Tuxedo Brownie Muffins

Around here, we like to have muffins about once/week. Just the other day, my 3yo asked, “Mom, why do we have muffins every time”? :) I usually vary between the standard blueberry muffin, banana muffins, or occasionally, oatmeal muffins (from leftover oatmeal). Today, I was desiring something a bit more chocolate. Here is what I came up with (with a little help from a recipe book..I tweaked it quite a bit):

Topping:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

2 tps AP flour, preferably unbleached

2 egg whites

1/2 cup mini choc chips (opt) I didn’t have these, but the original recipe called for it

Muffins:

1 cup AP flour

1 cup Sugar

1/2 cup Whole Wheat flour (I did 1 cup WW and 1/2 cup AP and it was good)

1/3 cup unsweetened Cocoa powder (I used raw Carob powder)

2 tps baking powder

1/4 tp salt

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

2 eggs

1/4 cup chopped nuts, opt.

TOPPING: With a mixer, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and flour in a bowl. Add the egg whites and beat until blended. Fold in the opt. chocolate chips.

MUFFINS: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat 12 muffin cups with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the mixture. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, and eggs. Pour into the well in the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in the nuts, if desired.

Pour into the muffin tins, about 3/4 full. Top each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of the cream-cheese mixture. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until cream cheese begins to turn golden. Cool for 5 minutes and then serve!

These were really good to us and the cream cheese mixture was the bomb on the top. It wasn’t too terribly unhealthy, considering none of the ingredients were artificial. I use fresh eggs and fresh milk and that is and added bonus to our health! :)

Do you like muffins around your place? I would love to hear your favorite muffin recipe. Perhaps you have it in an older post that you could give the link to me or a link to a website with it. Thanks!

Non-buttermilk biscuit recipe

Here is a delicious biscuit recipe that does not use buttermilk. Last week, one day, I didn’t have any buttermilk (I keep forgetting to make my own –scroll down to the homemade buttermilk post) and also didn’t want to use just oil for the fat part of the recipe, so I made the following recipe up and the biscuits were wonderful:

Preheat the oven to 450. Lightly grease a cast iron skillet, for best results. In a mixing bowl, add, in a sifter placed over the bowl:

2 cups AP flour

1 tp salt

1 tbs. baking powder

(combine the previous ingredients in a sifter and sift—if you use SR flour, don’t put in the salt or baking powder)

Melt 2 Tbs. of butter and allow it to cool for a few minutes (this makes about 1/8 cup of melted butter)

For the other 1/8th cup, use Oil (I used Light Olive Oil). This will give you a total of 1/4 cup of fat.

Pour over the flour mixture

Add 1 cup of regular milk (I used goat milk, but you will probably use regular milk) and with a fork, gently combine the ingredients until the liquid is mixed in. THEN, using your hands, sort of knead the ingredients together until it is no longer liquid-y. The mixture should fill soft and fluffy. You may have to gather just a bit of flour in your hand to sprinkle over the mixture. This will get out the rest of the liquid-y feel and also keep your hands from getting too sticky.

Gather a tennis ball sized bit of dough in your hands and roll just a bit to smooth out the biscuit. Place in the skillet. When you have place all of the dough in the skillet (should make about 6 or 7 biscuits), gently mash down the biscuits with your hand.

Bake for about 17 or 18 minutes.

You can add more butter to the top. Go ahead, I dare you.

:)

Biscuits and Gravy Tutorial

Here is a tutorial for a good ole Southern breakfast! I’ll bet you have all you need in your cupboard and refrigerator! I’ll give options on some of the ingredients, so if you haven’t had breakfast, now you know what to make!

I am no cooking expert and my husband can say 'Amen' (if he wasn’t so nice, but thankfully, he is), but I do enjoy cooking most of the time and especially enjoy cooking foods I love and I LOVE biscuits and gravy! :)

First, you will need All Purpose Flour or Self Rising Flour (you can use unbleached, organic, store brand, whatever you have on hand). If using AP flour, get out your baking powder (not soda) and salt.

