Carrot Raisin Muffins

Before embarking on a car trip to San Diego I thought these muffins would be the perfect breakfast to eat in the along the way. We like to get an early start and need something easy to store and eat in the car. You could certainly add nuts to these, I skipped them. The three year-old doesn't like nuts but he did give the nut free version a thumbs up.


Carrot Raisin Muffins
Makes 16 Muffins
3 large Carrots, grated (about 1 1/2 Cups)
1 C Raisins
1/2 C Plain Whole Milk Yogurt
1/2 C Maple Syrup
2 Eggs
1/3 C Sunflower Oil
2 C Unbleached White Flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2  tsp Cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl beat together Yogurt, Maple Syrup, Eggs and Oil. In a small bowl mix together Flour, Baking Soda and Cinnamon. Mix dry ingredients into wet until just combined. Stir in Carrots and Raisins. Prepare two muffin tins, spray or line with cupcake papers. Fill  cups nearly to the top with muffin batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Shredded BBQ...sweet potatoes?!?!?

I love BBQ but when we are not eating meat it can be a tough craving to satisfy. I try not to use a lot of the meat replacement products because they are so highly processed. I came across this idea a few weeks ago but when I first attempted it I cooked it in a skillet it stuck to the pan and made a huge mess. It absorbed so much oil as I tried fruitlessly to keep it from sticking. I loved the concept of sweet potatoes as a shredded meat replacement and truth be told I just LOVE sweet potatoes, so I decided to give it another shot.  Baking the shredded sweet potatoes in the oven with just a spray of oil on either a silpat or parchment paper worked great. Nothing stuck and I was free to prep the rest of dinner while they baked. We served our shredded BBQ Sweet Potato Sliders with Kale Slaw and a few red onion slices that I tossed in a bit of vinegar while everything cooked.
Serves 2 hungry adults

Ingredients:
2 small Sweet Potatoes

1/2 C BBQ sauce

Spray oil, I used spectrum organic grape seed oil
Buns for Serving

Preheat oven to 400. Grate both sweet potatoes on the large side of the grater. Spread out grated potatoes on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Spray with a little oil, bake for about 15 minutes, flip potatoes and spray with more oil. Bake another 15 minutes. While potatoes are baking heat BBQ sauce in a small sauce pan. Toss cooked sweet potato in BBQ sauce and serve on Buns. 

Tofu Bahn Yum-Mi

I have seen the Bahn Mi sandwiches popping up everywhere lately but had yet to try this sweet, salty, tangy, crunchy, delight. All I can say about this sandwich is YUM! It has it all! I know this recipe will be making a regular appearance on the menu. We decided to bake the tofu in this recipe because we were making Roasted Cauliflower with Bang Bang Sauce as a side but you could fry or grill the tofu if you wish. Most recipes call for a Sriracha Mayo on the Bahn Mi but my latest obsession is Trader Joes Green Dragon Sauce and it was the perfect compliment to the ingredients in this sandwich. 

Serves 4

15 oz Extra Firm Tofu

2 Tbs Soy Sauce

1 Tbs Toasted Sesame Oil

1/2 tsp Garlic, granulated

1/2 tsp Ginger, powdered

1/3 C Rice Vinegar

1/4 C Sugar

1/2 Cucumber, thinly sliced

1 Bell Pepper, thinly sliced 

2 Carrots, grated

1/2 Red Onion, thinly sliced

1 Jalapeño, thinly sliced 

1/2 C Cilantro leaves

1/2 C Just Mayo or Veganaise (if vegan)

Sriracha or Trader Joes Green Dragon sauce, to taste

2 crusty baguettes, split and cut into 4" lengths

Slice tofu into 1/2 inch thick rectangles (about 8 slices). Place slices on a few paper towels, top with more paper towels and then a cutting board or sheet pan. Place something heavy on top, I use cookbooks or a gallon of water to help press out the moisture for about 30 minutes. In a shallow dish combine soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. When tofu has been pressed place the tofu in the dish coating each side. Let marinade at least 30 minutes or overnight, if you want to prepare it in advance. 

