Blueberry Corn Muffins

BlueberryCornMuffins
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

I have a muffin cookbook I received years ago and I've used it so much that it's falling apart. The book is called "Gloria's Glorious Muffins," by Gloria Ambrosia. The book is comprised of muffins made with no refined sugar and lots of whole grains, fruits and nuts. They are NOT intended to be low-fat muffins, but they are definitely nutrition powerhouses.

So this morning, inspired by Yogabuddy's facebook post yesterday about blueberry muffins, I whipped out the book and subsequently these muffins.

Blue Morning Muffins
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

3/4 C whole-wheat flour
1 C unbleached white flour
3/4 C blue or yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

Sift all these dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Toss in:

1 1/4 C fresh or frozen blueberries

Stir them around to coat them with flour so they won't bleed too much into the rest of the muffin.

Whisk together in a smaller bowl:

1/2 C applesauce (which I made from two apples that were getting soft...I just peeled them and simmered them with a little lemon juice, adjusting the sweetness with a little agave--because one was a Granny Smith apple)
1 C milk-soy or cows
1/4 C Canola oil
1 egg-a nice, fresh yogabuddy chicken egg, I might add...
1/2 C blueberry or grape all-fruit preserves
1 tsp vanilla

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just until all the flour is moistened. Do Not Overmix!

Spoon the batter in equal amounts into paper-lined or greased muffin tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin for another 15-20 minutes. Brush the tops with a little Canola oil.

Brownies

Brownies
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

This is the brownie recipe I made Friday night. I found it on the 'net a couple of weeks ago but can't remember where! If you recognize it, please let me know so I can credit the author and website.

I found this recipe while googling for brownies made with no refined sugar. I added the rest of the grain-sweetened chocolate chips I'd bought for the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I made a couple of weeks ago.

2 eggs
1/2 C honey
t tsp vanilla
1/2 C maple syrup
1/2 C butter
6 TBSP cocoa powder
3/4 C whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Whisk together the eggs, honey, syrup and vanilla.
Melt butter and then stir in the cocoa until well-blended.
Blend into the egg mixture (just to be sure it's not still too hot, temper the egg mixture by whisking in small amounts first)
Sift together the dry ingredients
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix just until blended and all the flour is moistened. Do Not Overmix!
Pour into a greased 8 x 8 baking pan
Bake 30-35 minutes (however, mine took almost 45) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle come out clean.

Iced In

So we have been pretty much iced in since yesterday morning. Not totally. The guys and I went out to Showmars for lunch yesterday (we were heading to the new pizza place, Amici's, but it was closed), and then to Target. It was pretty nasty and slow going. I took advantage of my status as resident female and made them drop me at doors so I wouldn't have to slog across slushy parking lots.

Showmars was dead enough that Erin was able to sit and visit with us while we ate. That was nice. We don't get to see her much when Nate's not home. Target was devoid of shrieking toddlers and their equally-shrieky mothers. And I popped into Ulta to get more foundation and blush. I hate going in there because their employees must be screened for a high level of grouchiness before they get hired. But it beats going up to Southpark to the Bare Escentuals shop.

I made brownies Friday night with a recipe I found that uses maple syrup and honey for sweetener. I then dropped in the rest of the grain-sweetened chocolate chips that I had left over from the peanut butter cookies. They have been delicious, if perhaps a bit TOO sweet, and made a delightful breakfast yesterday as well as a pre-bedtime snack last night. There is only one left. I really should shoot it and put up the recipe. I'll do that.

The "no refined sugar challenge" is working pretty well. I did snap Friday afternoon when I came home from school. Mensa Boy brought back some "extra sauer" gummy worms from the Frankfurt airport. Taylor ate some and left the rest on the counter. I love those things. With just a millesecond pause I opened up the bag, dug out a red one, and popped it in my mouth.

Grapefruit. What a waste! Serves me right, I guess.

Yogabuddy Liz wrote on her facebook page a moment ago that she is making blueberry muffins. I have a TON of blueberries in the freezer. I dug out my favorite muffin cookbook and there is a recipe in there that calls for all-fruit jam as a sweetener. It wants blueberry or grape. I have two jars of apricot. I wonder how that would taste? I'll have to think about whether I want to do that or not. They are cornbread blueberry muffins.

The vegetarian challenge is going even better. I have absolutely NO CRAVINGS for meat. I've had fish once and crab once. The tuna casserole was just "ehhh." The artichoke crab dip at Big View Diner was so artichoke-y that I couldn't even taste the crab. Last night I made salisbury steak for MB and Taylor for supper. I really didn't have anything similar to make for myself. Hmm...I didn't think of it at the time but I could have made "salisbury mushrooms." I have leftover 'shrooms in the fridge that need to be used. Well anyway, I had leftover pizza and a salad.

So that's it. Lots of resting and movie watching and book reading yesterday. I have bread in the oven this morning and probably will cook something this afternoon. The bread is wheat in the middle and white on the outside. I had an odd amount of wheat dough leftover so just "cladded" it in white.