Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Blueberries are in season right now, which means they are not only delicious but they are inexpensive. I love the taste and health benefits of blueberries – they are low in calories and packed with antioxidants. I have been eating a lot of them on cereal and in yogurt but I’ve been looking forward to baking with blueberries. Over the weekend, I made Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins from Cooking Light.

I followed the recipe as it was written except I used fresh blueberries. The muffins turned out really tasty and moist – especially when fresh. Even a few days later, the muffins were delicious heated in the microwave. Each muffin is under 200 calories so it’s a guilt-free treat or breakfast food.

I looking forward to including more fresh fruit in my recipes before the summer is over. This time of year is the best for fresh berries, you just can’t go wrong.

Enjoy!

 

Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle

I get my love of cooking and baking from the women in my family. For as long as I can remember, my mom, grandmothers, and aunts have been cooking delicious meals and baking from scratch. Since I’ve started this blog, I received more cookbooks and recipes than ever from my family and friends. They are funding my habit, I guess.  

About every week or so, my grandmother sends me recipes she’s seen in magazines or newspapers that I might be interested in. It’s so nice of her and I’m grateful to have someone else on my “research” team. 

A few week’s ago, my grandmother sent me a recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Peanut Butter Cookies that was printed in Parade magazine. Dorie Greenspan is a pretty famous baker and I’m a sucker for anything peanut butter so I baked these over the weekend. These are classic peanut butter cookies – soft in the middle anc crunchy on the outside. I can see myself making them again and again.

I followed the recipe are written except I didn’t chill the dough overnight but rather baked the cookies right away. What can I say, I’m impatient when it comes to baked goods.

Peanut Butter Cookies (from Dorie Greenspan)

Makes 60 cookies

Ingredients:

2.5 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 c. peanut butter (not natural)

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

More sugar, for rolling

Preparation:

1. In one bowl, whisk together the flour, soda, powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter and both sugars for 2 minutes. Gently blend in the dry ingredients.

2. Divide in half, wrap, and chill over night (I didn’t do this). Shape scant tablespoons of dough into balls, roll in sugar and place 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets. Press each with fork tines.

3. Bake at 350*F for 12 minutes, until cookies are golden. Transfer to cooling racks.

Chocolate Drizzle (optional but encouraged)

Because everything is better with chocolate, I had to incorporate it into this cookies. To do so, I melted about a 1/4 cup of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips in the microwave (10 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until smooth). To the melted chocolate, I added about a teaspoon of corn syrup and stirred until the mixture was well blended. Using a fork, I drizzled the chocolate over the cookies and refrigerated them until the chocolate hardened (about 10 minutes). Delish!

On a side note, as I mentioned last week I saw the Valentine’s Day movie on Friday. It was cute! I enjoyed it and there were even a couple surprising scenes. I love a feel good movie, any day!

 

Raspberry Pecan White Chocolate Loaf

When I was at work today, someone called me to see if I were snowed in and eating my last Ritz cracker in the dark. First of all, Boston hasn’t been hit with much snow (phew!) and secondly, I don’t think I’d EVER run out of food around here. Our cupboards are very well stocked. I guess I’m a closet foodie at work – some of my co-workers don’t know that I actually like to grocery shop.

I hope, where you are located, snow hasn’t come your way and you’re not eating your last cracker, either. If you need a snack tonight, I have a good one for you. 

Bread. I just love carbs and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Pasta, crackers, BREAD. While I tend to eat a lot of bread and pasta, I like to stick with the whole grains. I almost never buy white bread or pasta. I hope that doesn’t sound snobby.

When it comes to snack breads though, I consider it a treat. Pumpkin bread seems to be a staple food during the autumn. Cranberry bread reminds me of the holidays, and chocolate bread? Don’t even tempt me!

But there are plenty of ways to lighten these type of breads. I’ve made a healthy pumpkin chocolate chip loaf in the past and no one knew it was “lighter.” My Raspberry Pecan White Chocolate Loaf is another good example. It contains fruit, whole grains, egg whites and canola oil (instead of butter). It’s just sweet enough to be eaten for breakfast, as a snack or for dessert.