Get out a medium-sized mixing bowl and also a sifter, if you have one. Now would be a great time to preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Get out a cast iron skillet (for best results) and spray it lightly with non stick spray, or use a small bit of the fat you are using in your biscuits to grease it. Do your skillet NOW, because your hands will be too gooked to do it later. Also put a handful of flour in a small bowl nearby your station.

If using AP Flour, measure out 2 cups and place in your sifter, which you have sitting inside your bowl. Add 1 tablespoonful of baking powder to your sifter and 1 teaspoonful of salt. Sift 3 ingredients together into the bowl.

Please excuse the PMS tea which seems to be in every picture. :)

Remove the sifter, and now you have this:

Let me interject to say if you are using Self Rising Flour (which I don’t because I can’t find any that is unbleached), then all you have to do is put 2 cups of SR flour into a bowl. If you do, please don’t use the Baking Powder or Salt. You will thank me.

Next, measure out 1/4 cup of fat. This can be coconut oil, olive oil, or for best results (now, not later…:), shortening. I have even used mayonnaise, in a crisis.

You can do one of two things here. You can put in your fat in solid form, which will cause you more work, or you can melt it and save some time. If you put it in in solid form, you will have to work it into your flour mixture until your flour mixture looks like it is little balls of flour ‘peas’. The second thing you can do, which is what I have discovered that works best for me, is to melt the fat, but do not burn it, add it and immediately add your milk (getting ahead of myself), and you will save time.

So, add your fat to your flour mixture.

I used olive oil because I was in a pinch, but for best results, use coconut oil or shortening.

Do not stir! This is very important if you have liquid fat that you do not stir yet.

Okay, now you can get out your buttermilk out of the fridge. Don’t even think about using sweet milk. If you have regular ole milk, the least you can do is add a tp of vinegar or lemon juice to make fake buttermilk, but still, you will not get good results like you do with buttermilk. While you are there at the fridge, get some sour cream. It is very important for the taste of your biscuits. May as well get the butter, too.

Add a little over 1 cup of buttermilk to your mixture. I usually just pour a tiny bit extra after pouring in my cup of buttermilk. *Edited to Add...I made them this morning and it's about 1 & 1/4 cup of buttermilk. Add your 1 tablespoonful of sour cream.

Now here comes the fun part!

Using a fork, sort of mash the milk/fat mixture in with the flour until it is sort of worked in. You do NOT stir it in. Your biscuits will be tough tasting if you do.

Once you have the liquid sort of mixed with the flour, you get to dive in, hand first. You will probably want to take a moment to get your hands clean at this point. Even if, only for a second.

With your hands (if you’re squeamish about using your hands, get over it), squish the mixture together a few times to blend it all together. If you use a spoon or a fork, it is too ‘rough’ for the mixture—it will be tough.

When you are able to pull a small amount with your hands without it feeling too ‘liquid-y’, it is ready to roll into biscuits. *Edited to add...you may have some dry flour at the bottom that hasn't meshed into the other ingredients. Don't worry about mixing it in. Just leave it at the bottom of the bowl. It's okay. :)

Dip your hand into the flour (that you put in the extra bowl) to coat your hands. Break off a small ball of dough (about a tennis ball size or less). Roll between your hands a couple of times, place in the skillet and pat down a bit. Do this until you have the biscuits in the skillet like so:

Place a small pat of butter in the middle of each biscuit. You will thank yourself when you take a bite.

Bake for about 17 minutes. At the end of 17 minutes, broil for 1 minute. Do this if you’re like me and just have to have those biscuits brown. Do not over bake. You will hate me if they are too hard.

Don’t bother rolling out the dough and cutting out this biscuit recipe. You are much too busy, mama, for such complication.

Plus your biscuits might make mine look bad.

