Eatin' Soup with Our Hands

I know everyone thinks their mother makes the best food (unless, of course, your mother is a bad cook). And someday I hope B&H say I'm the best cook. But - I am not lying when I say my mom makes the very best homemade chicken noodle soup. I could eat bowls and bowls of it - and lick the bowl to get the very last drop of yumminess in my mouth.

And so, when I decided a few weeks ago to make a new tradition of "Sunday Night Soup Supper" AND whole chickens were on a ridiculous sale at Target, I knew I'd have to attempt Mom's recipe. It only took me 2 pre-cooking calls and one during-cooking call to figure it out - and I think I got it right!

Now, here are my mom's (whom the babies call "gaga") directions. Very precise... which is probably why the soup is SO GOOD.

Gaga's Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
Broth:
1 whole chicken cut up
3 carrot sticks washed and rough chopped
1 onion washed and rough chopped
3 celery stalks washed and rough chopped
3-4 bay leaves
basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary - whatever spice you have on hand and like
S&P
"enough water to cover it all up"

Soup:
Cooked chicken, removed from bones
3-4 carrots washed, peeled, and diced
3 celery stalks washed & diced
1 bag of Reames frozen noodles

Directions
Place all broth ingredients in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about an hour. Remove chicken and reserve. Remove vegetables & bay leaves and discard. Let chicken cool in fridge. Put stock pot in fridge. A while (an hour or two) later check the broth - if there is any fat that has solidified and risen to the top, remove it. Remove chicken from bones and discard bones and skin. Continue to making the soup.

Add chicken, vegetables, and noodles back to the broth. Bring to a boil and boil for at least 30 minutes. (I did mine for 45). The longer you boil, the softer the noodles will get.

Keep warm until ready to serve. Eat with Club crackers, B&H's daddy's favorite!

To serve it to the babies, I used a slotted spoon and dished out the soup (without broth) on a plate and let cool:

Brothless soup for babies

Then I dished it up and let them go. I think they like it! But shhhh. I am going to tell them it's my recipe, not Gaga's, so they think I'm the good cook. :)

Sunken Sweet Potato Bread

Technically, the recipe is called Maple Glazed Sweet Potato Bread (and could easily be called SCRUMPTIOUS Sweet Potato Bread), but I have a problem when I make breads. It always happens.... they sink in the middle! See:

Minutes after being taken out of the oven, my breads drop!

I know there are many, many better bakers than I out there.... so I ask you, what is wrong with my quick bread baking skills???

I shouldn't let this negativity distract from the heaven in a loaf pan that is Sweet Potato bread. It's SO very scrumptious and comes from a new blog I found called Mother Thyme. I love this blog for many reasons - good, down to earth food, easy to follow recipes (I'm sure the bread sinking is NOT the recipe but rather the cook), and  -- the woman who writes it has twins, too! I find it amazing that she has time to create such a beautiful blog and invent such wonderful recipes. I'm slightly jealous. Perhaps she doesn't spend hours on Pinterest like I do, though.....

Again, I digress. This bread is SO delicious. I did make it for the babes, but I admit I ate more than I should have (and at 6 points per 1/12 of the loaf... yikes!). They love it, too - it's a perfect accompaniment to scrambled eggs for breakfast.  I didn't make the maple glaze for this initial batch, but the bread was so good that I went out to Lund's and bought like 6 more pounds of sweet potatoes AND a jar of pure maple syrup. The next batch is in the works for tomorrow.

Mother Thyme's Maple Glazed Sweet Potato Bread

Makes 2 9"x5" loaves

Ingredients

1 cup vegetable shortening

3 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 cups pureed sweet potatoes

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ cup milk

For Maple Glaze

1 cup confectioners sugar

½ cup pure maple syrup

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 2 9”x5” loaf pans and set aside.

Using an electric mixer on low speed cream together shortening, sugar, eggs and sweet potatoes.  Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and cloves.  Gradually add flour mixture sweet potato mixture alternating with milk until all combined.  Pour equal amounts in to loaf pans.