Raspberry Pecan White Chocolate Loaf

Makes one 9×3 inch loaf

Ingredients:

1 c. white flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

¾ c. brown sugar

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. Salt

2 egg whites

¾ c. Fresh orange juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ c. Canola oil

1 c. frozen raspberries

½ cup chopped pecans, toasted (optional)

¼ c. white chocolate chips (optional)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Spread pecans on single layer of a baking sheet and bake (toast) for 3-5 minutes. I did this in my toaster oven so I could make sure they didn’t burn.
3. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Stir the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt until well blended.
4. In a small bowl, whisk eggs well. Add orange juice and vanilla extract to the eggs and mix well.
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients in the large bowl. Mix in oil and stir until combined.
6. Add raspberries, nuts and chocolate to the batter. Stir until well combined.
7. Spray 9×3 inch loaf pan with cooking spray
8. Pour batter into the pan and spread evenly.
9. Bake at 350* for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into bread.
10. Let cool before removing bread from pan and cutting.
11. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite snack bread? I honestly can’t decide. This one is very good but I also love banana bread (with cream cheese) and pumpkin chocolate chip bread, too! Tough decisions, I tell you.

Have a good Wednesday night, everyone! I’m going to finish my Ritz crackers. Kidding.

 

Super Bowl Eats

Did you have a good weekend? I did. It was busy but fun! It was a treat to “party” on Sunday night to watch the Super Bowl. While I was rooting for the Saints, I was also there to watch the commercials and of course, eat!

I love those E*TRADE commercials (“Milka..what?”) and the Careerbuilder.com one about casual Fridays was pretty funny, too. Did you notice how many Budweiser and Doritos commercials there were?

The game was a good one and it was accompanied by some delicious food – both savory and sweet! Pizza dip. Pigs in a Blanket. Veggies and dip. Cookies!

I brought Buffalo Chicken Dip to the party. It’s totally addicting. I even made it a bit healthier by using low-fat cheeses.

Lighter Buffalo Chicken Dip (serves 8 people)

Ingredients:

8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened

¼ c. reduced fat blue cheese crumbles

¼ c. reduced fat blue cheese dressing

¼ c. hot sauce

1 can of chicken in water, drained

½ c. reduced fat mozzarella (2%)

Preparation:

1. Layer the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate with the cream cheese.
2. Top cream cheese with blue cheese crumbles.
3. Top crumbles with chicken and top with hot sauce.
4. Pour blue cheese dressing over hot sauce.
5. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of the dip.
6. Bake dip for 25 minutes at 350 degrees, or until mozzarella is melted.
7. Enjoy with crackers or veggies.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about dessert. I have been drooling over eyeing the recipe for Peanut Butter Blondies with Milk Chocolate Frosting from Joy the Baker. These treats were sweet and delicious! You can’t go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate – two of my favorite ingredients! I especially loved the fluffy frosting. Thanks, Joy!

I really enjoyed the Super Bowl this year and like the Saints, our food was also a winner!

What was your favorite Super Bowl treat? What was your favorite commercial?

 

Oatmeal Everything Cookies

It’s almost that time of year again. You know, when the holidays come around and cookies and other treats are everywhere. I know I’ll be indulging in some cookies this year so before the craze starts, I thought it would be fun to bake some healthy, guilt-free cookies.

Over the weekend, I baked up some Oatmeal Everything Cookies (recipe below). Basically it’s an oatmeal cookie with raisins, cranberries, pecans and white chocolate mixed in. This cookie may be healthy but it’s surely not boring.

I felt like I was running my own little test kitchen, throwing a little bit of this and a little bit of that into these cookies…and phew, they turned out well! Not only were they soft and flavorful right out of the oven but they are still moist and tasty two days later. Each cookie is about 50 calories so you can feel okay about reaching for a second one, or even a third.