Don’t forget to butter ‘em again!

*Special thanks to my husband's deceased Great-Aunt Inez for this biscuit recipe.

Leave me a comment if you plan to try these biscuits! You’ll have to come back tomorrow for the gravy part. My day is much too filled and I’ve taken far too long. I will be busy gardening (I Must set out those broccoli, peas, and pepper plants today), laundering, cleaning, decluttering, straightening, homeschooling, and piano teaching.

Oh and take a look at this:

We have sick children. Again.

The two youngest.

I hope it’s not the biscuits.

Resources, a recipe, and a weekend trip!

Don’t you just love it when you receive a mailbox full of goodies?

I really love reading the Above Rubies magazine (if you don’t get it, subscribe for free, here) and wanted to send a small donation since their magazine is free and so helpful to me. I was sent this pack (for my $50) and I can’t wait to dive into it:

Three thick Bible study manuals: The Power of Motherhood, The Family Meal Table and Hospitality, and Gate-Keepers of the Home. Also, I received Nancy’s book, Be Fruitful and Multiply (oh boy…). :)

Now I have something to take with me on my long trip! (details below)

We also have started receiving this magazine, giving to us for Christmas by our very close friends:

I can’t wait to get my hands flipping through the pages! This was the perfect magazine for us!

While I’m sharing resources, I picked up this book the other day at the library and it has some awesome photography in it. This is my style of decorating:

Here are some delicious photographs:

And finally, my favorite:

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Healthy Vegetable Soup (you can make good soup without meat and bouillon cubes!)

1 bag of frozen tomatoes (or 1 quart canned)

1 can of tomato paste (6 oz?)

A couple quarts of water (sorry, I didn’t measure)

1 bag of frozen mixed veggies (green beans, corn, carrots, peas)

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 handful fresh cilantro chopped

2 tbs olive oil

1 small bag of frozen okra (I put tons of okra up this past summer)

1 tbs Mrs. Dash seasoning blend (the one with the yellow top)

Onion powder (a tp or so)

Sea Salt to taste

Simmer for 45 minutes or so, until veggies are tender. Make sure you have enough sea salt to make it tasty!

The cilantro and the seasonings really make this soup yummy. This is my own recipe, thus the inexact proportions.

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I will not be blogging until Tuesday because I am going for a visit with my parents to see my brother and his family! :) He lives in the neatest town in MO (near the Amish) and I have only visited with him once (sooo far away). I am taking my two girls and my dear husband will be keeping the boys. They are all geared up for some men stuff with daddy. :)

I trust that you have a wonderful weekend filled with God’s love and family togetherness.

May this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

God Bless!

Try these recipes!

Today is day 3 on the Daniel fast and while I haven’t consecrated to the spiritual part like I have intended to (honesty, here), I have been faithful in abstaining from the forbidden foods (eating like Daniel did). It hasn’t been too hard, but you know how things go on day three.

I’ve learned as long as I can snack on something when I’m feeling hungry or drink a big glass of water, I’m feeling pretty good about things.

Breakfast here consists of a smoothie, made from frozen strawberries, Unsweetened Almond milk, a bit of 100% Organic Apple Juice, bananas, flax seed, oatmeal, and a few peaches. It’s good and really satisfying. It’s no grits, eggs, bacon, and biscuits, but I’m denying myself here, right? :)

Lunch has been rice cakes with natural peanut butter, sliced bananas, and raisins on top. I usually eat 2 of these. Yesterday my mom was here and when she comes by she always gives me some money to go get us some lunch from town (gotta love moms). I went by our local grocery deli and I admit, the golden fried chicken livers were a temptation! I’m sure my arteries thank me for resisting. Anyway, Em and I got a vegetable plate. Poor Em was quite dismayed because he really wanted his brother’s leftover teriyaki chicken. He said he was quitting the fast today. :) I don’t think he’s getting his spiritual help. :)

For supper, Monday night, I fixed Veggie Sketti (my name for it). It is really simple. Boil some brown rice noodles (you can use 100% whole grain noodles for this diet). In another skillet, in a bit of olive oil—sauté tomatoes (I used some I had put up this summer), cut up zucchini (1), diced onions, and season to taste. I like using salt and Mrs. Dash’s seasonings (no sugar or MSG). After the pasta is drained, mix it in with the veggies. We cleaned up the bowl.

