Tag Archives: breakfast

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Posted on May 9, 2014 by four sweetie pies

Good evening friends!

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I made some yummy Cranberry Orange Muffins for the fabulous teachers in my kids life. I am so very thankful for the teachers who work so hard day in and day out inspiring, motivating, challenging and sparking that desire to learn in our kids. We have been blessed with so many wonderful teachers over the years. Some who have become my dear friends and some who simply remain in your heart forever. Special teachers can truly make a difference in a child’s life. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those teachers who have gone the extra mile for us all for all!

These muffins are not low-fat or healthy in any way, but they are delicious!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Yield- 24 muffins

Ingredients

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup flour

4 TBL sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

6 TBL butter, cold and diced

Muffins

4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups frozen cranberries, chopped

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 cups buttermilk

2/3 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 TBL orange zest, fresh is best

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 TBL orange juice

1-2 TBL orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with liners of your choice.

Make the streusel by combining all the ingredients and cutting in the butter with a pastry blender.

To make the muffin batter, (use a large bowl) toss the flour, baking soda, salt and cranberries together until combined. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, both sugars together until combined. Whisk in the buttermilk, oil, vanilla and zest. Gently combine the wet and dry ingredients. Stir only until combined.

Fill muffins cups 1/2 to 3/4 full. Press streusel evenly onto each muffin.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until tops are firm. Allow muffins to cool.

Assemble the glaze by whisking the powdered sugar, OJ and zest together. Once muffins are cool, remove them from pan and put on a wire rack. Drizzle the muffins with the glaze.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from http://www.sallysbakingaddiction.com

“Mom, are you eating weeds?!”

Posted on May 22, 2013 by four sweetie pies

Good morning friends! Yes, I am eating dandelion greens this morning! I am a proud member of my local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm, called Sandhill Family Farms. Each week from spring through fall I get a weekly basket of fresh, locally grown beautiful veggies! I try to make a game out of trying to figure out how to use everything each week so my waste is minimal. Each week I get a nice variety of items, some familiar some not. Last week, we received dandelion greens, a member of the chicory family. As many of you know, I have a love of sauteing greens, like spinach, chard, etc and serving over my favorite farm fresh eggs. So, today I put another spin on that and sautéed my dandelion greens.

It is actually pretty basic. Here’s what I did:

1/4 tsp bacon grease

1 tsp ham squares

bunch of dandelion greens

fresh chopped chives

I put the bacon grease in my non-stick pan and saute the ham bits, add the greens and saute until slightly wilted. I can hear the gasps through the computer! Yes, bacon grease bad for you, BUT its a very small amount and on the rare occasions that we do have bacon, I keep a small container under my sink to collect the grease. My kids think it’s totally gross, but this habit goes back long ago from my childhood when my babysitter, Irene, used to save the bacon grease to make homemade Chex Mix, which I still do today too! Put the greens on your plate and use the pan to cook your eggs to your liking. I prefer either sunny-side up or over-easy so you get that nice runny yolk to dip your toast into. Top with the fresh chives. Again, I urge you to try farm fresh eggs if you have the chance to, they are absolutely superior in taste.

I served my eggs and greens with my favorite Angelic Bakehouse Sprouted Bread. My favorite bread is low-cal, packed with whole grains, protein and is only 1 Weight Watchers PointsPlus per slice!!!! Give it a try, you’ll be happy you did!

Bon Appetit and I’m ready for the next challenge…we received some baby turnips this week!

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Posted in Breakfast, Veggies, Weight Watchers and tagged Bacon, breakfast, dandelion greens, eggs, vegetables. Bookmark the permalink.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

Posted on March 7, 2013 by four sweetie pies

Who doesn’t love peanut butter and jelly?! We LOVE the combination at our house. A peanut butter jar does not last long here. We like to smear it on everything :) As you all know, I love to bake after school snacks for my kiddos on a pretty regular basis…this muffin recipe is what I came up with earlier in the week. It’s a recipe that I added to my collection from Cooking Light Magazine long ago, 2007 to be exact. www.cookinglight.com You can use regular or crunchy peanut butter and any flavor of jam that you wish. They are fairly low-cal, coming in at 185 calories per muffin and over 5 grams of protein each. I hope you enjoy as much as we did. When I asked Kyle, my oldest son, his opinion, he told me “Mom, I ate 4 at one sitting.” I guess I’ll take that as a compliment!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

Ingredients

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 TBL baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup skim milk

1/3 cup peanut butter- creamy, crunchy, natural or regular

1/4 cup egg whites

2 TBL butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup jam- strawberry, wild berry, your choice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, combine milk, peanut butter, egg whites, butter and vanilla. Add to flour mixture. Stir only to combine.

3. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups. Fill each cup halfway with batter. Top each cup with 1 teaspoon of jam. Spoon remaining batter on top.

4. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes or so until set.

Makes 12 muffins

Baked Blueberry Oatmeal

Posted on January 12, 2013 by four sweetie pies

I love oatmeal, baked, boiled, overnight…you name it, I like it! I found a recipe that I adapted to make even healthier and it was so yummy, we polished off the pan very quickly. It almost tasted like a blueberry coffee cake, but for only 3 measly Weight Watchers PointsPlus per serving you can easily indulge without guilt!

