Whole Wheat Flax'n Apple Muffins

Muffins are my favorite weekend breakfast food. My personal preference being bran or whole wheat with fruit. I found this recipe on the back of the Flax Seed box and was very pleased with the results.

1/4 cup Flax Seed

3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour

3/4 cup White Flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cups finely chopped apples

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Blend dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine egg, vegetable oil and milk. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture and stir until just blended. Fold in apples and nuts. Batter will be thick. Fill well-greased muffin cups 2/3 full.

Streusel Topping:

2 Tbsp cold butter

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp flour

Cut cold butter with sugar and flour. Spoon onto top of muffins. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until top springs back when touched.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

How can you go wrong when cream cheese and pumpkin are joined in holy matrimony? These muffins were divine! Thank you to www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/

For the filling:

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

For the muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the topping:

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp flour

3/4 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

To prepare the filling, combine cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1 1/2" in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hrs. The mixture will still be somewhat soft but firmer. (Confession: I only froze the cream cheese mixture for maybe 30 minutes and it still worked)

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep muffin pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

Fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom. Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 12 equal pieces and place into the center of each muffin of batter. You want to put the cream cheese lower than you think because i t will rise a lot during the baking process. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Trasfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. I thought they tasted even better the next day.

Granola

This recipe is from Penzeys Spices, a spice store my sister-in-law introduced me to. They carry an incredible assortment of various generic and ethnic spice arrangements. I've tried other granola recipes but really liked the flavors of this one!

4 Cups Rolled Oats

1 Cup Oat Bran

1/2 Cup ground Flax Seeds

1-2 good handfuls of raw nuts: pecan pieces, walnut pieces, chopped or sliced almonds (optional)

1/2 - 1 Cup Coconut (optional)

1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2-1 tsp. Powdered Ginger

1/4 tsp. Ground Nutmeg or Ground Cardamom

1/2 Cup Apple Juice

1/4 Cup Pure Maple Syrup

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 tsp. Almond Extract

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl combine oats, oat bran, flax, nuts, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg or cardamom. Mix well. Add the apple juice, maple syrup, olive oil, vanilla and almond extracts. Mix well. The granola should look just moist enough; if it's looking dry, drizzle a tiny bit of oil and syrup over the granola and mix again.

Line two cookie sheets with waxed paper and evenly divide the granola on each. Spread the mix to form a single layer. The granola will bake in three stages of 20 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, take out the cookie sheets, stir the mix and spread it out in a single layer again. Put the granola back in the oven for another 20 minutes. After the granola has been in the oven for a total of 40 minutes, stir the mix on both cookie sheets, spread it out, but put the cookie sheets back on opposite racks. The mix should be dry and tasted at the end. Let the mix cool, then store in an airtight container.

*Note: I like to eat mine topped with craisins or fresh fruit!

Sticky Buns

This is Bret and Ethan's favorite part of our Christmas morning breakfast!

1. Sprinkle bottom of greased bundt pans with chopped pecans (Optional).


2. Place 15-17 Rhodes frozen rolls in a bundt pan on top of chopped pecans.


3. Sprinkle 1 small pkg. of dry Cook-N-Serve butterscotch pudding on rolls.


4. Sprinkle cinnamon over all.


5. Melt 1/2 cup brown sugar with 1/2 cup butter and pour over

Let rise all day or night (in a cold oven). Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. Remove immediately from pan and serve hot.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

In my attempt to get my children and husband to eat more veggies I have been using my cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious," by Jessica Sienfeld more. Her recipes are all low in fat, high in fiber, and all contain a secret pureed vegetable. These muffins were very good and no one even asked what was in them which doesn't always happen when I try a new recipe. Bret is usually the first one to be suspicious about my hidden veggies.

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 Tbsp trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread, chilled
1 cup lowfat lemon yogurt
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup yellow squash puree
1 large egg
2 tsps pure lemon extract (I didn't have any so I subsituted with lemon juice. Almond extract would probably work fine too.)
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 tsp bkaing powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and the margarine. Stir in the yogurt, blueberries, yellow squash puree, egg, lemon extract, and lemon zest.

Add the flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir just to combine, but do not overmix - the batter is supposed to be lumpy.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake until the tops of the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in teh center, 13 to 15 minutes.

Baked Egg Puffs

This recipe also uses yellow squash. They are suppose to "puff" up above the rim of the ramekin cup, but the mugs I used were quite wide so mine didn't look as puffy as the photo in the cookbook. Still I thought they were yummy and a fun new way to use up eggs.

2 large eggs
4 large egg whites
1/2 cup yellow squash or butternut squash butternut squash
2 Tbsp shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat 4 (1/2 cup) mugs with cooking spray and set on a baking sheet.

In large bowl, whixk the eggs, egg whites, squash puree, cheese, flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. Divide the mixture among the cups and bake until the tops are puffed up and the eggs ar no longer runny in the center when pierced with the tip of a knfe, 13 to 15 minutes.

Gingerbread Waffles

GINGERBREAD WAFFLES

1/4 C. butter or margarine

1/2 C. brown sugar, packed

1/2 C. light molasses

2 eggs, well beaten

1 C. milk

2 C. sifted flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

1 t. ginger

1/4 t. allspice

1/2 t. salt

Bananas

Whipping Cream

Cream butter, brown sugar, molasses, eggs, and milk. Sift together flour, baking owder, ginger, allspice, and salt; add to molasses mixture. Bake on greased waffle iron. Top with sliced bananas and whipped cream.