Bake for 55-60 minutes until tester inserted in to center comes out clean.  

Cool on wire rack in loaf pan until cool.  Run butter knife around side of loaf pan, turn upside down to remove loaf.   Set on wire rack to continue to cool.  

For glaze-

Stir confectioners sugar and maple syrup until creamy.  Drizzle over loaves and let dry.

Notes:

To prepare sweet potatoes:

Peel sweet potatoes and cut in to large wedges.  Lightly toss in vegetable oil and salt and place on a baking sheet.  Cook in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes turning half way until tender.  Remove and let cool.  Put wedges in food process and blend until smooth.  

 

For my variation, I made 1/2 a recipe and got 1 loaf (at the time, I didn't have enough sweet potatoes). I also didn't have cloves so I used nutmeg.

See? Even my photo taken on my iPhon can show how delicious - even without the glaze!

Miss Monkey H

Mr Monkey B

 I, unfortunately, don't have a photo of the babies enjoying the bread, but I do have 2 cute photos of them dressed as monkeys for Halloween!










Now, for the last order of business. I've decided to do a give-away. I will be giving away a magazine subscription to Taste of Home, one of my favorite sources for finding fast, easy food for the family. Now, I'm sure you've noticed, I don't have ads on my blog. I also don't have tons of links to or from here. So, I'm small potatoes over here. But I do want to grow. So, my giveaway will happen under 2 stipulations. First, I must reach 1,000 hits (I currently have 400-some). Second, I must get 10 people to follow the blog (I currently have 2).

So, when those two things happen, I will post and ask for your entries. A random winner will be selected and my gift to you will be a year of recipes. YUM YUM!

Now, get out there and spread the word about these babies and their baked goods!

What We're Eating Wednesday: Breakfast

Quite the hearty breakfast today! Babies enjoyed Cheesy Scrambled Eggs, Yo Baby Apple & Sweet Potato yogurt (their favorite), a banana, and Sweet Potato Bread (more on that tomorrow!). You moms with discerning eyes will also notice the Cheerios box in the background - their appetizer! :) They are both off morning bottles now, so they washed down this meal with a big ol' sippy cup of formula. Yum Yum!

Do you have children who you feed on Wednesdays? I invite you to chronicle their eats on your blog, too! Comment below and let me know if you added your own WWE Wednesday! I'd love to see what you're eating. :)

Follow that recipe!

I did it again. Or should I say I DIDN'T do it again. If you'll recall from my last post, I sometimes don't read recipes all the way through. In fact, quite frequently I just read the ingredients and figure I know how to put it all together.

It sometimes leads to some odd results.

Yesterday I was hungry for chocolate. I am doing fairly good with the Weight Watchers (aside from the Noodles & Co. I ate for supper last night....), so I knew making the German Chocolate Cake mix as directed probably wasn't a good idea. Luckily, I follow SkinnyTaste and she's got a solution for everything bad for you. I found this recipe for cupcakes for 2 Points Plus per cupcake. You can't go wrong there, right


SkinnyTaste's 2 Point Cupcakes
Ingredients:

• 18.25 oz Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix
• 1.4 oz sugar free, fat free, instant chocolate pudding
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 1/3 cups water

For the chocolate glaze:

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2-1 tbsp 1% milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

Combine pumpkin puree and water in a large bowl; mix to combine. Add chocolate pudding mix and mix well.
Add chocolate cake mix and beat 2 minutes.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake about 25 - 28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.

For the glaze: combine all dry ingredients, add vanilla and 1/2 tbsp milk, adding more 1/4 tsp at a time if needed until smooth.
Add to a piping bag or use a zip lock bag and cut the corner off, drizzle onto cooled cupcakes.

For your convenience, I bolded the part of the recipe that is apparently the key to delicious looking cupcakes... aka the part I did not follow. I should point out that I have no one to blame for my non-following ways but myself. Seriously. SkinnyTaste even has step-by-step PHOTOS showing you what to do. Oh dear. I need to pay more attention.

