Apple Muffins!!

So, here’s a neat little recipe…….

Mark likes an apple in his lunch.  I had purchased a bag, on sale…… should’ve known that they were a little more ripe mushy than he would care for.

Didn’t want the apples to go to waste…. so I put my thinking cap on…….

First, my kids can not tolerate “chunks” of anything in their muffins.  So, I decided to grate the apples after peeling.  Solved that little snag…..

That there is 5 med. red delicious apples!!

To that grated apple I sprinkled 1 TBS of sugar and 1 TBS of cinnamon.  Of course instead of sugar you can substitute Splenda or Stevia.

This made the grated apple to juice.  And the smell……. mmmmmmm……. reminded me of a cool fall morning!

Now the muffin batter…..

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I will have to play around with sugar substitutes.  I was thinking maybe honey or guava syrup would be tasty.  I will get back with ya’ll on that one!!

 

Now grease or spray with cooking spray your muffin tins!  Heat up that oven to 350 degrees.

Oh here’s a tip….. use a ice cream scoop to fill the muffin tins.  It helps keep the muffins in a unified size.

Once you have the muffin batter scooped into the tin, sprinkle each with a little cinnamon sugar.  Yay!  My son loves a little cinnamon sugar on his muffins!!

Bake those puppies for 25 minutes.

 

The fam gobbled them up as if there was no tomorrow!!

My grandmother always said that people throw out their money on wasted food.  Just because the apples were just a little on the soft side didn’t justify me throwing away that money well spent.

What are you waiting for???  Get to baking!!

Homemade…… Yummy!

One of the most important things to keep in mind when you are trying to save money is to compare the cost of an item with a homemade alternative.  Around my house, this year has been the year of eating changes.  I try my hardest to not purchase anything processed.  I want all natural and fresh in my kitchen.  So, I cook with REAL butter.  Use REAL syrup.  Eat REAL vegetables.  Bake HOMEMADE.

Let’s compare the tasty Pillsbury Grands to homemade biscuits…..

Take a look at the ingredients…… see the red flags–bleached flour, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, sugar, artificial color

Okay, let’s look at my recipe for biscuits–

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What’s inside my butter?  um… since it is real….. CREAM

When I am baking, I use Gold Medal’s Better for Bread flour.

It is unbleached.  Yay!!  Unbromated.  YAY!!  Enriched.  AWW MAN!!  The bleaching process used for the production of flour is a Chlorine Gas Bath.  It is like the Clorax cycle when you wash clothes.  It makes the flour whiter.  This process strips the flour of the natural gluten.  Therefore, gluten has to be added to the bleached flour.  Interesting enough that in 1910, bleached flour was labeled unfit for human consumption in Missouri.  Ahem…… I’m  not even going to ask!!  I’ll just shake my head as to why we have bleached flour. (according to examiner.com)

Bromated flour….. potassium bromate is added to help with the dough elasticity and to help bake higher raised bread.  However, potassium bromate has been linked with thyroid dysfunction. (according to examiner.com)

Kinda makes you stop and think, doesn’t it.

Okay. Okay. Okay.  You came here wanting to know the savings.

An eight count can of Grands costs $1.68….. 21 cents per biscuit

The ingredients in my recipe (um…yes, that’s right, I did the math!!) $1.13 for a dozen…. 9 cents per biscuit.

How can you argue with savings like that?

I know.  I know.  I know.  It is faster to open the can.  But, here’s a tip….. on Saturday morning, get up early and make a double or triple batch of biscuits.  Have biscuits and honey for breakfast and pop all the left overs in the freezer.  So, during the week, you just pop a few frozen biscuits in the oven to warm up…… FAST!!

So…..

May God stir up the Suzie Homemaker in you and start baking!!

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.  3 John 1:2 ESV

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The Little Things

My most gracious Father,

Thank You for the morning, the cold crisp morning.

Praise You for the warm home, small kitchen and crowded dining room.

Thank You for Your endless supply of blessings.

Thank You for the sunrise.

Praise be to You for all the great things.

Most of all God, thank You for the little things.

Pancakes.

The heavy aroma flowing through the house.

Maple trees for the syrup.

The warm heat rising up from the griddle.

Pancakes with my family.

Yes, God, Praise YOU for the little things!

Amen

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The Great Pumpkin

We all have heard of the Great Pumpkin.  I can see Linus, now, sitting in the pumpkin patch holding his sign that reads, “Welcome Great Pumpkin.”

I love this time of the year.  Cooler temps, bright orange, yellow and red leaves adorning the trees, and of course, great pumpkins.

Did you know that a real pumpkin can have a shelf life up to 4 months?  Did you know it is full of vitamins and minerals that we should take advantage of…… like B6?  How about this…… did you know that you can make soup from a pumpkin?  I didn’t.  I am going to try this!

Outside of pies and bread, pumpkins brings such joy.  We decorate and decoupage pumpkins.  We cut and carve.  We add lights and candles.  Pure joy.  When I see pumpkins  I revisit my childhood.  Mom selecting the best pumpkins and sitting them out on our front porch.  Of course, the fond memory quickly becomes a chuckle of revisiting Daddy chasing the “neighborhood punk” down the street screaming, “That was my pumpkin pie you stole!”  Yep, the pumpkins stolen right from our porch on Halloween night.  Daddy mourned the smashed remains on the street the next morning.  Mom always went out and purchased another pumpkin just for Daddy’s pie.

Sometimes, I look at the pumpkins with a bit of sadness.  My kids are practically grown and somehow the trip to the pumpkin patch seems to not be quite the seasonal adventure.  To remember, my daughter running between pumpkins and my son riding in a wagon full of orange goodness brings a quiet sigh from this mother.  All I can hope for now is that when the time comes for grandkids, my children will make those memories to pine after once their wee ones grow up.

All those memories and the sweet goodness of a pumpkin  makes me want to dust off the recipe box and make a loaf or two of pumpkin bread.

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Gazpacho

I heard on the news Monday morning the temperature in some parts of our wonderful state would be reaching the upper 90’s and 100 degree mark.  I wanted to run straight to the thermometer and crack down the AC.

I controlled my wanting but I will say this…… this is the first year I can remember that I actually turned on the AC before June.  We haven’t had much of a winter.  Did we even have winter?  Vaguely I remember pulling out a coat in December but for the most part….. I wore short sleeve shirts.  Yep, come August I may be relocating to the North Pole.  Move over Santa, Regina is moving in!!

A friend was joining us for dinner Monday and the thought of cooking in this kind of heat frightened me.  Well, to be honest, slaving in the hot kitchen makes even the neatest hair style frizz not to mention melting the mascara into coon eyes.  Frightening!!

So, I pulled out a cookbook and started flipping.  I landed on an interesting recipe from a dear friend.  We taught together at the …. what we lovingly call “the war zone”…. middle school.  Anyway, I trust her and so I gathered the ingredients….

I threw the onion, garlic, cucumber, pepper and the tomatoes into the blender and took them for a spin.

I added a splash and a dash along with some tomato juice.

Stirred until it was the prettiest shade of red, chilled it and served with along with a green salad.

Funny….. I forgot to mention to everyone around the table that this soup was a cold soup.  Bless their hearts…..  perhaps, shame on me would be better….. their minds said “soup” and soup is supposed to be hot.  Shocker when it turned out to be icebox cold!

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