Berry Quinoa Muffins

March 16, 2014 by Jenna Leave a Comment

I made these Quinoa muffins for breakfast this week. I’ve been getting pretty sick of having greek yogurt in the morning for breakfast and have been wanting something different. Something baked and healthy like these quinoa muffins. They’re filling and low in sodium which I’ve been trying to watch lately. I’ve been counting my calories and have noticed I’ve been eating way too much sodium lately. It sucks cause salt is in everything.

…..

Next time you make muffins, try adding some cooked quinoa to them. These muffins aren’t like normal muffins. The muffins are a little bit heavier than regular muffins and have more of a chewier texture. They’re still really good and taste the same as a regular muffin would.

Freeze them in a bag and take them out the next morning and warm them up in the microwave.

They will last for 1 – 2 month in the freezer.

The recipe calls for chocolate chips. I used 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries and 1/2 cup of dried cherries.

Ingredients

2 cups cooled, cooked quinoa
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup packed dark-brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
½ cup mini chocolate chips
¼ cup canola oil
½ cup buttermilk
1 large egg
¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the rest of the recipe please visit Yummy Healthy Easy!

per muffin:

6 points plus

Calories 223
Total Fat 5.92g
Total Carbohydrates 36.89g
Dietary Fiber 2.1g
Protein 6.48g

How to Cook Quinoa

March 15, 2014 by Jenna Leave a Comment

Quinoa… seems to be all the rage lately next to cauliflower pizza crust. Quinoa is very easy to cook too. All you do is bring 2 cups of water to a boil and once the water is at a hard boil add in 1 cup of a un-cooked quinoa. Turn the burner down to a low simmer and let that cook for 15 minutes. Take the quinoa off the burner and cover with a pan and let that steam for a bit.

One time I kept the burner on high and left the room for a bit, and ended up with burnt quinoa. It wasn’t good eats. Now I always make sure to bring it to a low boil. Always safer that way. Don’t ever do what I did, or you’ll end up with a pan to clean that isn’t fun.

Now you can do the fun part which is adding whatever you want to the quinoa. For this I added 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa, 1/4 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and some sliced almonds and cherries on top. Very good and it was filling too!

Baked Eggs in Avocado

February 19, 2014 by Jenna 2 Comments

This may sound kind of gross to people, who have never had a warm avocado. I first tried warm avocados when I made some kind of roll-ups and it was good.

Do not let the size of the avocado seed fool you. It is not big enough to fit the egg in there. You have to scoop out some of the avocado in order for it to fit. I ended up having an egg white mess all over my tin-foil. A good thing I made these over tin foil right? Easy clean up.

This is with almost half of the egg whites gone. Don’t let it fool you! I just decided to go with it.

Sprinkle the egg with salt and pepper and bake in an oven at 375. If you want the egg to get done faster cook it at a higher temp. Mine took a bit longer than 15 minutes, maybe because it was inside an avocado?

Top with whatever you like. I like bacon and scallions and used that. Some tuna maybe? I don’t know, what you fancy the most. I like my yolks creamy so when you cut into the avocado with a fork and get the bacon and scallions on top of everything, it’s pretty much heaven. Avocados have 13.5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein. This is a good snack or maybe morning breakfast and you’ll get both the fiber and protein all in one!

Calories: 231; Fat: 19.73; Fiber: 6.75; Protein: 8.01

Points Plus: 6

Baked Apple French Toast

November 10, 2013 by Jenna Leave a Comment

I can’t believe in 3 weeks it will be Thanksgiving already! I’m really looking forward to my 4 day vacation too. This year, I am interested in smoking a turkey. We usually brine our turkey and then roast it in the oven. Not this year! I might even wrap the whole turkey in bacon, because I’m that crazy.

If you have a bunch of guests coming over for Thanksgiving and you need something to serve for breakfast try this french toast. Everybody has bread around that time for stuffing so why not? I added some cooked apples that I sauteed in a pan with some brown sugar and cinnamon. It was really good served with some slices of bacon on the side.

Ingredients:

4 to 5 cups of diced bread. Any kind you want
4 eggs
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 or 3 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 Honey Crisp Apples, diced
1 tablespoon of butter
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Directions:

Cut up bread in chunks. Pour all the wet ingredients including brown sugar into a bowl with the bread in it and let it soak while the apples are cooking.

