Whole Wheat Banana Bread Muffins

Today was sugar overload.

First, there were cookies. A new co-worker had her first day today and her boss enticed people to come introduce themselves by putting a plate of cookies on her desk. It worked.

Then, there were Smarties and Caramel Cremes. I was helping another co-worker with an issue when I saw she put my favorite candy in the candy dish on her desk.

Now, I’ve made banana bread muffins. It’s a perfectly acceptable way to cap a sugar overloaded day. I’ll eat better tomorrow.

At least these banana bread muffins are on the healthier side of things. Besides, I had some seriously black bananas that probably couldn’t wait.

Honestly, I don’t know how these even turned out. I’m not a stellar baker so changing up a baked goods recipe is like playing with fire. But yet, I felt up to the challenge.

I was almost out of all-purpose flour so I made them with whole wheat pastry flour and what little all-purpose flour I had. I was supposed to have low fat yogurt but all I could find in small containers was nonfat.

Oh, and it’s supposed to be loaf – not muffins.

But I didn’t have enough banana to make a whole loaf and making half a loaf is sort of impossible — especially when only you own a standard-sized loaf pan. So muffins it is.

If it worked for my beloved zucchini bread, it can work for this, gosh darn it. At least that’s what I was hoping for when I put them in the oven.

And….



Ta-da!

It worked.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread Muffins
Serves 14.

2 cups whole wheat pastry
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 14 muffin cups (I did half this recipe so I only needed the one pan).

Scoop the flour into a measuring cup and level with a knife. Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and the butter on medium speed with a mixer until well-incorporated. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each egg. Add the bananas, yogurt and vanilla extract. Beat together.

On low speed, add the flour on low speed. Beat just until blended.

Divide mixture between the muffin cups. I use a standard sized ice cream scoop for this. Bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick in inserted in the center comes out clean.

Giant Sugar Cookies

All of a sudden, these Giant Sugar Cookies were all I could think about. The craving came out of nowhere and was definitely serious.

I've made these cookies a lot — probably a lot more than I'd care to admit considering they aren't a "light" or "healthy" cookie in any way shape or form. If I'm going to bake — it's going to be the real deal.

I made them half the size the recipe called for so they'd be at least 200 calories a cookie rather than 400 calories. It doesn't make them a healthy choice, but at least lessens the damage, right? I don't know who I was kidding. I may have made them smaller, but that also tempted me to eat two at a time. So much for willpower.

I dare you to eat just one. Almost impossible.

They turned out just slightly crispy on the edges but softer and chewier in the center. My less giant version were roughly 1.5 tbsp - 2 tbsp of dough (instead of 3) and took about 12 minutes to bake. You want them to be just turning brown, so they're still chewy in the center.

You can make them even smaller by dropping only a tablespoon of dough and baking 8-10 minutes, but if you're anything like me you'll just end up eating three of them anyhow so you might as well just follow the recipe.

Coffee-Break Muffins

These are probably in my top five favorite muffins ever. And if you like coffee-flavored treats, I'm positive they'll be at the top of your list, too. I first made them more than a year ago back when I worked at my last company. Every month we had a staff meeting and each meeting someone was charged with bringing a snack.

I brought these.

In the middle of going over the table of contents for the upcoming issue my boss interrupted himself. "Oh man, these are good."

I made them again for a birthday breakfast at my current company and they were devoured. Since my blueberry muffins didn't go over as well at the last birthday celebration, (might have been because I left out the honey on accident) I made these again.

Not only do they taste great, I have all the ingredients in my pantry. Instant espresso might be a unique ingredient, but other than that, you probably have the ingredients on hand. And considering crappy danish at the grocery store goes for $5 or more, if it's something I can whip up without spending any extra money, I'm in.

Did I mention they are delicious?

Unfortunately the glut of baked goods people brought in today meant not all of muffins were eaten, but my dad seemed more than willing to take them off my hands. It was either that or they'd get tossed. I had one last night— you know.. to make sure I was serving something edible. But that's all I really wanted. I'm not one who can "casually" snack on baked goods.

And these aren't low cal. Sure, you could probably mess it by cutting back on butter.. using some milk.. maybe some unsweetened applesauce. But why mess with perfection?

The recipe for the beauties can be found online straight from the source: Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Orange-Berry Muffins

I love my apartment. For one, it's cheap considering it's a large-ish one bedroom apartment in a good area. Plus, it's an older building that's built the way it should be. I've lived in a few newer complexes with absolutely no sound proofing and it was AWFUL. But most of all, I love, love, love my balcony that faces east. It gets a ton of morning sunlight. Now that I've bought a table and chairs for outside, I can read a book in the sun while eating my breakfast. It's a weekend luxury I really enjoy.

This morning I had one of these leftover little beauties from my co-worker's birthday breakfast yesterday. I made Orange-Berry Muffins from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. These turned out a smidge dryer than I would have liked. I didn't have to use quite 3/4 cup of buttermilk and while finding an online version of the recipe I realized I accidentally left out the honey. So maybe that's my issue. Any one with any baking experience know why they were dry-ish? Not really dry, just sort of.

I also had some scrambled eggs and a couple slices of center cut bacon because the pickings at my household are slim. I'm out of bread, out of fruit and out of cereal. Once I get a few loads of laundry out of the way I'm definitely hitting up the grocery store.

Have a great Saturday!

Classic White Bread

I have lots of time on the weekend now that I don't have to work two jobs. LOTS of time. And the boyfriend, who's still finishing school, works only the weekends during the day. So, I am alone most of the time, too.

