at home with ann

I know, more muffins.  I should probably write a muffin only blog.  But, don't you like muffins? Our Christmas festivities are going to involve a lot of traveling and celebrations, and likely end with overtired kids, one of whom has lived on sugar and present-induced adrenaline for days.  If I feed him something remotely healthy for breakfast, I can overlook the candy cane chasers. Carrot Apple Muffins Modified from Minimalist Baker Ingredients: 1.5 flax eggs (1 1/2 tablespoons flax seed in 5 1/2 tablespoons water) 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted 1/3 cup mashed banana (one small banana) 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey 1 apple, grated 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup milk or milk alternative 1 heaping cup grated carrot 2/3 cup oats 1/2 cup almond meal 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees and prepare muffin tin. In a small bowl, co...

Muffins just might be Colin's favorite food, and I can't blame him.  Perfect little snack sized treats, delivered in a cute tin, filled with delicious fruit - you can't go wrong.  That being said, we go through a batch of baked goods at an alarming rate around this house, even when they are hidden on top of the refrigerator (the last remaining surface that is out of reach of tiny hands).  We made these muffins to accompany our vegetarian chili last week, thinking they'd be a good replacement for cornbread and also be a nice snack for anytime.  Plus, they are full of healthy sweet potato and millet, so they are nutritious and it's ok to eat two (or four). Sweet Potato Millet Muffins recipe from Eat Live Run Makes about 16-20 muffins Ingredients: 2 cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry, but all purpose would work, too) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 cup millet 2 eggs 1 medium sweet pot...

The fluffy texture and blueberry lemon flavor is reminiscent of my favorite muffins.  But, the shape says cookie.  This just means you can eat them anytime of day.  Plus, since they use yogurt instead of butter or oil, we can go ahead and call them healthy.  The batch made quite a few, and even after sending some home with friends, we were left with a lot of cookies.  I tossed them in the freezer in an effort to prevent us from eating them nonstop, and they seemed to fare well.  You can take them straight from the freezer and reheat them for about 7 minutes in a 350 oven.  Blueberry Muffin Top Cookies original recipe from spoon fork bacon Yield ~48 cookies Ingredients: 2 cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cup sugar 1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 lemon, zested 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cup blueberries Preheat ov...

I am a firm believer in the philosophy that food eaten while standing in your kitchen does not count towards your daily allowance.  This especially applies to anything eaten straight out of the refrigerator.  This can be problematic when you find yourself doing nearly all your eating standing up the kitchen, or when you are supposed to be sharing with your husband and brother-in-law.  I swear I only taste-tested one of these muffins fresh from the oven, but my batch only made 11, so now it looks like I ate two.  But I didn't!  Not yet, at least.  I should have just said the batch only made six.  A few notes, as this recipe is somewhat a work in progress.  I think one egg would be sufficient, the banana works as a binder.  I like chunks of fruit in my muffins, but it doesn't work well for mini muffins.  You end up with no fruit or only fruit.  To make mini muffins, I would try pureeing the strawberries and bananas together before...

Day two of muffin recipes.  I love pumpkin baked goods, and this is the time of year when every market has a huge canned pumpkin display.  Of course if you are ambitious, you can use fresh pumpkin for this, but I wait until later in the fall to hack up and cook my pumpkins.  Yesterday morning when we left the house, I noticed that some animal had made quite a meal out of half of one of my pumpkins.  This might explain the mysterious noises I heard outside on Halloween night.  Due to the snow storm, power outages and downed trees, our town changed Trick or Treating from Monday to Friday.  I left the lights off Monday night and did my best to exercise control with the giant bowl of candy.  I worried the mysterious noises were disgruntled children egging the house. Creepy animals on the front steps are so much more comforting.  This recipe took hardly any time to come together, and I didn't even need my mixer.  I've mentioned before how much...

It's no secret I love muffins.  And that's why it should come as no surprise to you that I will be sharing two more muffin recipes this week.  My sister and friend Megan threw a baby shower for me this past weekend, and I couldn't resist making mini muffins for the event.  Plus, the leftovers made great snacks when the freak October snow storm left us without power on Sunday, thwarting my grand plans to make apple cinnamon pancakes and bacon for my guests. Whole Wheat Apple Muffins recipe from Smitten Kitchen yield: 36 mini muffins plus one mega ramekin muffin 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 Tablespoon cinnamon 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 cup buttermilk or yogurt (I used vanilla yogurt) 2 large apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (I used 4 small apples) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare muffin tins wit...

I had a few pretty scary looking bananas in the fruit bowl this week.  They had passed the point of eating on their own, and had even passed the point of freezing for smoothies.  I really had no choice other than to bake with them or toss them.  Instead of my usual banana bread (which you may remember from here ), I decided to go with muffins.  Partly because I've been on a muffin kick, partly because we were about to go out of town and I could smuggle them onto the plane, and partly because they freeze well.  But mostly because some of my college friends reminded me about Muffin Films, which we use to watch constantly.  (My favorite one is Pssst .)  Now you probably think I'm weird.  Perhaps I can draw you back in by buying your friendship with baked goods? I love this recipe, because it always works, and I can practically make it in my sleep.  It's a very simple quick bread, you mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry ingredients in...

Last week our elderly neighbor passed away.  It wasn't unexpected, but still sad.  He had a dry sense of humor, appreciated sarcasm, and I will miss seeing him puttering around the yard and mowing his lawn every other day.  Gifts of food are almost always appropriate.  Something good happens, bring food.  Something bad or sad happens, bring food.  My neighbor's wife has a house full of people to feed with all their family here to support her, so I wanted to bring something over to help a little bit.  Muffins seemed like a logical choice, everyone likes muffins.  Plus I went a little overboard with the buy one get one free on blueberries this week.  I used the same Martha Stewart recipe as I did a few months ago, but used half blueberries and half strawberries for the fruit. I'll let you use the directions from the boss, herself.  I will add that whenever I make this recipe, I end up with enough extra batter to make one ...

In just a few short weeks we'll be in Florida.  I can't wait, I am in major need of some serious sun.  There are a few foods I associate with Florida.  Oranges, of course, although I had an unfortunate experience in the orange grove when I was a baby involving fire ants in my diaper.  Fried catfish and hush puppies.  And finally, strawberries.  There is a strawberry festival nearby every year that consists of huge amounts of strawberry shortcake and a Miss Strawberry competition, but sadly we'll be missing it this time.   The other day at the market Florida strawberries were on sale, so in the spirit of our upcoming vacation, I impulsively scooped some up.  I know grocery store strawberries can be pretty disappointing, so I was pleasantly surprised that these were great! Strawberry Muffins adapted from Martha Stewart's Blueberry Muffin Recipe Ingredients: 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 ...