Carrot Orange Muffins

We are back from vacation and settled into the routine of school. For the first time ever we have an actual schoolroom to have our homeschool class. We ended up bunking the boys together and the girls together and that gave us an extra bedroom to finally dedicate to homeschooling. It's wonderful to finally have all of our books, supplies, art stuff and science kits all in one place!! Before, we forever carting things around the house and trying to keep the baby from getting into them. There have been plenty of times when scribble magically appeared on someone's workbook. That baby is so smart, she can already operate my cell phone and the dvd player!

Back to school or back to homeschooling, however you roll in your house, you are gonna need to eat. These are the BEST snack, breakfast or lunchbox muffins going. My kids loved them and I'm sure yours will too. They have lots of good stuff in them including nuts for protein. I used pecans, but you could use walnuts, cashews, whatever you like. 

These freeze well. Do what I do and wrap each one a plastic wrap and then throw them all in a freezer bag. When you need one, just pull it out. They thaw very quickly and it's such a timesaver!

Carrot Orange Muffins

from Grow It Cook It

Ingredients

1 c flour

1/2 c brown sugar

1/3 c grated carrots

3/4 c oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 c buttermilk

3 tbsp butter, melted

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 oz roasted nuts, chopped

1/2 c dried apricots, chopped finely

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1 lg orange, zest and juice

1 egg

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 c granola cereal

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add nuts, carrot, apricots, poppy seeds, oats and orange zest. Mix well.

In a medium sized bowl, mix buttermilk, egg, melted butter, and orange juice. Pour this wet mixture into the dry mixture bowl and stir together lightly with a spoon. Leave lumps. Lumps are good when making muffins or quick (non-yeast) breads.

Spoon mixture into greased or lined muffin pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

Baked Oatmeal Cakes

For Father's Day breakfast I wanted to make something quick this year. Usually we go all out and cook eggs, bacon, grits, pancakes biscuits, fruit salad, sausage, jam, honey, coffee, orange juice - pretty much everything breakfast! My husband adores breakfast, so it's how we celebrate. This year we went out on a limb and changed things up. We grabbed a quick breakfast and headed to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to enjoy this incredible weather. It has been absolutely perfect outside lately and we've taken advantage of every moment. Lucky for me, when searching for my special breakfast, I had an easy place to start. It was Secret Recipe Club time and I was assigned the food blog NYCityeats. The blogger, Lacy has tons of breakfast recipes. The girl likes her breakfast, strike that, the girl likes her food. So nice to be in good company.

I searched around the blog, but quickly decided on something with oatmeal, since I'm a little obsessed with the stuff. All you have to do is search my blog with the word oatmeal and you'll come up with all kinds of things, like oatmeal bread, oatmeal snack bars, instant oatmeal, and the ever requested "Help Yourself Oatmeal". Lacy calls these "Granola Mini Cakes" which sounds pretty fancy, but in my house we named them Oatmeal Cakes. The recipe was very simple and I actually put together the batter the night before and then baked them in the morning. I didn't make the icing from the original recipe, but I did add a little extra sugar to the batter. We scarfed them down with a few slices of bananas and some freshly picked blueberries from the backyard. This was a easy fast breakfast that the whole family enjoyed. MacGuyver was very thrilled with his Father's Day presents: a homemade birdhouse, newly stained picnic table and lawn marking spray (so we can have soccer and football games in the yard). And I think he enjoyed breakfast, although he did mention, he'd like eggs next weekend. :) I love you babe!! You are the most wonderful Daddy around.

Baked Oatmeal Cakes

from NYCityeats

Note: this only makes 6 cakes, so you may want to double the recipe

Ingredients
2/3 c flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp vanilla nonfat yogurt
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c milk 

1 egg
2/3 c oats

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon & salt together in a small bowl. Mix sugars, yogurt, oil, vanilla,egg and milk in a large bowl. Stir in dry ingredients & oats until blended. Scoop 1/4 cup batter into 6, nonstick spray coated, muffin cups & bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 min. Serve immediately.


To see all of the recipes that were secretly made, click on a thumbnail below.

Cranberry Honey Oatmeal Bread

I've been in a baking mood, and this is just the start of it. In one day, my three year old, Sausage Boy and I made this bread, the Banana Girl and I made her famous Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and Super Bear and I made...well I can't tell you yet, you'll have to wait until the Secret Recipe Club reveal date later in Feb (around my birthday!!!)

