Peaches and Cream Muffins

Lately, my husband and I have been enjoying weekend-quality breakfasts even on weekdays. Call it the blessing of a wife on summer break! This morning, I wanted to try a new recipe rather than making my typical pancakes or waffles. Without strawberries, I hesitate to make crepes.

Muffins + Eggs = perfect!

As any good mom of a toddler, I have several varieties of canned fruit to augment the fresh fruit that's in season. So, I pulled out a trusty can of peaches packed in juice to tinker with a recipe from the Dean brothers (of Paula Dean fame) that I saw on Food Network.com. Needless to say, the first ingredient to be changed was the cup of butter...

Note: The recipe calls for self-rising flour. You can make your own with all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.

Peaches and Cream Muffins
Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup fat free sour cream
1/3 cup sugar or Splenda for Baking
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (15-ounce) can sliced peaches, drained and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, butter, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Gently fold in the peaches.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a serving platter and serve immediately or transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, before storing.

Makes 10-12 muffins.

Husband-loving Heart Healthy Apple Muffins (Bread)

One of the highlights of summertime is the county fair. We live two streets away from the festivities and walk or bike there every day to enjoy the milkshakes, animals, and carnival games. Every year, there are also two baking contests sponsored by the local 4H Homemakers group. This year, I developed a heart-healthy quick bread recipe to enter in the open class contest.

Mike was super sweet about tasting several iterations of this recipe, as a bread machine bread as well as a muffin, while I honed the quantity of apple, type of apple, and amount of spices. He is always supportive of my projects, big or small. A comment on apple variety: go traditional with Granny Smith, sweet with Gala.

Husband-loving Apple Muffins/Bread
A Heart-healthy (low cholesterol/high fiber) Recipe

½ c Egg beaters
¼ c 2% milk
1/3 c canola oil
¼ c applesauce
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c oat bran flour
1/2 c all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
½ c Splenda for baking
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ c apple, diced

1 Tbsp sugar

Combine all the ingredients except the 1 Tbsp sugar, and then spoon into muffin cups. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

If you prefer a loaf of bread in the oven, bake in a prepared pan at 350 for approximately 1 hour. (Don't forget the sprinkling of sugar on top!)

Lastly, you can dust off your bread machine to use this same recipe. Add the ingredients in the order listed, but omit the last Tbsp of sugar. Bake in the quick bread setting.

Sweet Surprise

Ever have one of those days that you just crave sweets? It's a rainy day and I've wanted to eat sweets since waking up this morning. I'm proud to report that I had healthy Kashi Go Lean cereal with skim milk and raisins for breakfast and plenty of water, but the sweet tooth was still acting up.

Soooo, I made lunch (yes, at 10am). Last week, someone mentioned to me that she loves to roast red cabbage. I remembered her recommendation on grocery day and bought a beautiful cabbage. After spending the last three days in the back bottom of the fridge, the cabbage was diced and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and Splenda. I roasted the cabbage at 400 degrees for ten minutes. Holy cow!! It was almost entirely tender, with a delicious sweetness that fills your senses. I never thought cabbage would fulfill a yearning for sweets, but it sure does!

Roasted Red Cabbage
1/2 a small red cabbage, diced
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
pepper
2 packets Splenda

Dice the red cabbage, then drizzle with oil and vinegar. Sprinkle the cabbage with pepper and Splenda, then bake at 400 degrees until tender (about ten minutes). Serve warm. Serves 2. (Ok, it should serve 2, but I ate all of it by myself.)

Irish Stew

I love planning special menus for holidays. Not just Thanksgiving & Christmas, but ANY holiday. Today is St. Patrick's Day, so it's time for the annual soda bread, Irish stew, and teasing from my husband about the one day a year it smells like beer outside at my alma mater...

My sweet husband enjoyed this meal so much, he asked if there were any other Irish holidays we could commemorate with this delicious meal. That sure is nice to hear!

Although traditional Irish Stew recipes use lamb seared in bacon fat, I took the liberty of using pork and olive oil. The results are magnificent. The pork is super tender, the broth so savory a toddler will keep you busy feeding HIM your broth, and the vegetables are tender and delicious. The stew has enough potatoes to stick to your ribs, but not so much that you feel guilty about the carbs.

I served this stew with Weight Watcher's recipe for Irish Soda Bread.


Irish Stew
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 green pepper, diced (traditionally, this would be onion)
garlic cloves, minced
3 potatoes, diced
2 c beef broth
1/2 c white wine (I used leftover Chardonnay)
1 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 pork chops, cut into 1" cubes
2 Tbsp flour
olive oil

Saute the diced veggies in olive oil. Meanwhile, coat the pork cubes in seasoned flour. Sear the pork cubes in batches (so the pan doesn't get crowded). Place all ingredients in a crock pot on High for six hours.