Chicken and Waffles

(but not together, unfortunately)

We made this cayenne rubbed chicken with avocado salsa last night and both loved it. It's really pretty too..lots of nice color in one dish. With a few colorful sides it could be a meal for company pretty easily.

Then, this morning, I made these whole wheat waffles. They really are whole wheat too, you don't have to do the half whole wheat/half AP flour thing, so they're decently healthy and full of fiber. They turned out really well and my white bread husband who resents my need to have everything be brown and wheat said, "they could be better but they're pretty good." Which is rather high praise for wheat anything coming from him. We had them with strawberries and vanilla yogurt on top. So good!

I got both recipes from Janssen.

Whole-Wheat Banana-Strawberry Muffins

Well, would you look at that. I made something that wasn't an America's Test Kitchen recipe!

Mimi's Giant Whole-Wheat Banana-Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (some reviewers said the recipe was too cinnamon-y, so I halved this since sometimes I find too much cinnamon flavor distracting)
  
• 1 cup frozen sliced strawberries (I used the fresh strawberries I had going bad on my counter, which was the inspiration to try this recipe. I cut them into fairly small chunks - like half inch-ish cubes - per suggestions of some reviewers.)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 12 large muffin cups, or line with paper liners. (I used regular sized muffin cups and filled them pretty much all the way. They don't rise a ton. Ended up with 16 muffins total.)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, applesauce, oil, brown sugar, vanilla and bananas. Combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon; Stir into the banana mixture until moistened. Stir in the strawberries until evenly distributed. Spoon batter into muffin cups until completely filled.
3. Bake for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when pressed lightly. Cool before removing from the muffin tins.

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

I made these sunday and i was a little skeptical because they were made with whole wheat- but they were delicious! So whole wheat means you could technically eat them for breakfast!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe


72 -96 cookies

* 1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
* 4 large eggs
* 3 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 5 cups rolled oats
* 3 cups whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 4 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Beat together the butter or margarine, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla.
2. Add oats, flours, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.
3. Bake at 325°F (170°C) for 10-12 minutes.

Makeover Morning Glory Muffins

In my quest to not purchase "sugar coated cocoa bombs" for breakfast, I've been trying to make different muffins, etc. and also incorporate more whole grains and stuff into our diet. I came across these muffins and made them last night, they are delicious! And they have whole wheat flour, flax seed, apples, carrots, lots of good stuff for you. I want to toy around with the recipe to see if I can make it lower calorie, but as it is one muffin was enough to leave me stuffed so it's okay that it was 250 calories (because normally I eat ten bowls of sugar coated cocoa bombs-- which is like a thousand calories. ) So give these a try, the recipe is very forgiving.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup ground flax seed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 egg whites
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 medium tart apple, peeled and grated

1. In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In another bowl, beat the egg whites, egg, applesauce, orange juice, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the carrots, pecans, coconut, raisins and apple.
2. Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray or use foil liners; fill three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

My notes: I didn't have orange juice, so I used the juice from a can of mandarin oranges (Bentley wolfs down mandarin oranges), I did not use the coconut or raisins, but I put in some craisins (normally not a big fan of craisins but I loved it in these muffins!), I also did not mix in the nuts, but rather sprinkled some on top of half of the muffins (so I could let Bentley eat some of the non nut kind) oh and also, I used three eggs instead of one egg and four whites (since two egg whites is equivalent to one egg). Oh and I think I put in more carrots than what it called for (if I am going to get my food processor dirty I get it dirty for lots of carrots, not just a few).

Definitely worth your while. The best "healthy" muffin we've made yet!