So, what I did was dump, stir, fill, bake. This is how they turned out:

Lumpy, bumpy, globs

This ishow they were SUPPOSED to turn out:

Shiny, moist, perfection

Mine taste great, but they just look ugly. I was going to take some to the neighbors, but I'm too embarrased. So I'll probably eat them all. It's only 48 Points to eat all 24 of them......

(And no, these aren't for babies, but I had a friend request I blog about my mis-adventure of the cupcakes. Sigh.)

Momma don't eat all my corncakes!

Oh heavens. I'm in danger. Have I mentioned my pretty lofty goal? I want to lose about 10 lbs AND run a 5K by the babies' first birthday on Dec. 5. So far, I've lost 1 lb. I blame the baked goods! But I feel like I'm committed - tracking on Weight Watchers, hitting the Y several times a week, and following a Couch to 5K program. (Which, honestly, kind of depresses me that I have to do a C25K program - two years ago I ran the Twin Cities 10 mile in about an hour and 40 minutes. Boo to exercise stamina diminishing pretty quickly!)

But. I'm in danger with these little cakes!

They are like corn muffin pancakes. So delicious plain. So delicious warm. SO SO delicious with a glob of butter and a big drizzle of honey. Babies better watch out - I'm going to steal all your corncakes!

I found this recipe yesterday while I was wasting the afternoon away browsing food blogs. I found Veronica's Cornucopia, which is a lovely blog full of hearty comfort foods. I can't wait to try more of her recipes, but first was the corncakes. I even woke up extra early today to make them fresh for the babies!


Cornmeal Griddle Cakes from Veronica's Cornucopia

1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk


Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in medium bowl. Bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Place cornmeal in a large metal or glass bowl. Stirring continuously, slowly pour the boiling water over the cornmeal. Keep stirring until the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, almost room temperature. Add the brown sugar and stir until combined. Whisk eggs until pale yellow in separate bowl. Add buttermilk and whisk until blended. Add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk mixture, to the cornmeal in three parts (beginning and ending with the flour mixture), stirring after each addition until just combined. Heat a skillet or griddle pan over medium-low heat. Spray with cooking spray and drop batter in 1/4 cup batches onto skillet. Cook until medium-brown, about 3 minutes, and the tops are bubbly, then flip the griddle cakes over and cook the other side for about 2 minutes and serve immediately. Serve with butter, pecans and maple syrup.

Admittedly, I did not follow this recipe to a T. I didn't do the boiling water part. I just dumped everything together and fried them up. They turned out delicious... but perhaps why I only got 12 cakes out of the recipe and not the 20 she says the recipe makes. Whoops! 

These corncakes might be the demise of my diet!

 I will have you know, I calculated the Points Plus values for these corncakes (not using the boiling water method), and they came out to 3 points per cake. If you are a better recipe follower than I am, and you get 20 corncakes per recipe, they are only 2 points per cake. Hmmm, incentive to follow the recipe, I think!


 

Cottage Cheese in ... Pancakes?

I admit, at first I was wary. And I like cottage cheese. But in pancakes? Really? That can't be right. But I have been following Weelicious for a while now and after reading through the 110 (mostly) positive reviews to this recipe, I decided to give it a try. Lo and behold, it was a hit!

Weelicious' Cottage Cheese Pancakes
3 Eggs
1 Cup Cottage Cheese
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbsp Honey or Agave
1/2 Cup Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
Butter, Oil or Oil Spray

1. Place the first 4 ingredients in a bowl and whisk.
2. In a separate bowl whisk the dry ingredients.
3. Pour the dry mixture into the wet mixture and stir until just combined.
4. Heat a large sauté pan or griddle over medium heat, lightly coat with oil or butter and pour about 1 tbsp of the mixture onto the griddle for each pancake.
5. Cook for 2 minutes on each side or until pancakes are set and golden.
6. Serve.
*To Freeze: Let pancakes come to room temperature, place in a ziploc bag, label and freeze up to 3 months.

For mine, I omitted the honey (not safe for babies) and agave (didn't have any) and just used plain sugar. I also ended up adding about 1/3 cup more flour. The batter was REALLY runny.