Ingredients

1 lemon, zested and juiced

2 cups skim milk

2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 egg white

3 TBL Truvia (or 1/3 cup sugar)

2 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray 8×8 baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Zest lemon and set aside. Add lemon juice to the milk to form a “buttermilk”.

3. Wisk together oats, baking powder, salt, spices and lemon zest.

4. In another bowl, blend milk, egg and sugar.

5. Spread half the oat mixture into the baking dish, top with half of the blueberries. add remaining oat mixture and scatter remainder of blueberries on top. Pour the milk mixture on top.

6. Bake about 40 minutes and until top is slightly brown and mixture is “set”.

I served with a little steamed milk and topped with a drizzle of maple syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar. I cut the 8×8 pan into 9 servings to yield 3 WW PointsPlus. Next time I make it I will try to make ahead the night before and bake in the morning.

Hope you enjoy another delicious way to eat your oatmeal :)

Recipe adapted from http://www.preventionrd.com/

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Posted in Breakfast, Weight Watchers and tagged baking, Baking powder, blueberry, breakfast, Cooking spray, Milk, Oat, Oatmeal, PointsPlus, Weight WAtchers, Wisk. Bookmark the permalink.

Oatmeal Pancakes with Warm Blueberries

Posted on January 3, 2013 by four sweetie pies

Good morning and Happy New Year friends! On New Years Day I made some yummy healthy oatmeal pancakes that were low in fat, high in protein and actually contained no flour. I was a bit skeptical, I wasn’t trying to make a flour-free pancake, but the ground oats worked very nicely. The pancakes were thick and moist and had the flavor of an oatmeal cookie. You could add blueberries to the batter or I added some mini chocolate chips for some of the kiddos. Instead of syrup, I took some blueberries straight from the freezer, put into a Pyrex measuring cup and microwaved until hot and bubbly. They make their own “syrup” simply by heating and require no sugar. The kids enjoyed the pancakes and Allison said to me “mom, these were SO good, I didn’t even know they were healthy!” Here’s the recipe!

Oatmeal Pancakes

English: Blueberries. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2 cups of uncooked old-fashioned oats
1/3 tsp cinnamon
2 TBL brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup Greek yogurt (could use a flavor if desired, I used Fage 0% fat, plain)
2/3 cup of juice or skim milk (I used apple in my first run of this recipe)
1/3 cup egg whites (I’ve been keeping a carton in the fridge for easy use in cooking)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Frozen blueberries-simply warm in the microwave until hot and bubbly, pour over finishes pancakes

In a food processor or blender, whirl all the dry ingred

ients together until a “flour” like consistency is reached. Fold wet ingredients into the dry and let batter sit for about 5 minutes. While batter rests, warm up griddle. Using a non-stick spray, grease the griddle. Ladle batter onto griddle and cook until pancake sets up and is browned on the bottom. Flip and repeat. Can also dust with powdered sugar.
Serve with the warmed blueberry “syrup” or your favorite topping.

This recipe made about 12 pancakes using a 1/4 measuring cup. Per my calculations, each pancake at that size would be 2 Weight Watchers PointsPlus.

2 Comments

Posted in Breakfast, healthy eating, kids, Weight Watchers and tagged blueberry, breakfast, Low Fat, pancakes. Bookmark the permalink.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes

Posted on October 2, 2012 by four sweetie pies

Something about a Saturday or Sunday morning that seems to call for pancakes. Comfort food at it’s finest, who doesn’t love a steaming stack of pancakes filled with gooey chocolate chips or bursting blueberries and topped with warm maple syrup? I love pancakes of all types and have over the years devised a lower-fat, healthy version that my family enjoys. This recipe does include some pre-made mixes, you can certainly make your own homemade pancake mix, but this is a time saver step for me, a little “semi-homemade.” After all, who has time to create EVERYTHING from scratch?!?! Not me :)

This is a variation I have created for fall, enjoy with a pumpkin spice latte!

Cinnamon Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients include:

1 single serving packet of reduced sugar, brown sugar flavor oatmeal

1 small handful of whole rolled oats, for extra texture

1 cup of water

1 cup Heart Healthy Bisquick

1 cup Aunt Jemima Whole Wheat Pancake Mix

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 tsp cinnamon

1 egg

1 1/2 cups of skim milk

Special add-ins include: semi-sweet chocolate chips (a great combo and necessity with the pumpkin i think), golden raisins or dried cranberries

Begin by using a microwave-proof bowl (pyrex-type), add oatmeal packet, rolled oats and water. Microwave for a minute or so until oatmeal is cooked. Blend remainder of ingredients. Cooked on lightly greased (cooking spray) griddle. These pancakes are moist and thick and therefore need to cook long enough not to turn out doughy in the middle.

Enjoy with warm, 100% real maple syrup. After being raised on the artificial syrups, I switched to the real deal a few years ago and will not turn back. A little goes a long way and you get what you get. 100% pure maple syrup, no additives or chemicals.

Makes 12 pancakes, which would be 3 points per (plain) pancake.

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