Even Ella enjoyed a bit (I did notice quite a few zucchini pieces left, tho)

Last night we had peas and potato salad w/veganaise, corn on the cob, and fish for the 2 littles. The Potato Salad was a hit!

4 Medium Potatoes (you might want to do more if your entire family of 6 eats potato salad), cut up and boiled in water until just soft (not mushy). Make sure the potatoes are salted.

In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup veganaise (this stuff is better than mayo to me), 1 tp curry powder, 1/3 cup chopped red onion, 1/3 cup chopped celery, 1 tp dill weed, and I even threw in a few cilantro sprigs (we love that stuff).

After the potatoes are drained, mix the Veganaise mixture in with the potatoes.

Very, very good.

*You can find Veganaise at your health food store or grocer, or on Amazon.

Just a few recipes I thought I would share with you. I know I am always looking for healthy alternatives or suggestions!

Hope you truly have a blessed day full of God’s love!

The icing on the cake…

I’m so happy to report we made it through our first week of homeschooling for this school year. It went very well! I hope to do a post very soon on our schedules and homeschooling setup. I always enjoy reading others’ posts on homeschooling, so just maybe mine would be interesting to my readers.

Speaking of readers, I hope my regular readers start trickling back in into my Blog Haven…:o) I hate taking such long breaks because my blog gets stagnant and sometimes my readers go away. :( I sure hope everyone will return! :) If you have returned, leave me a lil comment, pls! I never get to post a comment every single time on the blogs I read, but I do try to get around to a comment every now and again. I’d love to hear from you.

Now….I have a couple of recipes to share with you tonight. I know, boring, huh? :) Well, I’m so excited to tell you that I found a healthy Birthday Cake recipe in a Cooking With Whole Foods by Cynthia Lair cookbook that I have. I decided to try it for Ella’s birthday. Based on the ingredients (some I had to purchase, or rather my mom picked up for me, at the Health Food store), I really wondered if it would turn out. While the cake did NOT taste just like the Betty Crocker’s Yellow Cake mix version, it was very good and different, in a nice way. We had one piece left when we went to bed the night of Ella’s birthday. And..we only had 2 guests to her lil party. :)

Here is the ingredients in case you may be on the lookout for a healthy alternative to a birthday cake. You may be like me and just cringe to think of all that sugary icing and 25 cake mix ingredients going into your one year old’s body. Anyway, (as to not sound like a health food snob…) it is a great cake if you just want something different and don’t really care about the healthy issue.

Here ya are:

The buttons, etc., are just some raw sugar that I added a drop of food coloring too…

Loving it….

Tonight we had incredible Salmon Patties (or Croquettes as some call them) that I made up. I will be posting the recipe very soon as they were really, really delish.

It’s good night for me. Once again, I’ve skipped out on my early to bed promise to myself. Why can’t I be more loyal? Oh well, I’ll try again tomorrow!!

Tried and Proven Healthy Recipes

Pumpkin Spelt Bread

For years now, my husband and I have had a love/hate relationship with eating healthy. About 10 years ago, we truly learned about health and that it means, surprisingly, nothing about drinking Diet Coke and eating Low Fat Pringles. Really! Too bad.

Since then, we’ve tried to incorporate a pretty decent healthy eating lifestyle, but have had times of complacency with our healthy eating habits and (oh the horror) downright backsliding on our exercising. Now, mind you, I have never got to the place where I had brought in the liquid candy (soft drinks) or processed food (that excludes leftover Halloween candy, right?), but I seemed to have upped our butter/sugar (albeit raw sugar, but still….) intake and ousted the raw veggie/whole wheat intake.