Oatmeal Everything Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/3 c. light brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 c. vanilla pudding

1 egg white

3/4 c. oats

1/4 c. raisins

1/4 c. dried cranberries

1/4 c. chopped pecans

1/4 c. white chocolate morsels

Cooking spray

 

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Mix until well combined.

3. In another bowl, mix together brown sugar, egg, and pudding. Blend well then add to flour mixture.

4. Stir in oats, raisins, dried cranberries, chopped pecans and white chocolate. Mix well.

5. Drop teaspoons of batter onto greased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Flatten cookies a bit with the spoon.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool cookies on a rack.

8. Enjoy!

 

Have a great week everyone!

 

Applesauce Spice Bars

How was your Halloween? I can’t believe it has come and gone and now it’s November. Time sure flies.

I was excited to fit in a little baking over the weekend. I bookmark a handful of recipes every week, ones I see other bloggers make and those posted on recipe sites. On Saturday, I baked up some Applesauce Spice Bars, which I originally saw on Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. They were just mouth-watering and I knew it would be a great fall treat. The recipe originates from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours cookbook and the recipe can be found here.

My photos may not be as pretty as Tracey’s but the bars turned out moist and tasty (not to mention, they were pretty easy to prepare).

I’ll leave you with a photo from the weekend’s festivities. Here’s my friend, Holly, and I on Halloween. I secretly want to be a dressed up as a cowgirl. Although, I think that’s obvious.

 

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin (Mini) Breads

Is it weird that I just made my third pumpkin dish in a month and I’m not sick of pumpkin yet? You’ve seen my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Now I bring you a recipe I’ve been making for a few years now, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. The recipe comes from Cooking Light but you’d never know it’s so healthy.

I followed the recipe, just replacing the all-purpose flour with whole wheat. I also used 60% cacao bittersweet morsels from Ghiradelli. I love that dark chocolate and red wine is good for your heart. It’s a great excuse to indulge! Plus, the Ghiradelli morsels I used are larger than your average chocolate chip. Bonus!

This recipe is meant for two 8×4″ breads but I halved the recipe and made two mini breads. This tasty and moist bread makes for a great fall gift or flavorful snack. It’s a quick and easy recipe – you just can’t go wrong! Plus, a slice of the mini bread is under 100 calories. Woohoo!

 

I have a feeling this may the end of my pumpkin treats but I will be enjoying a few more pumpkin lattes before the season is over. Now that it’s nearly November, I’ll have to find a new flavor to become obsessed with!

What’s your favorite flavor right now?

Have a great day!

 

The Return of Pumpkin…Pumpkin Cupcakes!

Boston has been so chilly this week! Brr. I just hope it’s just a temporary thing because I’m not a fan of winter-like weather in the Fall (or at all, really). What I am a fan of is baking with PUMPKIN! Even though I’ve been making goodies like pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, I feel okay about it because I’m including a nice serving of vegetables. Sneaky, sneaky.

Pumpkin has a lot of health benefits, as you might imagine. It’s low in calories, full of betacarotene (for healthy eyes and pretty skin), high in potassium (which keeps your heart healthy) and is packed with antioxidants.

Over the weekend, my Dad’s cousin invited our large family over for a little reunion. There was so much food - from appetizers to main dishes to a table full of desserts. My contribution was Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting as seen in Real Simple.

The recipe calls for a box of yellow cake mix so I was able to make my batch gluten-free by using Betty Crocker’s new cake mixes.   You can use any yellow cake mix but I made these so my Dad could enjoy them (he has Celiac Disease). Baking these cupcakes was very easy and the frosting was simple as well – just a little messy but I’m okay with that. The results were fantastic – super moist cake with a sweet cream cheese frosting. Delish!

While you can frost the cupcakes anyway you choose, I decided to break out my cake decorating kit and go to town. I think they turned out cute!

Try this recipe – it’s pretty fail proof and the outcome is delicious. Go Pumpkin!

 Do you know anyone with Celiac Disease? If affects 1 in 144 people.

