Raspberry Wheat Bran Muffins

How about a healthy AND delicious muffin? Yes please!

{No, Libby, you can't have one. These are alllll for me!}

That's exactly what I said when I saw these Raspberry Oat Bran Muffins featured on Peas and Thank You a while back. I finally got around to making them and I'm so glad I did!

I think raspberries are probably my favorite fruit, so incorporating them into a muffin just makes me swoon. Throw in some healthy fat (coconut oil) and a good fiber source (bran) and you have a winner!

I made a few substitutes that are noted below in purple.

Raspberry Oat Bran Muffins

Source: Peas and Thank You

Makes 12-14 muffins

1/2 c. non-dairy or organic milk (I used almond milk)

1/4 c. orange juice

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

1/4 c. canola, coconut or safflower oil (I used coconut oil)

1/2 t. almond extract (subbed lemon extract b/c that's what I had)

1/2 c. organic brown sugar

1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour **see note at bottom

3/4 c. oat bran (subbed wheat bran)

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. salt

1 c. frozen or fresh organic raspberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a liquid measuring cup, combine milk, juice, applesauce, oil, almond extract, and brown sugar and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, oat bran, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

Add wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

Gently, gently, gently add raspberries and fold. Gently.

Fill muffin cups 3/4ths of the way, and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted gently in the middle comes out clean.

I did the nutritional breakdown per muffin on these and it is as follows:

Calories 150, Fat 5.15 g, Carbs 24.8, Fiber 4.4 g, Sugar 10.71 g, Protein 2.18 g

**Ashley's Note: I had the hardest time finding Whole Wheat Pastry Flour when we lived in Texas. Here in Arizona they carry it in bulk bins at my grocery store, but if you can't find it you could try subbing half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour. I think Bob's Red Mill also makes whole wheat pastry flour if you can find that.

Also, these freeze really well! I immediately stuck half the recipe in a ziploc freezer bag and threw 'em into the freezer for later. All you have to do is heat them in the microwave for a minute or so to defrost. An easy and convenient breakfast on the go!

See that one in the back left? Let's just call that Quality Control. :)

Southern Labor Day BBQ Feast

Labor Day meant cooking a barbecue feast in our household! Smoked ribs, roasted sweet potato "chips", ranch-style beans and collard greens....yum, yum!

Alex smoked the ribs for 7 hours while I baked chocolate chip cookies, banana zucchini muffins and made a double batch of chicken enchiladas (one batch to take to our friends who just had a baby and one batch for us to eat for dinner later this week).

At the grocery store this week I was compelled to purchase collard greens and try to make some healthified southern-style greens to accompany our barbecue dinner. I had never made collard greens before and felt like now was as good a time as any to tackle it!

I really had no idea what I was doing to prepare them but they turned out SUPER tasty and we really enjoyed them. Here's what I did (it's really simple....nothing earth shattering):

Simple Southern Collard Greens

Source: Me

1 bunch collard greens

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1/2 cup chicken broth

Remove collard leaves from the stalk and tear into smaller pieces. Toss them into a pot just big enough to hold all of them (they will shrink down as they cook). Turn heat on pot to medium and add chicken stock and garlic slices. Let heat until you hear the liquid starting to boil and then turn the heat down to medium-low. Cover the pot and let simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally (ours simmered for closer to 50 minutes). The longer the greens simmer the less tough and bitter they get. You could also add some hot sauce or red pepper flakes to the greens to add some spice.

We'll definitely make these again! Not only are they tasty and simple, but they're also a very healthy side dish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had a banana on it's last leg and a zucchini hanging out in the fridge so I googled "zucchini and banana muffins" and this recipe caught my eye:

Healthy Banana Zucchini Muffins

I'm not sure how "healthy" they are since the recipe calls for a cup of vegetable oil and 1.5 cups of sugar, but whatever. I guess the author considers it healthy because it has fruit and veggies in the recipe. :)

The muffins are tasty though and they fit the bill of what I wanted so I'm not gonna hold the un-healthiness against them. (Libby seemed to really enjoy them when she snatched one off the counter while our backs were turned. Grrrr....bad doggie!!)

As a side note, the recipe calls for white whole wheat flour but I subbed in plain 'ole whole wheat flour and it seemed to work just fine.

Also, I halved the recipe (because I only had one banana) and it made 12 muffins. So if you made the whole recipe it would make 24 muffins. I think they would freeze well though so I kinda wish I did have extras so I could freeze some and pop them in the microwave whenever I want a muffin. :(

How did you spend your holiday? Cook or bake anything interesting?

Peachy Keen

We're still working through our box of {delicious!} Fredricksburg peaches and loving every minute of it! In an effort to go through a couple of them that were about to be overripe, I decided to bake something with them.

I remembered a recipe I saw recently on How Sweet It Is {a blog I just recently found and LOVE} for Peach Pie Muffins. They sure looked delicious but the best part about the recipe is that they were healthified...no butter or oil at all!

Yesssss....that means I can eat 6 at a time and not feel guilty!

Wait...forget I just said that. I'll distract you by showing you this:

Don't mind my electric blue nail polish! I know it's hard to focus on anything else but try to focus on the muffin deliciousness.

{Side Note: Electric blue nail polish: Appropriate or inappropriate for a casual marketing office? Today at work I felt a little like the rebellious gothic kid in junior high....but I kind of liked it.}

Anyway, back to the muffins!
See those gorgeous yellow chunks? That would be fresh peach chunks nestled in cakey muffinness...uh YUM!

Here are some photos of the process:

Adding the peaches to the batter

All mixed up

Droppin' spoonfuls of batter into muffin tins {Droppin' it like it's hot}

All baked up!

Peach Pie Muffins

Source: How Sweet It Is

{My changes in red}

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce {I added a couple more tablespoons...see below for explanation}

1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt {I added a couple more tablespoons}

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups chopped, fresh peaches

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place muffin cups in muffin tins.

Mix sugar, applesauce, yogurt and egg until creamy. Add vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir until completely smooth. Fold in peaches. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins. Top with course sugar - Dangit! I forgot to do this!.

Bake for 15-20 minutes {I baked for 22 minutes because mine were still undercooked after 20 minutes}, until toothpick poked in center muffin comes out clean.

My only problem with the recipe was that I mixed up the batter and it was wayyyyyy too thick for muffin batter. It was practically like cookie dough thick! I don't know why that happened but I ended up adding a couple more tablespoons each of yogurt and applesauce to thin it out. This resulted in a super moist dough...almost too moist {if there is such a thing} but they still tasted and looked great so I didn't care!

UPDATE: Upon further inspection, I realized that the reason why my batter was heavier/thicker is because I ignored the part of the recipe where it said to use pastry flour. I just used straight up whole wheat flour. Oooops!

So I guess the moral of the story is that you can use normal whole wheat flour in this recipe but you will need to thin it out with extra yogurt and applesauce. :)