In a cast iron skillet, sautee the apples with the sugar, butter, and cinnamon until the apples are cooked through.

In an 8X8 pan dump the soaked bread mixture into the pan and then cover it with the apples. Bake at 375 for 45. Serve with bacon, sausage, eggs or whatever you like.

Jumbo Blueberry Muffins

July 8, 2013 by Jenna Leave a Comment

I was supposed to start work this week, but on Tuesday last week they called me and asked if I could start the 15th instead. Bummer, I was looking forward to getting back to civilization today. It has been a nice summer so far, I’ve had pretty much half of it off. Went to the lake for the 4th of July. Didn’t really see much fireworks. The view was pretty though.

I’ve been trying to learn what the difference is between a muffin and a cupcake. I heard that if you lick the frosting off a cupcake it because a muffin, and muffins are healthier. Don’t really know how true that is. I know cupcakes have more butter in them and muffins have oil, do you think that could be the difference? I should go to pastry school and find out.

The grocery store has been having really fresh blueberries on sale this summer. I got a container of them this weekend and they were pretty tasty. I could have eaten the whole entire thing. Instead I decide to throw them in some muffins. I can’t believe how HUGE these mufffins are.

Blueberry Muffin Recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs, room temperature preferred
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk (skim, 1%, almond, rice, soy are all ok – room temperature preferred)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
course sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425F degrees. Spray your muffin tin of choice with non-stick spray or line with muffin liners. Set aside.
In a large bowl, gently toss together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until all dry ingredients are combined – a 20 second toss to disburse everything together. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until combined. Mix in milk, oil, and vanilla. Mixture will be pale and yellow. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand. Avoid overmixing. Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain. The batter will be VERY thick and somewhat lumpy. Fold in the blueberries.
Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top. Top with a sprinkle course sugar, if preferred. Bake at 425F degrees for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 and continue to bake for 25-26 minutes until tops are lightly golden and centers appear set. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before enjoying.
Muffins taste best fresh the same day. Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Muffins freeze well for up to 3 months.

Sour Cream Doughnuts

June 18, 2013 by Jenna Leave a Comment

So, I thought since I no longer have a job anymore, I thought I could start up my own donut bakery. There isn’t a lot of those in my area that I live in. I also have thought about opening up my own food truck too. I do like cooking and baking but I don’t think I’d like it to the point of opening up my own place. Lately, these days I’ve been going to the gym a lot. I’ll probably go every day this week and last week I ended up working out for two hours one day. I’ve been told to write another cook book too, might do that as well. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing artsy type projects on this blog starting soon and maybe even some fashion posts. I am obsessed with buying clothes and fashion and just anything diy these days.

A good thing I went to cycling class today after making these donuts. I only ended up eating two of them though so that wasn’t really no harm done. I find that fried donuts the next day are not very good and you have to eat the donuts up pretty fast the first day. I did not use the glaze for this recipe, instead I just took about 2 cups of powdered sugar and added in some milk until it was a glaze consistency. They were quite yummy, but I think baked donuts are the way to go, cause they’re a lot healthier.

Recipe from The Messy Baker

Sour Cream Old-Fashioned Doughnuts

2 1/4 cups cake / soft-wheat flour, plus more for rolling and cutting
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon iodized salt
3/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons shortening / vegetable lard, trans-fat-free preferred
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cups sour cream
canola oil for frying

Simplest Vanilla Glaze

3 1/2 cups confectioner’s / icing sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup / golden syrup
1/4 teaspoon iodized salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon hot water, (plus more if needed)

