Thursday, November 17, 2011

Quick, Easy, and Moist Whole Wheat Muffins

I'm excited to share this recipe! I made them a few days ago, but wanted to wait and see how they were the next day and after being frozen. The votes are in, and I'll definitely be keeping this recipe on hand to make again. It's a slight tweak of a recipe I found on The Kitchn (which if you've never visited you seriously need to check out. It's such an inspirational blog with lots of great ideas and recipes.)

These muffins are not only delicious, but they can be whipped up and taken out of the oven in about 30 minutes. The flavor is unique and really quite dependent of the whole wheat flour. The honey makes them slightly sweet but is more to balance out the slight bitterness of the whole wheat. They're delicious with a hearty soup, slathered with honey or syrup, or just plain!

They were great straight from the oven and the morning after, and if you freeze them and pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds they're as delicious as they were the first day. The texture was definitely really different than other muffins. The sour cream really makes them super duper moist. Yum! Enjoy!


Quick, Easy, Moist Whole Wheat Muffins
adapted from The Kitchen
makes 12 muffins | takes 30 minutes

1 3/4 Cup whole wheat flour
1/4 Cup oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1 1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
2 T olive oil
2 T unsweetened applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a muffin pan with liners, or by lightly greasing each lightly.

In a large bowl, lightly whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.

Whisk the sour cream, honey, egg, olive oil, applesauce, and vanilla extract together in a separate small bowl. Make a small well int he center of the dry ingredients and our in this liquid mixture. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to gently but firmly fold the ingredients together, folding from the bottom up to make sure all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Stop as soon as the mixture comes together; do not over-mix.

Bake for 15 minutes or until barely golden on top, and the top springs back a bit when touched with a finger.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Zucchini Fries

I would love a new camera. Scratch that, I need a camera to begin with. Mine died on me over a year ago and I've been relying on my smart phone ever since. It does the trick, but sometimes I really miss having an actual camera.

My original plan was to buy myself one for graduation. You know, like a present to myself. That was before the reality hit that I have other 'presents to myself' that might be slightly more important. You know, a car, an apartment, moving my life, food, etc.

So I guess for now I'll enjoy what my smart phone has to offer. I might just bring out the duck tape and cardboard and try to fix my real camera, I've been able to manage temporary fixes before.

This is one of those 'recipes' that's less of a recipe but more of an idea to keep in mind for the future when I want something different. These zucchini fries were tasty and super easy to put together, not to mention healthy and pretty addictive. I don't normally eat ketchup, but dipping these in ketchup made them seem even more like fries. These are versatile and you can use whatever mix of spices tickles your fancy; I'm on a cumin kick so that's what I went for.

Friday, November 4, 2011

White Bean Apple Dip

I was oh-so skeptical with this recipe. So skeptical in fact that I'm pretty sure I ended up making it just out of curiosity and didn't expect to eat any of it. 

Well, I ate all of it. 

It wasn't overly spectacular or anything, but it's a good recipe to have on hand because it's so simple, takes ingredients I usually have on hand, and is a healthy and sweet dip that I didn't feel guilty eating. The dip itself was not one of those dips I would find eating with a spoon. (probably a good thing) It just wasn't overly sweet*, but with the natural sweetness of the Macintosh apples I used for dipping, it was perfect!