Next combine rice vinegar and sugar in a medium sized bowl, stirring until sugar dissolves. Then add in the grated carrots, sliced cucumber, bell pepper and onion. Let sit at least 30 minutes. (This mixture is good in the fridge for a week or more.)

Preheat oven to 400 and bake tofu for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. Alternately tofu can be fried in a skillet over medium heat with a bit of oil for about 3 minutes per side. 

While tofu is cooking mix mayo with Sriracha or Green Dragon Sauce, use as much or as little as you like to add heat.

Drain marinade off veggies, set aside.

To build sandwiches spread a little of the mayo mixture on both sides of bread. Top one side with jalapeños, slice of tofu, vegetable mixture, and a sprinkle of cilantro and top with other half of bread. 

Cinnamon Raisin Oat Muffins

Don't you just hate when you can't find a recipe that you want to make? I couldn't find the recipe I was looking for, then the brand new bag of wheat bran I had in the pantry smelled off, so I decided to scrap my original plan and go rogue and I'm glad I did.
These muffin were born from what I had in the pantry and a desire to make them as healthy as possible. No refined sugars or oils here! They came out moist and flavorful, but I found their flavor improved overnight and the orange zest really shined.
Each muffin has 12 grams of fiber and only 10 grams of sugar so they are a healthy and delicious way to start the morning!

Cinnamon Raisin Oat Muffins
Makes 24 

3 oz Unsweetened Apple Sauce (I used one of the toddlers pouches)

3 Eggs

4 Tbs Blackstrap Molasses

1 C Non-fat Greek Yogurt

Zest of an Orange

1 C Orange Juice

2 tsp Cinnamon

2 tsp Baking Soda

1 1/2 C Oats that have taken a quick trip through the food processor to break them up a bit. 

2 C Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/2 C Raisins

Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line 24 muffin cups, set aside. In a large bowl mix together apple sauce, eggs, molasses and orange zest. Then add yogurt and orange juice. In a separate bowl mix together cinnamon, baking soda, flour and oats.  Mix wet and dry ingredients until they just start to come together. Then mix in raisins. Scoop batter into muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes. 

Healthy Super Bowl Snacks

It's Super Bowl Sunday, the day Americans consume more calories than any other day of the year. Crazy right? It's hard to believe that today the average American consumes more calories eating chicken wings and swigging down beers than on Thanksgiving. How can you stay on track while still enjoying the big game? Easy, try a couple of our lightened versions of some Super Bowl standards along with a few helpful hints.

1. Be mindful of portion sizes. You don't have to completely avoid the chips and dips, but standing by the bowl grazing on chips will do some serious damage. Instead  grab a plate and count out your portion of chips. Each chip is about 10 calories, a serving is about 14 chips.

2. Lighten up your dips. Switch out the sour cream in your favorite dip for fat-free Greek Yogurt. You will cut the calories from 60 per 2 tbs for the sour cream to just 16 calories in the yogurt. 

3. Try our Goat Cheese stuffed Jalapeño Poppers. Less than half the calories than the breaded and fried variety and so tasty!

4. Drink lots of water. It's sound advice any day but water helps fill you up and keeps you hydrated when you are drinking alcohol. It also helps prevent the Monday morning hangover you may get from drowning your sorrows or celebrating your teams success.  

5. Serve some veggies. Give yourself and your guests something else to dip. If you are going to mindlessly snack while you watch your teams fantastic season swirl down the toilet in the final quarter, do it on something that won't make you feel worse the next day. 

6. Serve Brownies! Seriously. Try these brownies. They are delightfully fudgie and gluten free!

7.  Crockpot your Chicken Wings. We've been making these Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings for years. They are so easy to make, stay hot all through the party and are fall off the bone delish. You are saving yourself added fat, and trouble, by not throwing them in the deep fryer.