Directions
Sour Cream Old-Fashioned Doughnuts
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together in a medium bowl, and set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the sugar and shortening/vegetable lard for 1 minute on low speed, until sandy. Add the egg yolks, then mix for 1 more minute on medium speed, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is light coloured and thick.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three separate additions, alternating with sour cream, mixing until just combined on low speed and scraping the sides of the bowl each time. The dough will be sticky, like cookie/biscuit dough.
Transfer the dough to a clean bowl and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap/cling film, for 45 minutes (or up to 24 hours).
Using a candy thermometer to measure the temperature, heat oil (at least 2 in/5 mm deep) in a deep fryer, large pot or high-sided frying pan to 325°F/165°C. Roll out the chilled dough on a generously floured counter or cutting board to 1/2 in/12 mm thick, or about 8 in/20 cm in diameter, flouring the top of the dough and the rolling pin as necessary to prevent sticking. Cut into as many doughnuts and holes as possible, dipping the cutter into flour before each cut. Fold and gently reroll the dough to make extra holes (working with floured hands makes the dough less sticky), and cut again.
Shake any excess flour off the doughnuts before carefully adding them to the hot oil a few at a time, taking care not to crowd them. Once the doughnuts float, fry for 15 seconds, then gently flip them. Fry for 75 to 90 seconds, until golden brown and cracked, then flip and fry the first side again for 60 to 75 seconds, until golden brown. Transfer to a rack set over paper towels/absorbent paper.
Simplest Vanilla Glaze
Place the confectioner’s/icing sugar, corn /golden syrup, salt, vanilla and hot water in a large mixing bowl or in the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Using a whisk, or with the machine on low, blend until the mixture is smooth and all of the sugar has been incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula if necessary. If the glaze seems too thick, add more water, a teaspoon at a time.
To glaze, dip one side of each hot doughnut into the warm glaze, and let dry for 10 to 15 seconds before serving.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

June 1, 2013 by Jenna Leave a Comment

I don’t know what you would call this but no matter what it is delicious! It’s kind of like a cross between a smoothie and a milk shake. So what would that be called a Smoothshake? I love banana ice cream. If you’ve never tried that before you just cut up some bananas into chunks and freeze them for an hour, and then blend them in a food processor. It’s a very healthy ice cream! This is kind of the same concept. You blend some frozen bananas together until they become a frozen smooth consistency and then add in some greek yogurt, milk, and peanut butter. So good and yummy.

I had bought some bananas at the grocery store and they turned ripe pretty fast. Going to make some banana ice cream with those later on. A good way to use up those ripe bananas.

The lilacs are in full bloom and they aren’t lasting long because of the crappy weather. I got a quick picture of them the other day ago. The sun just doesn’t want to come it seems lately. It’s been cold and windy.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas (cut into chunks and frozen)
1/4 cup of greek vanilla flavored yogurt
1/4 cup of 1% milk
1-2 tablespoons of peanut butter

Directions:

Blend bananas in a blender until they’re a smooth consistency. Add in all the rest of the ingredients
and blend together until smooth. Enjoy.

Breakfast Quinoa

May 11, 2013 by Jenna Leave a Comment

If you like having oatmeal for breakfast quinoa is kind of like that, but it’s like a fancier upgrade to oatmeal. To cook quinoa all you do is boil it in some water or milk. Usually 1 cup of quinoa you use 2 cups of liquid and just boil the quinoa until it all the water evaporates. The organic quinoa was rather expensive at my store. 1 cup was 4.98 a pound. That is quite a lot, so maybe opt for the non-organic kind. I know Trader Joe’s has bags of quinoa in their store, not exactly sure on the price of it though.

Quinoa is SUPER healthy too. 1 cup has 8 grams of protein in it and has more fiber than any other grain. I actually like this more than regular rolled oats now. You can add basically whatever type of fruit you want to quinoa and nuts to give you even more protein value!

This recipe makes 2 whole cups of quinoa so there’s 2 servings for the whole recipe. 1 cup is A LOT so this is really filling.

Breakfast Quinoa recipe from Martha Stewart

Servings: 2

1 cup

Calories: 260, Fat: 4.37g, Carbs: 43.76g, Fiber: 3.3g, Protein: 12.74g

Points Plus: 7

Ingredients

2 cups whole or low-fat milk, plus more for serving
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
3 tablespoons light-brown sugar, plus more for serving
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for serving
1 cup (1/2 pint) fresh blueberries, plus more for serving

Directions

Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa, and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until three-quarters of the milk has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Stir in sugar and cinnamon. Cook, covered, until almost all the milk has been absorbed, about 8 minutes. Stir in blueberries, and cook for 30 seconds. Serve with additional milk, sugar, cinnamon, and blueberries.