey and oil in and whisk it up until it’s totally mixed together
Now crack those eggs and mix it up with the honey and oil

Next, we want to mash those black bananas into a nice gooey mess. I like a few chunks of banana because that’s always fun to bite into when it’s cooked. Spoon in the bananas and stir into the wet mixture.

mashmashmash

Okay! Now it’s time to marry the dry and wet ingredients. Slowly stir in the dry mixture into the wet, alternating with the hot water. Do this until both the flour mixture and hot water are gone.

delicious batter

Now it’s time to chop up those pecans into quarters and stir them into our beautiful mix.

Chop chop!

Almost there! Now we want to spoon the mixture into each spot in your muffin tin, and try to make them all equal if you can.

Put into the oven for around 15-18 minutes. Stick a fork or toothpick in the middle to see if they’re done. If there’s tons of batter on the toothpick, leave it for a few minutes.
Let cool for a few minutes and then slowly scrape them out!

Oh, the glory!

This recipe came out beautifully. The muffins were moist, not too sweet, and full of whole-wheat goodness. They are perfect for Chris when he has to eat breakfast on the run and perfect for me to shove in my face between clients. Don’t miss out on this easy, healthy recipe! Bake these delicious muffins to stay hungry and fit!

Question of the Day: What are your favorite quick baking snacks?

BONUS KITTY PIC

Nymeria and Piper, the dog, got along great!

Jan292013

Healthy Whole-Wheat Honey Banana Muffins

If you couldn’t tell by the title, this recipe is very healthy. There is no sugar and no refined flour. AND THEY TASTE GOOD. I wouldn’t lie. This is my first time baking muffins from scratch, so I’m very pleased. I found the recipe here, altered it slightly and cut in half because I only have a 12-count muffin pan. And this was all the while watching Fawlty Towers!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 17 minutes
Yields: 12 beautiful muffins

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
2 bananas mashed
1/4 cup hot water

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and grease the muffin pan
Put the whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl and mix.

Put the dry ingredients to the side and get a bigger bowl where everything will end up. Put in the olive oil and honey and whisk well.

Once that is well mixed, drop in those two eggs and mix mix mix!

Once those are beaten, then add the mashed (MASH THEM) bananas into the mix.
Now the dry ingredients are ready to make friends with the wet ingredients. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with pouring in a little of the hot water you measured out before. Mix well!

Mix all ready to go

The mix is delicious by the way–had way too much of it before it hit the oven. Go a head and pour the mix into your muffin pan. Fill it as high up as you want–it all depends on how big muffins you’d like.

Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Mine cooked in about 17 minutes. Try going for 15 minutes and test them.

And here they are. The texture turned out wonderfully, the taste not overpowering, and the structural integrity strong. Very excited about these.