And, yes, they were a hit! Here's how the babies at theirs:

Open mouth, insert pancake.

Nom nom nom

And how Momma ate hers:

Slightly warmed with Rhubarb Strawberry Jam and a cup of coffee. YUM!

 

What We're Eating Wednesday: Lunch

Welcome to our new weekly update called What We're Eating Wednesday! There may or may not be recipes included here.... but it's a good place for us to document what we're eating every week. If you have a blog and feed your children (ha!) I encourage you to do the same. And if you do - please link back to this post to help get the word out about WWE Wednesday!

Here's our lunch today. Yum Yum!

Cottage cheese, Trader Joe's turkey meatball, acorn squash, banana muffin and a pear.

After plating it so beautifully for the photo, this is how the babies ate it:

Delicious!

What are you eating today?

Midwestern Classic

Yes, I live in Minnesota. Yes, I say things like "Uff Da" and "Yah." And yes, I eat hotdish. It's so delicious and hearty and quite the treat every now and then. I like many kinds of hotdish - but nothing beats a good old-fashioned Tater Tot Hotdish. I don't make this nearly enough, probably because I could eat the whole pan myself! However, now that I think about it, I've made Tater Tot Hotdish more times since the babies have been born since I did for the prior 5 years before that. Must me the mother in me coming out - I want to comfort my family.

Anyway, there's no real recipe for Tater Tot Hodish and everyone's family makes it a bit differently. In fact, I make it a bit differently every time I make it. There are basics you need, though - beef (or ground turkey, which is equally good), some sort of cream of ______ soup, vegetables, and of course, tater tots. If you're living on the wild side, you can add sour cream and shredded cheese. What's not to love?

Here's the "recipe" I followed earlier this week. It was delicious.

Look at how straight those rows of tater tots are!

Tater Tot Hotdish

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
1/4 cup (or so) plain yogurt or sour cream
2 cups shredded cheese (I used reduced fat cheddar)
Nearly a whole bag of Tater Tots

Method
Brown ground beef and onions in a skillet. Drain off any excess fat. Add the vegetables and cook until veges are warm. Add cream of chicken soup and mix, then add enough yogurt so the mixture has sufficient liquid in it. Spread in the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan (first sprayed with Pam). Top with shredded cheese, then Tater Tots. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until the tots are done to your liking (I like mine crispy, so I bake it a bit longer). Enjoy! Or freeze covered for up to 3 months. But it won't last that long! :)


Why is this recipe in the baby blog, you ask? Well, they are also Midwestern and LOVED it!

She needed the big spoon to shovel it in she loved it so much!

Zucchini Apple Bread-Cake

In typical Tracy fashion, I put something off until the last minute. It was my turn to bring treats for the adults to ECFE yesterday and I knew I wanted to make something with the apples we have from the orchard. A bit of Googling, and I found a recipe for Zucchini Apple Bread. I have zucchini coming out my ears in the freezer, so I thought it'd be a good way to use up two things at once.

So I printed the recipe. Then proceeded to waste most of naptime playing Words with Friends.

We have ECFE at noon. It takes us 20 minutes to get there. At 10:45 I started mixing the batter up. Sheesh. Not surprising I did that, but still. Sheesh.

The recipe says it makes 2 loafs of bread that you need to bake for 50-60 minutes. I didn't have that much time, so I thought maybe, just maybe, if I put the batter in a cake pan it would bake faster. It did! And so, the bread-cake was born. Looks like cake. Tastes like bread. Perfect!

Zucchini Apple Bread

Ingredients

Is it cake? Is it bread?

• Nonstick spray
• 1 cup finely grated zucchini (about 1 zucchini)
• 1 cup grated green apple, peeled and cored (about 1 apple)
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups plus 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat 2 (4 1/2 by 8 1/2-inch) loaf pans with nonstick spray. Line the pans with parchment paper and spray the paper.

Combine the zucchini, apple, brown sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla extract in a large bowl and stir to combine. Add 3 cups flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg to the bowl and mix well. Toss the nuts with the remaining1/2 teaspoon flour to coat and prevent them from sinking. Gently stir in the nuts and the extract.