So I make bread. Specifically, this white bread. Because I'm lazy and because I don't own a stand mixer, I use my mom's bread machine the I "borrowed." I use it to knead the dough and let it go through its first rise in the machine. I take it out for the second rise and let it bake in the oven. It's a few more calories than store bought bread, but nothing beats a homemade loaf. And with the help of the bread machine, it's really simple, too.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be doing the Self Challenge. Instead of following the menu suggestions, I'm using the formula to work it into what I already eat. My friends are also doing the challenge, so visit Mia's blog, chubbyjones.com, and Kim's blog, thekimchallenge.wordpress.com.

Bourbon Fudge Brownie

These are lethal brownies. Lethal to any healthy eating plan, that is. Sure, they're low fat brownies. Sure, they even qualify low calorie brownie, especially considering some of the regular versions with excess sugar and butter and what not.

The problem with the Bourbon Fudge Brownies is that you can't eat just one. At 3 pts. a piece, it really is a bargain — especially for a homebaked brownie made from scratch. They certainly aren't a No Pudge. And they don't have artificial sweeteners, so there's none of that yuck factor.

What they do have, on the other hand, is bourbon. Sweet, sweet booze. And booze makes just about everything taste better. (Unless you're drinking a beer and eating cake. That's not recommended.) If you're strong willed or maybe (like me last week) just don't give a damn, I suggest you give these a try and let me know what you think.

I bet you'll eat an entire row of them straight out of the oven.

Chai-Spiced Biscotti

In college I was a HUGE coffee drinker. I think even that is an understatement. I was probably the happiest person on Earth when the local coffee shop offered free refills. For under $2, I could be overly caffeinated, jittery, and wide-eyed all day long.

But some days it was just too damn hot for coffee. And rather than go through through severe caffeine withdrawal, I slugged down iced vanilla chai lattes. I'm not sure who introduced me to them, but I was hooked.

These days I stay away from these lattes. Drinking excess calories aren't my thing unless it's booze. But I still loved chai. I drink chai tea occaisionally, but it's not the same as the sugary vanilla lattes.

The Chai-Spiced Biscotti, though, could become my new favorite form of chai. The all spice and cinnamon goodness plus the satisfying crunch of biscotti.

I'll warn you. You'll need about an hour of free time to make these. But they are fuss-free ingredients except maybe for the triple sec.

Anyhow, these biscotti may not taste much like real biscotti, but they definitely satisfy the chai craving.

Lemon-Zucchini Muffins

Summer Saturday mornings are my favorite. It's the day I get up at the crack of dawn (for me, it means before 8 a.m. on a weekend) and buy farm-fresh fruits and veggies at a farmers market. Usually, I like to go the the North Market. If I get there around 9:30 a.m., it still hasn't gotten very busy. Last week I picked up sweet corn, blueberries, tomatoes, and garlic.

This week, though, I decided to try the Worthington market. We didn't get there as early as we would have liked—and the crowd was pretty thick. Nonetheless, I picked up some red potatoes, green beans, green onions, and zucchini, which made it into these muffins. They'll make a nice bedtime snack tonight and possibly part of my breakfast this week.

The recipe is from The Wooden Spoon Bread Book. The recipe was for zucchini bread, but in the interest of portion control, I made them into muffins. I got 14 muffins out of the batter at 5 pts. a piece. (Tip: to make them more point-friendly subsitute the oil for an equal amount of applesauce, which makes them 3 pts. a piece)

Lemon-Zucchini Muffins
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ginger
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
zest of one lemon
2 cups of unpeeled, grated zucchini
1/2 cup coursely chopped pecans (you could also use walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375°. Line a muffin tin with paper muffin cups. I also give them a quick spray with cooking spray so the muffins won't stick to the wrappers.

Sift together the first 5 ingredients, through the ginger. Set aside.

In a medium bowl beat the eggs. Beat into the eggs the sugar, oil, and lemon juice. Stir into the egg mixture the zest, grated zucchini, reserved flour mixture, and the nuts.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full. For perfect muffins, try using an ice cream scoop for this. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Thank God It's Friday

Uncle! I'm crying uncle when it comes to the chili. I've seriously had enough. There better be some not so chili-like chili at lunch. I could just eat my dinner for lunch and hope that the pasta and salad they're serving at job #2 is point-friendly. Maybe if I weren't planning to go out for a beer.. or maybe if I didn't just eat TWO of these muffins (luckily they're only 2 pts a piece!) I would consider it. But, I've been lax this week a bit... so maybe for the sake of hopefully seeing a one pound loss, I should stick with the plan for the day. Also must confess to about five Hershey Kisses from the drawer at job #2. It was slow and someone brought in candy. I'll cut my egg and toast snack I have planned Saturday and be fine.

It kills me, btw, that my only muffin wrappers are birthday ones. It's all I could find. Apparently I only need muffin wrappers when they're out of regular ones. Or maybe I'm just dumb and can't find the normal ones. The last package was Scooby-Doo. I served my coworkers raspberry cream cheese muffins in green Scooby-Doo wrappers. Nothing says gourmet muffins like Scooby.

And no Oatmeal-Spice cookies. I was just too tired after work to care. Thirteen hours takes a toll eventually. Tossing chili in the Crockpot was about all I can handle. And finishing the last 1/4 of the Negro Modelo left from the chili and watching the Grey's episode I DVR'ed.

To come tomorrow: Egg Fried Rice and Egg Drop Soup.