These baking moods of mine, come and go: with life, time, and maybe that time of the month ;) Whatever it is, I'm in the kitchen right now. In fact the preschool teachers already benefited since I sent in extras with a little Valentine's Day note. While I'm a fan of sweet treats for Valentines (can we say Cookie Dough Truffles, Citrus Meringue Pie, Rosemary Chocolate Tart, or My Favorite Molasses Cookies??) there is a time and a place for less sugar. This is the time. I'm feeling large and not in charge. I need to make changes, real ones. If someone could just let me borrow their will power, I promise to give it back when I'm done.

This recipe is from a blog called "Eat Yourself Skinny" if that gives you any idea as to where I'm going. According to the blog, one slice is 196 calories. If that's true, I'd be scared to know what my Zucchini Bread ranks up at. I found this recipe at Pinterest, my new love. Apparently there are a ton of people who are just pinning things and never getting around to doing them. I am determined NOT to be one of those. I want to use this fantastic tool and not just dream about using it. Bring on the pins!!

I pinned this recipe in December and knew I wanted to make it because I love cranberries. I have a go to Cranberry Coffee Cake that I keep cranberries in the freezer all year round to make. It would be perfect for Valentine's Day since it has the red cranberries, but it contains...sugar. This Oatmeal bread only contains a little bit of honey...a very little. I found out how little after I ate a piece. It was pretty sour. I mean, I like cranberries, but I had to change the recipe to make it more suited to me. The original recipe can be found here at Allrecipes. Here is my adapted recipe - and yes, this means it will come in at more than the 196 calories (or 5 WW pts, which Kelly, the author so kindly shares). My helper said our version turned out "really good Mommy", so there it is straight from the expert.

Cranberry Honey Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients

2 1/2 c flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 c oats

1 c honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 c vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/2 c heavy cream or whole milk

1 c fresh cranberries, chopped (or dried)

1/2 c nuts, chopped (I like pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and oats (reserve a sprinkle of the oats for later).

In a medium bowl, mix together honey, vegetable oil, eggs and milk. Pour liquid into the flour mixture bowl, stirring just until moistened.  Stir in chopped cranberries and pour into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle whole oats on the top for decoration and fancyness (yes, I'm sure that's a word). Bake for 1 hour if using fresh cranberries and 45 minutes if using dried. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Slice and serve with cream cheese or butter. Or if you are being healthy like I'm trying, enjoy it plain.

Old Fashioned Date Nut Loaf

You know those gifts that somebody gives you and you thank them and you all go on your merry way, only to realize later how incredibly AWESOME that gift really was? This was one of those. We were given a loaf of Date Nut Bread and I thought - "well thanks, very nice". It wasn't until I actually opened this 5 lb brick of a loaf, cut a careful slice and bit into it that I realized what a gift it was. The taste is delicious: sweet, salty, nutty, crunchy and yum! I'm sure the cake was a labor of love to make and an expensive one at that with all of those nuts. I had to have the recipe and the precious givers, Linda and Mario, were happy to share...well Linda was happy to share. Mario might have had other ideas. When he delivered the cake, he told my husband, "if you don't like it - that's okay, just give it back to me". That kinda intrigued me. I mean, these are generous and giving neighbors we are talking about, what's this about giving it back?? Turns out, this is his FAVORITE cake of all time and he just wanted to make sure it was appreciated and not haphazardly scarfed or tossed out. This cake is THAT good. I'm very grateful she twisted his arm because it was delicious - every last bite. I was a little hesitant to share it with my nut and date loving Dad, but it was his birthday, so I relented.

The recipe comes from an old cookbook, which are some of the ones that I most enjoy and least use. I think what throws me off is the lack of pictures. There aren't usually photographs of the recipes and that's what gets my attention. I know the recipes are delicious and I usually enjoy what I make from my older cookbooks, but I just don't do it enough. I figure I might reignite interest in these older cookbooks if I make a few recipes and take some (hopefully yummy looking) photos. I'm really working on my photographs. Everytime I see the one of the hot chocolate cones on pinterest I have to cringe - it's terrible! I did just get a new lens on a girls trip to NYC, I went to B&H photo. That place is amazing! There are at least 47 check out registers - it's busy and big like the rest of Manhattan. Anyway, the lens I got promises to make my food tastier looking, fresher, healthier and all around yummier - that's what the sales clerk told me - really!