These simple  hints and recipes will help you stay on track and no one will know you've switched out these Superbowl standards with healthier options.

Goat Cheese stuffed Jalapeño Poppers

Jalapeño Poppers are one of my favorite "bar food", watching football treats but at 70 calories a pop they can really add up and sabotage your day. We created these lightened up little beauties that only weigh in at 30 calories a piece but have way more flavor than their deep fried counterparts. 

Makes 12 poppers

6 Jalapeños, sliced in half lengthwise and seeded

2.5 oz of Soft Goat Cheese (about a 1/4 Cup)

1 Tbs Fat-free Greek Yogurt

1/4 C shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Make a "slotted tray" out of foil to lay on a cookie sheet if you wish, it helps keep the poppers from falling over and the filling from spilling out. Combine goat cheese and yogurt. Spoon filling into each half of jalapeño. Top with cheddar cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes or until jalapeños are soft and cheese is melted.  

BBQ Veggie and Chickpea Pitas

Sometimes I get ahead of myself. I cooked up a big batch of beans the other day with plans of making hummus, but I forgot we didn't have tahini. Last night we still had a ton of Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) in the fridge after making Fried Chickpea and Spinach Pitas with Creamy Yogurt Sauce the night before. I really didn't feel like making anything exotic so we threw together this stupid easy filling for wraps. The beauty of this recipe is that it can be adapted to any old veggies you have in your fridge. You could swap out the zucchini with bell peppers, mushrooms, cooked sweet potato chunks, winter squash, asparagus, you get the idea. We used this as a fridge cleaner since we also had a jar of homemade BBQ sauce from last week and Pitas from the night before. Sometimes you just need an easy dinner that you can feel good about.

:

Serves 2-3
For the filling:

2 C Chickpeas, or One 15 oz can of drained Chickpeas

1/2 Zucchini, quartered and chopped

1/2 Yellow Squash, quartered and chopped

4 C Greens (Spinach, Kale, Chard, whatever)

1 C of your favorite BBQ Sauce

2 Tbs of Oil

Tortillas or Pitas for serving 

You can even top it with a sprinkle of Blue Cheese if you please!

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Toss in veggies and cook until softened. Add chickpeas to brown. Toss in greens and bbq sauce, cover with lid and cook until greens are wilted and sauce is heated. Serve in rolled up tortillas or pita bread with a sprinkle of cheese if desired.

BBQ Pockets with Cornmeal Pizza Dough

Yesterday we made Cornmeal Pizza Crust so tonight we are doing a leftover-makeover with our BBQ Pork from Saturday night and pairing it with our Cornmeal Pizza Crust dough to make BBQ pockets. Hot Pockets are one of those things that we haven't had in years due to the quality of ingredients. I've made a few fails when trying to replicate the hand held pocket because I've over filled the dough or used a bread dough that didn't quite hold up. These were a hit! Even the toddler got in on the fun and helped out.

BBQ Pockets:
1/2 of Cornmeal Pizza Dough Recipe
About 2 Cups of leftover BBQ







If dough was made in advance, let dough come to room temperature (about an hour). Roll dough out into a large rectangle about a 1/4 inch thick.

Cut rectangle into four equal portions, trimming if necessary to get clean-ish rectangles. 

Place about a half a cup of BBQ at one end of each rectangle leaving a half inch border.

Place a little water in a small bowl and dip fingers into water and run your finger around the edge of the dough where the filling is.
You don't want to wet the entire edge or it won't stick together well.














 Fold dough over filling and pinch edges to create a seal.

Place pockets on a cookie sheet lined with a SILPAT or parchment paper. Cut a couple of small slits in each one. Cover with a towel and let rise about 25 minutes while you let oven preheat to 400 degrees. Bake 15-20 minutes until browned.