My dear man of my dreams ordered us the book, Disease-Proof Your Child by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and upon reading the first 2 chapters, I wanted to shove everything currently in my cabinets into the trash can and also wanted to hide my head in shame at what I had been allowing my children to eat (hot dogs, anyone?). So, while I urge you to read this book (especially if your kids aren’t eating very healthy), I warn you that it may make you feel very, very guilty. :?/

I have two children of the four that would probably be considered obese (especially one) and I’m so sorry for that. It seems that when I try to watch their diet, there is always some eating out taking place—eating at church, eating at grandparents, etc.—other places where hot dogs are all the rage or chips are ever present among us. So, that being said, it is ultimately I and my husband who are responsible for their health. We have to get radical about what we are eating, even if it means eating differently in other places besides our home.

I have enjoyed eating this week. I have enjoyed making healthy meals for my family and feeling good about what I am serving them. We have enjoyed fruit smoothies for breakfast, srambled eggs (there is life w/o butter) with spinach, spelt biscuits, Summertime Tilapia (just say no to red meat), Chicken Salad made with Vegenaise (healthy ‘mayonnaise’!), carrot sticks (discovered that my 3 year old loves carrot sticks), spinach leaves (my kids have been asking for some ‘leaves’ to eat), and Pumpkin Spelt Bread with almond butter. All of the highlighted recipes were tried this week and were found to be delicious (and the ‘mayo’ is really, really tasty).

I look forward to updating you on our health progress and pray to not fall back in my quest for disease-proofing my children. Kids really don’t get sick by accident. Which you probably already knew that. I hope you will read the book!

Evan, enjoying the leftovers of the pumpkin spelt bread batter

It’s nighty-night here at our house. Church is tomorrow and lots of frantic details that entails. :) Hope you’re having a lovely Pre-Fall night.

God Bless!

PS One of my Blog Followers, Kirsteen, has a few wheat and dairy-free recipes on her blog. I look forward to trying some of these out. Check her out. :)

A Great, GREEN Smoothie..

While I’m working on My Day post (which will take a while), here’s what we had for breakfast this morning, my honey and I (you will definitely want to make this)…

Gather your extremely Healthy ingredients….

A handful of Strawberries, a handful of Peaches, a really heaping tbs (probably about 1/3 cup) of organic plain yogurt, 1/2 cup of organic milk, a handful of Spinach (preferably Organic—I didn’t have organic), and 1/4 cup of Agave Nectar. Oh, and I put in a couple tbsp of Flax Seeds (not pictured). I didn’t measure anything, just a handful and spoonful here and there.

Put this in your blender..

Isn’t it Beyoutiful???

A couple of minutes later….(My couple of minutes were spent holding a plate on top to prevent flyaways—since my cuties threw my lid away. That’s the only thing I can figure happened to it)

Voila! (Or, Voiler, as my husband likes to say…:)

Oh, and the Spinach? You’ll never know it was in there. Well, your body might, but you won’t taste it.

That’s a good thing, right? :)

Happy Tuesday!

In the kitchen

This morning (Monday), I have been in my kitchen, cooking away. I thought it might be fun to let you know what I have been up to. By the way, the picture above was not too long after I got up and I had certainly not fixed my hair. I tried to fix it up via Picnik, but it didn't fix me up too well. :) We have a funeral to fix for today, so I have peas going.

Here's how I fix my peas. I put the frozen peas in the pot, add water to cover, bring to a boil, put on a lid and simmer for about 30mins. During this time, I add salt to taste (probably about a tablespoon) and about a tbs of oil.