Can't you see the delicious difference in this Date Nut Cake? I guess that's cheating since I didn't actually make this cake, but it does look amazing. So if you can spring for the pecans - or you have a pecan tree in the backyard, this is a cake you want to make. It will last a very long time in the fridge and you only need a little slice to go with a cup of fresh brewed coffee. It's perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack. I figure it has the nuts so you've got a little protein - that makes it as healthy as a power bar in my mind! It kinda reminds me of another loaf I just made with nuts and dried fruits in it, only that one I turned into crackers. I promise to share that recipe very soon, but for now enjoy Old Fashioned Date Nut Loaf.

Date Nut Loaf
from Farm Journal Christmas Book
4 eggs
1 c sugar
1/2 c oil
1 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 lb pitted chopped dates
4 c pecans

Combine eggs, sugar and oil in large bowl. Beat well. Combine flour and salt in a bowl and whisk to mix and sift flour. Add flour to egg bowl and mix well. Fold in dates and nuts. Dump in a greased and floured loaf pan. Put loaf in cold oven and then turn it on to 300 degrees. Bake for 2 hours and then cover loosely with foil. Bake for 15 more minutes.

Banana Bread

This banana bread recipe is always a big hit when I share it with friends. It's from my family's cookbook. The bread is always moist on the inside and forms a great crust.

I have a little secret about banana bread. Sometimes my family doesn't eat the bananas in the fruit bowl, so they turn brown and no one wants to eat them. Throwing away food is like throwing away money. Instead of tossing the mushy bananas, I pop them into the freezer (where they get black) to save them for baking. When I get all my ingredients out for baking, I get the bananas out of the freezer so they have a little time to thaw. This makes them easier to peel. The bananas are mushy and perfect for baking bread! This trick also allows you to stock up on ripe bananas the grocery store is clearancing. Get a good deal and save 'em for later!

Forney Banana Bread
Makes 1 loaf

1/2 c shortening
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 med bananas, mashed
1/2 c chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream shortening and sugar in mixing bowl until creamy. Add egg and mix well. In small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Add the flour mix (dry ingredients) to the shortening mixture (wet bowl), mixing just until it holds together. Add vanilla, mashed bananas, and optional nuts.

Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

Can be made as muffins, raise oven temp to 425 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. Recipe can easily be doubled and this bread freezes very well. Just wrap it up in plastic wrap and foil. Then pull it out when you have unexpected company or need to take a hostess gift.

Fresh Apple Maple Muffins

A delicious recipe we made using the fresh picked apples we recently got. These are so moist, I didn't make the additional glaze. I baked the muffins and then wrap each one in plastic wrap and store them in a big ziplock bag in the freezer. They are perfect to pop in a lunch box!

Fresh Apple Maple Muffins
www.RecipeGirl.com
1 1/3 c flour
1 c quick-cooking oats
2/3 c sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ c milk
1/3 c melted butter
¼ c maple syrup
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 c chopped, peeled apples
12 pecan halves (optional)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper liners. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (through cinnamon). In a small bowl, mix milk, butter, syrup and egg; stir into dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. Fold in apples. Fill prepared muffin cups ¾-full (this is easiest to do when you use an ice cream scoop). Top each with a pecan half. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

This no-fail recipe is one of my breakfast items I bring to get togethers all year round. It's always delicious and everyone loves it. The sweet cake part contrasts well with the tart of the cranberries. Although you can't get cranberries all year, when they are in season, just buy a couple of extra bags. Then you can throw them, in their original bags in the freezer for later. When you want to make this coffee cake, you don't even have to defrost them, which makes them easier to mince. I promise this is what I bring home everytime...

You can use any kind of nuts you like (or omit them altogether). I've used pecans, almonds, walnuts, and even macadamia nuts. You can change the spices or even use dried apricots instead of cranberries so it's really like a basic coffee cake recipe that everyone should have in their arsenal. You can even make it the night before and store it in the fridge and then bake it in the morning. Love those kind of dishes for breakfast!

Cranberry Coffee Cake (adapted from Southern Living)

Serves 12-15

2/3 c soft butter

1 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

2 eggs

2 c flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 c buttermilk

Nut Crunch Topping
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 c chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans)

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 3/4 c minced cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter until creamy, add sugars and eggs, beat again. In another bowl, mix dry ingredients: flour, cinnamon, soda, powder, and salt. Add dry mixture to butter mix in small batches alternating with buttermilk. Mix well.

Combine the nut crunch toppings: nutmeg, nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.

Grease 9x13 pan. Pour half of batter into bottom of pan. Sprinkle half of nut mixture over batter and half of cranberries over batter. Pour remaining batter over top and smooth out. Top with remaining nut mixture and cranberries. Bake for 35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean when poked in center. Serve warm. Can also be made the night before and stored covered in fridge until ready to bake.