Divide the batter between the 2 loaf pans. Bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle of each loaf comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove the bread from the pans and cool on a wire rack.

I omitted the walnuts (yuck!) and made it in a cake pan, baking for about 35 minutes. Very delicious, but I would like a bit more cinnamon and nutmeg flavor. And I'd maybe do 1-1/2 apples, but with my luck that would mess up the recipe and it would be too wet and runny. Anyway,  I figured 18 pieces of cake-bread and 7 points plus per serving. (YIKES!)

And, yes, I made it to class on time. Whew. And, I'm making this my new motto:

 

Best Easiest Applesauce

Apple Mania continues..... We got about 10 lbs of apples, so I'm trying all sorts of fun ways to cook and bake with them. Yesterday I made applesauce. Oh. My. Yum. I had intentions of making several different kinds - some for me and some for babies (I don't want to give them a lot of extra sugar, but you know I love a good sugary, cinnamony applesauce!). I ended up with just 2 different batches. The babies woke up and I ran out of time. I do want to try one more variety today or tomorrow.

Anyway, my first batch was an Original Recipe - something I rarely, if ever, do. I always, always, always follow recipes to the exact specifications. I don't stray too often. But I had an idea that vanilla would be tasty in applesauce, so I went with it.

My Very Own Vanilla Applesauce
Ingredients
4 large very sweet apples (I used Golden Crisp)
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Before...

 Peel and rough chop the apples. I cut mine in 8ths with my apple slicer and then cut those wedges into 2 or 3 pieces. Add to a pot with the water and vanilla. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes or so. Mash with a potato masher. Cool ever so slightly and enjoy!

 

 

 

After!

Babies loved it mixed in their oatmeal this morning. Mmmmmm.

The second batch I made was a recipe from the ever-delicious Simply Recipes. It turned out so good - like apple pie without the crust. She suggest to eat it as a topping on ice cream. I think that's a brilliant idea! Perhaps that's what I'll serve up for dessert tonight.

Simply Recipes' Applesauce

Ingredients

• 3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• 4 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths
• Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
• 3 inches of cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
• up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method

1 Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
2 Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.
Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. Delicious with vanilla ice cream or vanilla yogurt.
Freezes easily, lasts up to one year in a cold freezer.

I used a combo of Gala (leftover from my last grocery store purchase) and Zestar (fresh from the Orchard). I would have preferred a bit more brown sugar and cinnamon taste in mine, but it's still SO GOOD. Like candy. And really not all that sugary - but too much for the babies. They can't have it. This applesauce is MINE.

Thank you, by the way, for reading my blog! If you like it here, I ask you to Follow this blog. It's so easy! You can either click on the "Follow" button on the top left of your screen or you can click on the "Join This Site" button about 1/3 of the way down on the left, just under the Archive. You will need a Google ID to follow, but frankly, if you don't have one of those - get with the program! :) And while you're at it, leave a comment or two!

Not for Babies

We went to the Apple Orchard this weekend, so we have a million apples in the house. I've already begun to make delicious eats with said apples. Perahaps the most delicious of all so far has been the Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, another recipe courtesy of Pinch of Yum. (Seriously, I might just make everything on her blog. So yummy!)

I would not recommend this recipe for babies. There's way too much sugar in it for them! But it makes a tasty treat for Momma and Daddy after they go to bed. We topped ours with cinnamon ice cream, but we were thinking it would be equally delicious with Cool Whip on top. This might make a reappearance at the Thanksgiving table this year!

Pinch of Yum's Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk (you can sub milk+vinegar, or plain yogurt+milk)
• 1 tsp. soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups chopped apples (I used Wealthy heirloom)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tbs. butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Mix ingredients in order given (except the last 3 ingredients).
3. Pour batter into a 9×13 greased pan.
4. Combine last 3 ingredients to make a topping and sprinkle it evenly over the batter.
5. Bake for 45 minutes. It’s delicious when served warm!

Mmmm! And it smells as good as it looks!