I also made blueberry cobbler. Yum, yum. My recipe is really simple. Preheat oven to 350. Bring 3 cups of blueberries (also can use peaches) mixed with 1 cup of sugar to a boil. Boil and stir until mixture becomes liquid-y. In the meantime, place 1 stick of butter in a casserole dish and put it in the oven to melt. Also, mix 1 cup of SR flour (or AP w/2 tp baking pwder, 1 tp salt), 3/4 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Stir to combine. When butter is melted, pour flour mixture in dish, then add blueberry mixture on top. Do not stir. Bake for about 30 minutes. Delish!

Lastly, I made this very aromatic homemade bread. I have posted my recipe before, so I won't this time, unless you want me to. I have it saved, so it won't be any problem to repost it. :)

I would love to see what's going on in YOUR kitchen! :)

My current favorite Soup!

I've had some blog ideas in my head, but my camera is having some problems with the batteries dying too frequently. I don't like to blog without some sort of photo, so I haven't been blogging as frequently as I'd like. Until I get new batteries, I thought I'd share a wonderful soup recipe with you. I have made this soup several times in the past few weeks. It is just soo flavorful and soo healthy! You will love it, I'm positive!!

Black Eye Pea Gumbo

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup AP flour (I've used both white & wheat..both do fine)

1-2T oil

1& 1/2 cps. sliced okra (I usually just put the whole frozen bag full)

1 c chopped onion

3/4 c. chopped celery

3 garlic cloves, minced

4 cps. water

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

1/3 c. chopped fresh parsley (I have always used dried)

2 tps. salt

1/2 tp. dried thyme leaves

1/8 tp cayenne pepper

1/8 tp pepper

2 bay leaves (I have made it twice w/o the leaves)

1/2 lbs. cubed cooked ham (I usually leave this out since we do meatless)

15 oz can black eyed peas (or whole frozen bag full)

1 tp liquid crab boil

Directions

Heat 1/3 cp. oil in small saucepan over med. low heat until hot. Using wire whisk, stir in flour. Cook 5-7 mins. or until golden brown, stirring constantly. Set aside. Heat 1-2 T oil in heavy saucepan over med heat until hot. Add onions, celery, & garlic; cook 8-10 mins or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Add okra, water, tomatoes, parsley, salt, thyme, pepper, crabboil, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 20 mins. Add cubed pork; cook an additional 15-20 mins. Stir in black eyed peas; cook until thoroughly heated (if you are using frozen, you will have to cook peas about 30 mins or so). Remove bay leaves.

Mmmm...Mmmm... good

Excellent Soup Recipe

photo courtesy of chefsline.com

I have made this soup several times and it always impresses me. It is very flavorful and so healthy. In fact, today I made it without the bacon (even though I cooked some and added it to our bowls with the soup) because husband is doing the Daniel Fast and doesn't eat meat and it was still delish! Now, as with most recipes, I always have to add more salt and other seasonings. :)

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup (I cooked mine on the stove today) from Cooks.com

3 qts. water
1/2 lb. bacon, cut in pieces
1 tsp. sea salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 c. canned tomatoes
1/4 tsp. cumin seasoning, or to taste (we used way more than this b/c we like it spicy)
1/4 tsp. garlic salt, or to taste
1 med onion, chopped

(Today we added some artichoke sliced and put in red pepper as well)

Put in at night, ready for noon meal. Let cook on low all night. Very good.

Today I have been slow at getting my chores done, but things aren't too terribly messy, so it really doesn't matter too much. I did clean the kitchen, which makes everything look better, cleaned our bedroom, which included putting most of my maternity clothes up and replacing them with my regular clothes, emptied all the trashes, and straightened the bathroom. Dh has the older 2 kids at my MIL's for one more swimming escapade before the cooler temps come. Younger son is napping and baby is nursing contentedly. She is a really big eater and it is showing! I can already tell she is growing!! I have mixed feelings bout that! :) :(
I did put up my Fall decor on my mantle of which I shall leave you with a picture! Hope you are having a blessed Saturday!