 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Eggless)

The fall flavor theme continues today with Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. I’ve seen a lot of recipes for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies online but most were described to have a cake-like texture. I was really looking for a cookie that would turn out as a soft-in-the-middle, crunchy-around-the-edges chocolate chip cookie with a hint of pumpkin flavor.  

Oh and a healthy recipe would be a bonus. I know it was a lot to ask but I did find a winning recipe for Egg Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies on Allrecipes.com. The reviews were great and there were no mentions of the treat being reminiscent of cake (not that cake is a bad thing but I’m a cookie girl first). I made a few changes to the recipe to make it healthier and also halved the recipe.

I baked these cookies over the weekend to bring to a gathering at my friend’s house. I make sure that when I’m baking, I have somewhere to bring the treats otherwise I eat everything myself overindulge! Can you relate?

These cookies are eggless, a benefit for anyone with an egg allergy or intolerance. They turned out delicious, full of spice and flavor! Regarding the texture, the cookies were a bit more cake-like than I had wanted but they were moist and tasty so I can’t complain. I think addition of pumpkin makes anything and everything fluffier. I guess I can deal with that. If you’re looking for an easy cookie recipe for fall, this is it.

 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from the recipe for Egg Free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

Servings: 24

Ingredients:

1/2 c. white sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. all-purpose flour

1. c. whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

sprinkle of nutmeg

6 oz. dark chocolate chips

 

Preparation: 

1. Preheat oven to 375*.

2. Cream together sugar, shortening, pumpkin and vanilla. Mix until light and well combined.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10-13 minutes. Let cookies cool on a rack before serving.

5. Enjoy!

 

What is your favorite fall dessert? What is your least favorite?

Apple crisp is probably my all-time favorite (a la mode, of course). Least favorite: pumpkin pie. After all my pumpkin talk, can you believe I don’t like pumpkin pie? I know it’s the healthiest pie option but it’s a texture thing for me.

 

Homemade Granola (and Granola Pancakes!)

I’m one of those people in the grocery store who will stand in front of a product for a good two or three minutes deciding if it should make it into my cart. I’m not like this with necessities (milk, eggs, fruit, vegetables) but one thing I always pick up and hold and read the label of (before putting it back on the shelf) is granola. I always want to buy it but then I think it’s too pricey or the ingredients aren’t that great or it has too many calories for a tiny serving.

Well last week I was perusing Cooking Light’s website, I came across a recipe for Power Granola. Not only did the recipe seem pretty straightforward, I also had the majority of ingredients on hand. I love when that happens!

The granola turned out really well and was extremely simple. It makes about five 1/2 cup servings and each serving is under 200 calories. The main tip I have for this recipe is the continue to toss/stir the granola every five minutes when it’s baking to ensure you don’t overcook it. At first it seemed a little too moist, even after cooking for the full-time, but I took it out of the oven anyway. I found that, once the granola dried out, it becomes crunchy. I portioned the granola out into five baggies so I could grab it all week to add to yogurt, eat as cereal with milk and put into pancakes.

That brings me to the second part of my post – Granola Pancakes. Back to impulse purchases that I mull over in the store, Fiber One pancake mix is one of these items. However, I did have a coupon so it made the decision time a bit shorter. The conversation in my head went something like: “Do I need this? Not really. But I have a coupon. Ok, fine.”  Anyway, the Fiber One pancake mix came home with me and one morning this week I came up with the idea to put granola in the pancakes to add a little crunch.

When we’re on vacation in Maine, one of my mom’s favorite breakfasts is a “nutty waffle” at one of the local restaurants. It’s really just nuts mixed into waffle batter then made into a Belgian waffle. So, that’s probably where my idea sparked from. My pancakes were very flavorful and light. Three pancakes = 190 calories and 5 grams of fiber! (Add a 1/4 c. granola and your breakfast is still under 300 calories). The addition of granola added texture and a nice sweetness to the pancakes. I would recommend the Fiber One pancake mix. (You can get a free Fiber One sample and $5 in coupons on their website).