Apple-Raisin-Pecan Whole Grain Muffins

This recipe is about 50% bigger than what I usually make. It yielded 24 muffins and 2 loaves of muffin bread. Preheat your oven to 350°, oil and flour 2 loaf pans. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium size bowl.

2c unbleached all purpose flour

1c whole wheat flour

1c corn flour

4T ground chia and flax seeds

2-3T pumpkin pie spice

1-1/2t each: salt, baking powder, baking soda

In a bigger bowl combine the following:

1c whole milk Greek yogurt

1/2c sour cream

1c coconut milk

3/4c olive oil

3T Mexican vanilla 

4 lg. pasture raised eggs

1-1/2c coconut sugar -or- light brown sugar

3 packed cups of chopped, unpeeled apples

1-1/2c chopped pecans

1c golden raisins

Add the flour mixture to everything in the big bowl, stirring and scraping the bowl until everything is well mixed. 

Put big spoonfuls of the batter in paper-lined muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon spiced turbinado sugar and bake for 20 minutes. 

Divide the remaining batter equally between the two prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle both with the spiced sugar and bake for 30 minutes or until the centers bounce back when touched. Cool throughly before removing from the pans or slicing. . .Lin

Carrot Fruit Cake-Bread

2 big carrots - finely chopped

1c chopped frozen pineapple 

1 mashed banana

1"cube fresh ginger - minced

1 whole mandarin orange - zest and chop

1/2c coconut sugar

1/2c brown sugar

3 lg. eggs

3/4c light olive oil

3/4c sunflower kernels

- - walnuts or pecans would be better

1/2c plain Greek yogurt

1T white balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350° Chop, zest, mash and combine everything above, in a medium glass bowl. In a larger bowl, whisk together the following dry ingredients:

1T cinnamon

1/2T baking soda

1/2T baking powder

2T ground chia + flax

1t salt

1c corn flour

2-1/2c all purpose flour

Pour the bowl of well combined wet ingredients into the flour bowl. Working quickly with a big silicone spatula, fold and combine these into a heavy batter. Today I transferred this to a buttered and sugared 8"x12"x2" glass baking pan to make a snack-coffee cake. This would have also made wonderful  muffins! Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes. If making muffins, cut the baking time way down, start with 20 minutes then do the toothpick test. Let the cake cool an hour before cutting.

My daughter was here while this was cooling. She suggested a cream cheese drizzle to accentuate the flavors. I didn't have cream cheese, so instead made this butter-cinnamon-vanilla glaze:

3T melted butter

1t Mexican vanilla

1c powdered sugar

1t cinnamon

2T heavy cream

Mix these together until smooth in a small bowl. Pour and spread over the top. 

Have fun with your creative combinations. . .Lin

Coconut Fruit Smoothie

1c coconut milk - from a carton

2c mixed frozen fruit - today I used

pineapple, mango, strawberries, blueberries

1c plain Greek yogurt

1T± Mexican vanilla

Put everything in a blender jar, pulse and blend until smooth.

My neighbor texted me yesterday to see if I wanted some extra coconut milk they had. I've used canned coconut milk before, but never this, the thinner type, in a carton. This Stuff Is Good!  For a while now, the liquid in my yogurt-fruit smoothies has been a variety of fruit juices. I like this much better. It seems to create a more natural balance of flavors, plus it's lower in sugar than fruit juice.

These amounts made 2 big servings, containing 240 calories each. Ohhh, this was good! Give it a try!  Get creative with your fruit choices. Bananas, frozen cranberries, frozen cherries, a whole-unpeeled mandarin orange are also excellent choices.  .😃. .Lin

A Quick Lemon Yogurt Cake

I'm a great example of someone whose tastes have changed over the years.  I used to love chocolate!  I practically LIVED for chocolate.  Heaven, to me would be cold milk and half a big package of Oreo cookies!  Really!  I had the metabolism of a workhorse when I was younger.  These days I crave really good, moist, rich, eggy, yellow cake.  Sometimes flavored with cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice in the batter, lots of good Mexican vanilla.  Today I was browsing YouTube videos and found one that looked good.  The recipe calls for plain Greek yogurt, but I was almost out of that.  I did have two little tubs of flavored yogurt.  A lemon and a coconut.  It truly was a tossup, but since I have fresh lemons for the zest, this time, lemon won.  Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly!!  The baking time is a little loose, and I sort of lost track, couldn't remember if I started with 20 or 25 minutes, so I'd say bake until the top browns, the cake pulls away from the edges of the pan and just to be safe, have it pass the 'toothpick test.'

After 20 minutes or so, I sprinkled the top with cardamom sugar, but it would have adhered better if done that as it went in the oven.  Ohhhh, this was SO good, it's something I'll make again and vary the flavors as new ideas happen.  Cherry yogurt with a dab of cherry preserves on each slice.  Orange yogurt with orange zest and a drizzled icing made of powdered sugar and juice of the orange.  So many ways this could go!  Plain yogurt with 1/3 of the batter mixed with 1-2t cinnamon and swirled for a cinnamon marble yogurt cake.  Slice apples coated with cinnamon sugar in the bottom of the pan, flipped over when baked for an Apple Upside-down Cake. . .

