This is the most AWESOME baking blog! Check it out at http://themuffinmom.wordpress.com/
Category Archives: Cuisine
This is bad–VERY BAD
Oh dear; the Baking Bites blog has a recipe up for HOMEMADE GIRL SCOUT COOKIES.
I bake–a lot. I am in SO much trouble now!
Crockpot Meatless Sloppy Joes
We made these DELICIOUS sloppy joes yesterday and they were a hit! My kids even ate them!
Rather than meat, this recipe calls for brown rice and beans. However, I think I would like to substitute wheat grains next time, because when they puff up, they resemble ground beef more than rice and beans do!
Ingredients:
1 tsp canola oil
1 chopped onion 1 chopped green pepper
1/2 c. shredded carrots
1.5 cups brown rice
2 cans navy beans (or smaller beans), drained
3/4 cup hickory BBQ sauce
1 bottle chili sauce
4 cups water
Optional: 1 cube beef bullion (for beef flavor)
Sautee oil, onion, carrots, and green pepper in a skillet until crisp-tender. Combine remaining ingredients in crock pot; add vegetables from skillet. Cook on low for 8-9 hours. Serve on buns, crackers, or alone.
My kids liked their sloppy joes on buns; I preferred to eat mine on crackers, because I don’t do 
white flour anymore. These tasted great! 
P.S. If you don’t want to buy ready-made chili sauce, here’s a recipe for you to make your own:
2 cups canned tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
Dash of cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped green pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt, approximately
Instructions:
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the tomatoes, onion, cayenne, cloves, cinnamon, sugar, and vinegar. Simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour. Add the green pepper and simmer 30 minutes more. Add salt to taste. Chill before serving.
Yield: 1-1/2 cups
*Need more healthy recipes? Visit the Muffin Mom at http://themuffinmom.wordpress.com/
MIYM Tortillas!
Thank you, Frizzlefry, for teaching me how to make the most delicious melt-in-your-mouth tortillas! If everyone knew how to make these, the tortilla manufacturing business would be done for!
http://melissaastle.blogspot.com/2008/05/tortilla-tutorial.html
Whole Wheat Crock Pot Pizza Dinner
This recipe is something I threw together the other day in an attempt to mimic the success of my Crockpot Meatless Mexican recipe.
The result: tastes just like pizza, and the kids loved it. Heart-healthy AND the kids will eat it. Perfect! Here’s the recipe:
Crockpot Whole Wheat Pizza Dinner
4 cups of Simple Marinara (see recipe, below)
OR
1 26-ounce bottle spaghetti sauce
6 cups of water
1 cup wholewheat grains
Mix all ingredients together in crockpot. Leave on high for 8 hours. Serve in bowls with pizza toppings of your choice.
Here’s my recipe for a simple marinara that tastes great:
2 TBS olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 29-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
Basil OR Oregano, salt, and pepper to taste
Sautee garlic in olive oil until lightly browned. Add tomatoes and simmer at least ten minutes. Season with basil or oregano to preference; add salt and pepper to taste.
Note: oregano gives it more of a “pizza” flavor than does basil, which give the sauce more of a “spaghetti sauce” taste.
Meatless Mexican Crockpot Dinner
Wow–this tastes so good that even my kids will eat it! (As long as I top it with grated cheese, that is. Mine looks like the photo) Here’s the recipe:
Meatless Mexican Meal
2 T. canola oil
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
Add oil to a skillet; saute the onion and garlic in the oil, then add:
2 c. chicken broth
1 T. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
Stir together until heated through. Empty contents of the skillet into a crockpot, then add:
1 cup whole wheat grains
4 cups water
Leave in crockpot on low for at least eight hours. Then top with veggies, or cheese, salsa, tortilla bits, whatever you like.
It makes a lot, so you’ll have plenty left for lunch the next day–yum! I really love this; the taste and texture are incredible!
Flour-Free, Butter Free, Healthy Breakfast Cake!
Do not be put off by the chocolate chips called for in this recipe; semi-sweet and bitter chocolate are heart-healthy and full of antioxidants (unlike their unhealthy milk chocolate counterparts!)
