Whole Grain Oat Bran Muffins

A.K.A. Muffins of deliciousness and health.

And hello, why hasn't anyone slapped our wrists?! It has been over a year since the last recipe post! But because of our recent discoveries of delicious healthy recipes, we've been wanting to share them, and have been meaning to post them here for you all to enjoy. And then as I was sitting down to type this up I get a text from Lindsay asking for the recipe for said Muffins of Deliciousness and Health. Without further ado, the muffins!

Serves 12
1 cup all-purpose flour (we traded ours for whole wheat, and it just makes it a bit more dense. Still delish!)
3/4 cup uncooked old-fashioned or quick-cooking rolled oats
1/3 cup toasted wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup fat-free milk
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 egg substitute (we just use an egg, but if you have a substitute you prefer...)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup snipped dried figs or dried apricots (if you want, we never add fruit)

Also, if you're feeling crazy and awesome, we always add flax seed and oat bran, about a 1/3 cup each per recipe.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly spray a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray or use paper bake cups.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, oats, wheat germ, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center.

In another medium bowl, stir together the remaining ingredients except the fruit. Stir into the well just until moistened. The batter should be lumpy.

Fold in the fruit. Spoon into muffin cups.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for 5 minutes.

And let me just tell you, you can eat them a billion ways! We take them to campus plain as a regular muffin, Tom loves to eat them with peanut butter and honey or jam like a sandwich, and I love the honey and jam sans peanut butter myself. We tend to bake them in groups of 68...and then freeze them for easy grab-and-go food.

Pumpkin Sheet Cake

Mom made this when we were down there over the holidays and it was fabulous!!  It's a great, quick dessert to bring when you have a function and need to feed a lot of people. So basically anything church related :). It's from that cookbook "Our Favorite Recipes" that mom gave each of us a copy from their katy 3rd ward (p. 218). Originally submitted by Alyson Felt.

Pumpkin Cake:
4 lg. eggs
1 c. olive oil (I've used canola oil and it's fine)
2 c. sugar
2 c. solid pack pumpkin
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground nutmeg

In large bowl, beat eggs, oil and sugar until well blended. Add pumpkin and mix thoroughly. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg. Gradually add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture. Mix unitl smooth. Pour into greased and floured 11x17 inch jelly roll pan. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Cool before sreading with cream cheese frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

3 ounces cream cheese, softened (I totally think it needs double this!! I love to be able to taste cream cheese in my cream cheese frosting)
6 T. butter
1 T. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese until soft. Add butter, mixing until smooth. Stir in milk and vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and spread onto cooled cake.

Cauliflower "Mashed Potatoes"

I know a lot of people know this trick, but this was the first time I actually did it. So I thought I'd share. Instead of having regular mashed potatoes with our Sunday roast, I boiled a head of cauliflower till soft. Then drain the water and use a potato masher or just skip straight to the electric beaters like we do. Add butter and salt if desired. It has the same consistency and color as potatoes, but a lot more healthy and fewer calories. Unfortunately, my older two kids didn't care for it. But the two little girls loved it! As did my husband and I. So if you have some cauliflower around and don't know what to do with it, this is always an option.

Pumpkin Pancakes and Buttermilk Vanilla Syrup

Tom's family makes these delicious pancakes and he brought the recipe with him to school. I'm so glad he shared, and you will be too when you try them!

Pancakes:
1 C. Pumpkin mix
1.5 C. pancake mix
1 t. vanilla
.5 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
.5 C water - you can add more to get the consistency of batter you want

Serves about 4/5 people.

Top it with this delicious syrup!

Buttermilk Vanilla syrup
1 C. butter
2 C. sugar
2 T Karo syrup
.5 C buttermilk
1 t. vanilla
.5 t baking soda

1. Dissolve butter, sugar, Karo syrup, and buttermilk on medium
2. Bring to a boil for 2-4 minutes
3. Remove from heat
4. Immediately add vanilla and baking soda

For those who have never made a buttermilk syrup, it's kind of a fun thing to let your kids watch or even help pour in the baking soda; it reacts with the ingredients and bubbles up. Kind of a neat little edible science experiment!

Bon appetite!

Chicken Nachos

We made these the other day when my in-laws were here and they were delicious! Super easy to make too, which is my kind of meal!