  

Be Creative!  Happy Cooking!

recipe—> Simple Yogurt Cake

Fruit-Yogurt Smoothie

½c plain Greek full fat yogurt

½c canned pineapple - no sugar, just juice

½c pineapple juice

1c frozen cranberries

a handful of frozen raspberries*

1c± frozen strawberries and bananas

a little nutmeg and cardamom

1-2t ground pumpkin pie spice

300-350 calories ±

This is a favorite go-to of mine, but from now on, *I'll eliminate the raspberries. I'm not a fan of those seeds. I vary this up depending on the fruit I currently have. I love adding a little fresh citrus, a whole 'cutie', a third of a lemon or lime. Blueberries and dark cherries are also so good. Be creative. Soon I'd like to experiment with more fruits, soft leafed herbs, carrots. Vegetable, green smoothies are also lots of fun. Beets, greens, kale, carrots, garlic, tomatoes. . .oh, so many possibilities.  

Happy Cooking! . .Lin

Chicken-Broccoli Wild Rice Casserole

1c mixed wild rice

2T Tuscan olive oil

1-2T butter
⅓c dry white wine

1 lg. purple shallot

4oz. sliced mushrooms

8oz. fresh broccoli

½lg. sweet onion
6oz. chicken thigh meat

2t lemon pepper

1T Italian seasoning

1½c homemade broth

1c Chobani Greek yogurt

In a regular frying pan (not non-stick) heat up the rice, oil and butter until the rice is snapping.  Slowly add the wine, as needed, simmering, covered for about a half hour, adding some of the vegetable broth if needed.  Add the vegetables, saving the broccoli florets for later.

When the wine is gone, add seasonings and more broth.  This is the vegetable broth I made several posts back.  I only used about half of it here, so I'll use the rest in another recipe.  (I did not use the can of soup shown in the first picture.)  Continue to simmer, covered, for about a half hour, adding more broth as needed.  When the rice is beginning to plump up, add the chicken.

(I added the broccoli florets at this point and it was WAY overcooked as you can see from the next picture.)-*-

Combine remaining broth with the yogurt, pour over everything in the pan.  Transfer this to a casserole-type baking dish, bake in a 325° oven for an hour.  After about 40 minutes, gently stir, then continue baking, dropping the temperature to 290°, -*-(add the broccoli florets at this time.)  Continue to cook until all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is cooked and tender, about another 20 minutes.  I underestimated the amount of time the rice would take.

This is not pretty, but turned out well in spite of the problem with the cooking times. . .Lin

Pineapple Cherry-Berry Banana Frozen Yogurt

Sometimes things just defy logic!  Like a week or so ago - we were having -40° windchills and I was craving ice cream like crazy.  I've been trying hard to give that up completely and felt frustrated until I remembered all my Frozen Yogurt creations from the past couple years.  So this afternoon I decided to make a big bowl of it.  Hmm, making Frozen Yogurt, in January?  In Minnesota??  Well. . .why not!  The body wants what the body wants! 😉

3c of frozen / fresh fruit

3c of Greek yogurt

3T pure Maple syrup

1-2t pure vanilla - optional

1c or so organic fruit juice

Combine all this in a blender.  You'll probably have to do it in couple batches, rather than all at once.  Add the fruit juice, a little at a time, alternately with the heavier ingredients, to keep everything moving in the blender.  After each batch is blended, put the contents into a medium size bowl, then repeat until all the ingredients have been blended smooth.  Mix with a wooden spoon, so all the batches are combined.  Put the bowl in the freezer, stirring every 20-30 minutes for several hours.  This process isn't so much labor intensive as it is time intensive.  I usually make this on a morning or afternoon when I'm home doing other house chores.  It's ready to serve when it's firmer than soft serve ice cream but not frozen hard and solid.

This method of making frozen yogurt creates a finished product that is best made and then served.  If there are leftovers, it would be good to fluff or chunk this up before freezing, don't 'pack' the container since it freezes really hard.  It will need to sit on the counter a while before scooping.  This is especially good on a hot, humid day when you want something fruity and frosty.  Nutritionally, it's fat free, the yogurt is an excellent source of calcium and protein, there's good fiber from the fruit and under 100 calories per 1/2 cup. . .Lin

Another Great Smoothie!

1/2 lg. banana

1sm.-med. carrot

1c frozen strawberries

1-2T lime zest - optional

1/2 to 3/4c plain Greek yogurt

3/4c pure pomegranate juice

1T local organic honey

1T fresh ground cinnamon

Combine everything in a blender, on medium or high for a minute, and it's ready!  I keep hearing wonderful, healing and anti-viral information about the Honey-Cinnamon combination.  I forgot to put it in initially.  Tasted it, then remembered - it was a very nice addition. . .Lin

3 Berry Breakfast

2c chopped frozen strawberries

2c frozen blueberries

2T raw sugar

2/3c organic dried cranberries

Combine everything in a saucepan and simmer on low until the water starts to come out of the berries.  Increase heat to a 'low bubble' and cook 5-10 minutes.  Use to top granola and about a cup of really good quality yogurt.  I've been battling intestinal issues and recovering from infection and abscess surgery the past week and my doctor stressed the healing effects of the good bacteria in this sort of yogurt.  Eating this sort of breakfast regularly can be helpful for maintaining overall health. . .Lin