Flour-Free, Butter Free Breakfast cake
Serves: 8Both chickpeas and mayonnaise keep this butterless chocolate cake moist and nutritious.INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
1. Place rack on middle level and pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a small bowl, melt chocolate in microwave on medium power for two minutes, stopping frequently to stir.
3. In food processor or blender, combine beans, eggs and egg substitute, blending on high for 30 seconds. Add chocolate, sugar, mayonnaise and baking powder and process until smooth.
4. Pour mixture into 9″ heart-shaped non-stick baking pan or a round pan, baking for 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
5. Cool and dust with powdered sugar.NUTRITION INFO (per serving)
Calories: 380.6
Fat: 13.9 g
Carbohydrates: 62.0 g
Protein: 7.7 g
*Need more healthy recipes? Visit the Muffin Mom at http://themuffinmom.wordpress.com/
The DISH on Fatty School Lunches
Wow–I only recently learned about the politics behind our childrens’ school lunches when I read a book called The Culprit and the Cure. Here’s what I learned:
- The nation’s school lunch programs are funded separately from the education programs. They are governed by the USDA
- The USDA’s mission is to promote the American cattle and dairy industries
- This means that their job is to help sell more beef and milk
- The USDA, therefore, published the “Food Pyramid” taught in schools all over America
- You can view this pyramid here; notice how milk/cheese products have as big a slot as veggies?
Some Harvard scholars, concerned about child nutrition decisions made by a government office, compiled actual knowledge about science and nutrition to build their own version of the food pyramid. I trust their version a lot more than the USDA’s version, because the USDA courts all sorts of lobbyists and special interest groups and has a mission to promote meat and dairy. Harvard just wants to help kids get healthy!
You can view the Harvard pyramid here. (Notice how the milk and cheese products are up at the top with the junk foods??)
For all you parents out there who are concerned about so much bad food in the schools, there are two organizations which I heartily endorse–please visit their web sites:
http://parentsagainstjunkfood.org/index.html
http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/
Deceptively Delicious Muffins
This morning for a quick breakfast my children enjoyed these delicious peanut butter banana muffins. I got the recipe from the book Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food
These muffins had cauliflower hidden in the batter. Here is how it works:
First, you steam up some cauliflower; then you puree it in a blender::
The recipe also calls for mashed, ripe bananas–here is my trick for that: as soon as bananas in your home turn too ripe to eat, you simply throw them into the freezer! Don’t put them into a tupperware, where they will gather ice crystals. SImply leave them in their own peel, and that peel acts as the best freezer container you can find. When it is time to make muffins or banana bread, just microwave them or leave them on the counter top to thaw. Here is what my bananas look like after they have been sitting in my freezer a few months:
Notice how inside the peel, the banana is still a light, yellow color? The peel turns all black in the freezer, but the banana is just fine. When I freeze leftover bananas without the peels, however, the banana pulp turns black, so this is the BEST way to preserve old bananas for baking!
So the bananas, creamed cauliflower, and peanut butter go into this incredibly healthy batter (I love how this cookbook has me using whole grains and less sugar!). Then I put the batter into mini muffin tins (my children have a hard time with full-sized muffins making too much mess), using a mini cookie scoop for less mess and to make them of equal size:
When the muffins were done, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my children devoured them! I couldn’t taste any cauliflower in them–only peanutty yum!
*Need some healthy muffin recipes? Visit the Muffin Mom at http://themuffinmom.wordpress.com/
My Healthy Breakfast Muffins
We have really been LOVING these muffins; they are so healthy that they serve as a meal at breakfast time, or a very filling snack when dinner takes longer than planned:
Sugar-Free Apple Oatmeal Muffins
1 and 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. oatmeal
2 tsp baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp soda
2 eggs
1/4 c. honey
1/2 c. milk
2. c. diced apples or raisins
1/2 c. milk
1 and 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. oil (or applesauce as a healthy substitute!)
Bake in muffin tins at 350 until edges brown and toothpick comes out clean
(I use mini muffin tins because these are very dense!)
*Need more healthy muffin recipes? Visit the Muffin Mom at http://themuffinmom.wordpress.com/