Zucchini Bread - Stealth Veggies

Here's an oldie but a goodie. This specific recipe has been in my family forever and is in our family cookbook. Right now we have zucchini coming out our ears, so it's the perfect thing to make that ... "isn't another zucchini dish". My kids love this especially with cream cheese on a slice. When I started giving grocery shopping classes to a local charity for women coming out of poverty, I was surprised how many of them were scared to try the zucchini bread. Seriously I thought I should start calling it something like Happiness Bread just because the word zucchini was throwing them off. This bread does NOT taste like zucchini so it's perfect for a picky eater (even if that's you) who doesn't get enough vegetables.

The recipe is easily turned into muffins for quick snacks on the go or tucked away in a lunch box, just reduce the cooking time to 30 minutes and raise the oven temperature to 350 degrees. I often freeze this bread because it's perfect for wintertime breakfasts when you don't have a bounty of veggies. I also freeze muffins for my kids. I just wrap each one in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer. Then we we need a lunch box packed I throw in a frozen muffin, which defrosts by lunchtime. You can also freeze the grated zucchini to bake up another day. Just freeze it in 2 or 4 cup portions so it's recipe ready. Using your shredder blade on your food processor makes this a fast and easy task.

Zucchini Bread

3 lightly beaten eggs

1 1/2 c sugar

1 c oil

2 c grated zucchini

2 tsp vanilla

(these are your wet ingredients if you remember the post about combining the two bowls)

3 c flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 c raisins (optional)

(these are the dry ingredients)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Blend all the wet ingredients together in a bowl until well mixed. In a separate bowl whisk all the dry ingredients together. Then add the moist egg mixture to the dry flour mixture. Mix with spoon just until combined. Do not overmix. Bake in 2 greased loaf pans for 1 hour. Bread is done when a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean without any "goop" on it. Cool bread in pans for 5 minutes and then cool completely on wire racks. Wrap in plastic wrap, aluminum foil or bread bags for storage.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Another kid friendly recipe, both for eating and making. There's very little in this one that my kids don't do themselves. I think the only thing I don't let them do (and this is because they make a mess) is scooping the batter into the muffin cups. I use an ice cream scoop to make it easier and more uniform in size. I have a mini scoop for the mini muffin pan and a larger scoop for the regular pans. The scoop you need is the kind with the trigger that slides over the scoop to push the ice cream out.

See here for tricks on having bananas on hand all the time.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
(from Family Fun Super Snacks cookbook)

1 1/2c flour
2/3c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1c mashed ripe bananas (about 2 lg bananas)
1 egg
1/4c melted butter
1/4c sour cream OR plain or vanilla yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c choc chips
1/4c milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray oil or line your muffins pans. I love my silicone liners since they can be reused and go right in the dishwasher.

As with a typical muffin or quick bread recipe, you are going to combine the wet ingredients and in a seperate bowl the dry ingrediants and then mix the two barely together.

Dry bowl: flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt all go in and get whisked together. Wet bowl: bananas, egg, butter, sour cream or yogurt, milk and vanilla. You can hand mix this or beat it with an electric mixer. Beat until well blended and creamy looking.

Add dry to wet ingredients and mix just until things hold together - do not overmix or you will have a chewy muffin. Stir in the chocolate chips. Fill muffin cups 2/3's full. Bake for 20 mins. Cool on wire racks and wait just long enough so the roof of your mouth won't get burned by hot melted chocolate.

Raisin Bran Muffins

These are so easy and yummy. My kids and husband love them, maybe because they do have a bunch of sugar in them, but still, they have to be better for you than the store bought muffins. The super cool thing about this batter is it will keep in a non-metal covered bowl in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Just stir the batter to mix it up. Then scoop out the batter and put it into the muffin pan whenever you want hot muffins fresh from the oven. The total recipe will make about 4 dozen muffins.

Raisin Bran Muffins

Ingredients
5 c flour
3 c sugar
5 tsp baking soda
1 1/2  tsp salt
7 1/2 c raisin bran (pretty much a box)
1 qt buttermilk
1 c vegetable oil

4 eggs, beaten

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, in a large bowl. Blend raisin bran with dry ingredients. Add buttermilk, oil and eggs, blend until moist. Fill lightly greased muffin pans 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Thanks to my Aunt Machel for this recipe! Here's what it looks like when it's a couple of weeks old.