 I made mine using the Golden Crisp apples we bought at the Orchard. The clerk at the Orchard said they are pretty sweet to begin with so reduce the amount of sugar you use, so I used *only* 1 cup of brown sugar. Ha. It's still plenty sweet. I don't recommend figuring out the Weight Watchers points on this one...... yikes!

Easy Homemade Birthday Pizza

Ok, so it's not really the babies' 1-year birthday - it was their 10-month birthday. But it still called for celebration! I decided to make them (and me) a pizza for supper. YUMMMMM!

First, assemble your ingredients. (Note, I am not being paid to mention these products, they are what I had on hand. Though I will say the Trader Joe's pizza crust is only like $1.79 and worth every penny. YUM YUM YUM). 

Trader Joe's pizza crust, pizza sauce, chicken Italian sausage,
shredded cheese, Laughing Cow cheese wedges

Next, spread out your pizza crust and bake it for about 5-7 minutes with NOTHING on it. This is paramount to making sure your pizza is done in the middle and not soggy. (I speak from experience). After about 5 minutes,take out your crust and add your base layer. For my portion, I used pizza sauce. Since the babies are still sort of getting over their upset tummies, I opted for leaving out the acidic tomato sauce for them and used the Laughing Cow spreadable cheese wedge instead. Then add your cheese & toppings, a pretty healthy portion is best. Babies also didn't get the sausage and onions. Bland is best for them at this point. :) Then bake for about 10-12 minutes.

2/3 for Momma, 1/3 for Babies

 At this point, you'll probably want to check on the babies to see what they are up to. Of course, they are causing a bit of trouble. And hey, don't judge me for leaving the babies to play in the living room while I was in the kitchen. I went in there every 2 minutes to see what they were doing, which is why this pizza took over an hour to make. :)

Whatcha guys up to?

Finally the pizza is done! It was delicious, but as I mentioned above, it took me an hour to make. So by the time it was done, the babies were in bed. They enjoyed their pizza the next day. I enjoyed mine while they slept - the BEST way to enjoy pizza!

Bran-tastic muffins

This week I had a hankerin' for my Grandma Vernie's raisin bran muffins. She made them often when we slept over - in fact there was often a bowl of the batter in the fridge ready to go. I think she called the Camping muffins or something like that. At any rate, it was always so nice to wake up in her apartment with the smell of fresh muffins wafting over to the pull out couch!

So, I set off on a mission to find the newspaper clipping of the recipe that she used. I know I have it somewhere.... but I couldn't find it. (Anyone who knows me, knows that organization is not my gift.) So, I found a recipe online, of course. It worked out for the best, because I'm excited I found Pinch of Yum, a Minneapolis food blogger. Her recipes look delicious! I'm quite certain this Mac & Cheese recipe will be tested out this weekend.

But I digress. This recipe says you can save the leftover batter in the fridge and microwave it in a mug when you want a muffin. I forgot to do that. Oh well, there's *just* enough room in my freezer for some muffins for me and the babes. Many raisin bran muffin recipes I looked at online called for buttermilk, which I NEVER have on hand. I like how this one provided a substitute of milk + plain yogurt.

I'm slightly obsessed with taking batter photos, though they don't
really show much about the recipe... but they do show
off my 1970s orange Tupperware flour and sugar canisters!

Pinch of Yum's Raisin Bran Muffins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk (sub 1 cup milk and 1 cup plain yogurt)
• 4 cups Raisin Bran cereal
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt

Instructions

1. Mix in order and bake in muffin tin at 400 degrees for 12-20 minutes, depending on pan size. (My large muffin tin took about 18 minutes). Let cool at least 10 minutes. Top with butter and honey.
2. Save leftover batter in the refrigerator. For individual servings, scoop into ramekin/mug and microwave for 1 minute.

The finished result. I had mine with a healthy (?) dose of butter. Babies had theirs plain.

They don't look like how I remember my grandma's muffins looking - I can picture hers being brannier and darker. But, they look and taste good, nonetheless!

Eager to try it!

Nom Nom Nom