Ingredients:
Tortilla chips of your choice
chicken cooked and shredded, or canned chicken that's pre-cooked so it just has to heat up.
diced tomatoes
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 - 4oz. can diced green chiles
shredded cheese

Toppings:
Sour cream
Guacamole

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Get a big cookie sheet and spread the tortilla chips out, trying not to pile on too many on top of each other so that they're good and covered. Layer on the chicken, tomatoes and green chiles. Put in the oven for a few minutes, maybe 5-10. Then pull it out and add the cheese on top, stick it back in until the cheese is melted.

To make guacamole I just mash up a few avocados and add kosher salt, lime juice, and minced garlic, to taste. Sorry, I know I'm bad at giving exact measured-out directions. But I don't think this is something you can easily mess up, guac is pretty forgiving (and delicious!)

Chicketti

When Eliza was born my friend brought dinner to us one night. We loved what she brought and asked her for the recipe. Unfortunately it has cream of mushroom soup in it. I hesitate in posting this recipe after Steph and I talked about possibly banning cream of anything soups from this blog! Too bad those not so healthy soups make everything taste good and are so darn convenient!! But this chicketti really is so good and easy to make and it's a good way to use up some red/green pepper that’s about to go bad. We like this so much we have it every month or two.  

CHICKETTI

 

Ingredients:

½ pkg. cooked spaghetti

1 ½ c. chicken, cooked

¼ c. red and green peppers

½ c. onion

1 can cream of mushroom soup

½ c. chicken broth

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1 ¾ c. grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

While spaghetti is cooking, chop chicken, onion, and peppers. Combine in bowl. Add cream of mushroom, broth, salt and pepper. Add drained spaghetti. Stir and pour into casserole dish. Top with cheese. Bake at 350F for 30 min.

I buy noodles in large quantities so I just guess on how many to cook. Enough to fill a 9x13 pan but not too many to where the final product is dry. I don’t follow all the measurements above; I go pretty light on the chicken and cheese and heavy on the peppers and sometimes add sautéed mushrooms. I made it once without chicken and it was good but I prefer it with chicken even if it’s only a little bit. I like the chicken, peppers, and onions diced up pretty small.

As a side note, this is what I use to make broth. My mother-in-law gave it to me. It works just like bouillon cubes but it's better for you (no MSG, etc.) and it has to be refrigerated after opening. I'm all for healthier alternatives that taste the same! 

Also I bet you could use left over turkey from thanksgiving, switch it out for the chicken, and make a delicious "turketti."

Full-Meal Chipotle Chop Salad

I'm not a huge salad fan. I used to assume vegans/vegetarians ate salad most of the time because...what else could they eat? Now that I've joined their ranks, I realize that you can eat tons of vegetables and rarely eat salad. Although I'm not anti-salad by any means, I just don't usually feel like they fill me up or taste great enough to make it a daily habit. Cafe Rio salads are an exception. And guess what - I found a way to get that Cafe Rio filled-up-from-salad-feeling without leaving my house!

This is a delicious recipe - we had it for lunch the other day and it was so good. Lots of protein from the beans and quinoa, and plenty of good flavor to go with the veggies. I can guarantee we'll be eating this salad many times in the future!

Oh, and one more plus is the homemade salad dressing. SO much better than the preservative-laden bottled stuff, and dirt cheap to make!

Full-Meal Chipotle Chop Salad with Agave-Lime Vinaigrette

adapted from Chloe Cooks

Agave-Lime Vinaigrette

1.5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. agave
1/8 c. (or 2 Tbsp) fresh lime juice (about the juice of 1 lime)

Chipotle Chop Salad

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, minced (or 1/2 tsp. bottled minced garlic)
1/4 tsp. chipotle chili powder (different than regular chili powder!)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 head romaine lettuce, cut into bite-sized pieces (I lay mine on the cutting board and slice it with a pizza cutter!)
1 large tomato, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped (we used more than this because we love red onion - use as desired)
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and diced
1/2 c. cooked quinoa
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro

To make the Agave-Lime Vinaigrette: Blend oil, vonegar, agave, and lime juice in blender until smooth. Set aside.

To make Chipotle Chop Salad: Heat oil in small saucepan over medium heat and saute black beans, garlic, chipotle powder, and salt for 5 minutes. Let cool. (So much better than eating straight cold beans from the can - I promise it's worth this step!!)

In large bowl, combine romaine, tomatoes, onions, avocado, quinoa, black bean mixture, and cilantro. Toss with dressing and serve immediately. Serves 4 as a meal and 6 as a side. But please, serve it as a meal!