Everything-But-The-Kitchen-Sink Healthy Muffins!

They're so cute, it seems like a sin to eat them 😦

As promised… here are the fantabulously amazing, awesome, fibre-packed, super-healthy, vitamin-filled, and oh-so-adorable… Whole Wheat and Spelt Flour Orange-Carrot-Apple-Cranberry-Buttermilk-Sunflower-Oatmeal Mini Muffins!
-pause to take breath-

Or, as I prefer to call them, Everything But the Kitchen Sink Muffins.

But before you get the muffins, you get a story. Forced upon you, I know.

I love muffins. Love them. And I’ve always wanted to try something made with spelt, being the health nut I am. And so, my Auntie Sue found a recipe online, which we just barely followed. I mean, we added our own ingredients, ingredient quantities, and … just about everything else. Once we got back from church, devoured some mexican quesadillas my aunt made (we both have an undying love for anything wrapped in tortillas) and had watched an interview from Jay Leno she had recorded for me on her all-new PVR, we set to work.
And then once the first last batch was baking in the oven, she started complaining about more ingredients we should have added in, which I’ve included on my updated list.

My aunt’s probably the healthiest person in our family, other than me. And that’s saying something. Anyways, the bottom line is, grab the crap you have in your pantry, grab someone you love, and don’t eat all of these in an entire sitting!

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Mini-Muffins
Makes 36 mini-muffins, or about 12 regular muffins

Ingredients

• 1cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/3cup wheat germ (preferably toasted)
• 3/4cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup spelt flour
• scant 1/3cup sugar
• 2tbsp flaxmeal
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2tsp baking soda
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/2cup roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1/2tsp cinnamon (not included in our batch)
• 3/4cup dried cranberries
• 1 1/3cup buttermilk
• 3tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large egg
• 1tbsp grated orange zest
• 1tsp pure orange extract
• 1/4cup grated carrot
• 1/4cup grated apple

1. Toast oats on a cookie sheet in a pre-heated 350*F oven for about 5-6 minutes. If using untoasted wheat germ, heat in a dry frying pan on High for about 5 mins, stirring frequently.
2. Raise oven temperature to 375*F.
3. Combine dry ingredients (the grated apple, carrot & orange zest do not count as dry; the berries do!) in a large mixing bowl.
4. Combine wet ingredients, minus the egg, in a smaller mixing bowl. Beat egg in separate bowl until white + yolk are just mixed. Add egg to wet ingredients.
5. Create a small “well” in the dry ingredients, then pour your liquid mixture into the centre.
6. Mix all ingredients together until you can no longer see any wet flour.
7. Grease 3 mini-muffin tins very very well with Pam (or another vegetable oil spray). If you have fewer than 3, the muffins can be done in batches, so long as the tin is re-greased each time.
8. Place muffin tins in oven, bake for 20mins.

So there you have them, the most decadent creations I’ve had in a long, long time… hope to see everyone tomorrow 🙂 God bless you and yours, and have a great night!

-Caitlin

PS: I hope everyone remembered to turn their clocks back one hour last night! Tee-hee!

UPDATE 8/11/11
I’ve calculated the nutrition facts for you all 🙂

The serving size is 1 mini muffin, 1/3 of a large muffin!

 

Scrumptious Yogurt Parfait

I know, I said the posts wouldn’t start up again until tomorrow… But I couldn’t resist posting my go-to breakfast, snack, dessert… It’s so wonderful, it can be any of these.
Whether I’ve mentioned this before or not, I have no idea. But I am a yogurt fanatic. It’s just such a great source of protein, calcium and vitamins (in the fruit-based kinds, anyways). Plus, it’s delicious, and low-cal to boot!
Now, yogurt parfait is definitely my favorite way to inhale consume the fermented milk. And vanilla happens to be my fav flav, but I’ve substituted it for raspberry when I’ve run out, and this parfait still tastes wonderful. Check out the recipe below!

Caitlin’s Super Healthy Yogurt Parfait
Serves 1

100g yogurt cup (any flavor/ fat-free Splenda sweetened is preferred)
1 1/2 tbsp Fibre 1 cereal
2 tbsp frozen wild blueberries

Layer ingredients, starting with yogurt on the bottom, followed by cereal, and topped with blueberries.
Eat, savoring every mouthful 🙂 (I eat everything with a Gerber brand baby spoon… This is no exception)

Nutrition Facts
Calories: 98; Total Fat: 0.3g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Total Carbs: 20g (Fiber: 8g/32% DV; Sugars: 1.2g); Protein: 5.1g; Vitamin C: 2%

 

Satisfy your Cookie Cravings!

So, it’s that time of the month again – No, not that time, I mean the time where when you’re trying to watch your sweets intake, cravings strike! Well, by making this scrumptious cookies (courtesy of Oxygen, one of my favourite fitness magazines!), you can crush those cravings with chocolatey, nutty, healthy, greatness.

Ingredients

• 1/2cup oats (organic is always the best!)
• 1tbsp almond butter (a much healthier substitute for peanut butter, but if unavailable, use an equal amount of all natural peanut butter!)
• 1 scoop whey protein powder (if it’s chocolate, even tastier!)
• 1 egg white
• 2 packets of Stevia (an all-natural sugar replacement) for taste
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• 1/8cup carob chips (a high-fiber substitute for chocolate chips with the same great taste)

1. Preheat oven to 350*F (176*C). Line cookie sheet with parchment paper
2. Combine all ingredients together in a mixing bowl and mix with clean hands
3. Shape dough into golf-ball sized balls. Place onto cookie sheet, about 1½ inches (4cm) apart. Bake for about 10 min, serve.

Nutrition Facts per cookie:

Calories: 30, Total Fats: 1g, Saturated/Trans Fats: 0g, Cholesterol: 5mg, Sodium: 15mg, Carbs: 3g, Fiber:0g, Sugars: 1g, Protein: 2g

 

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

You’ve seen them – they’re everywhere. Smoothies have taken over the general public, and they’re slurping them up thinking, “Hey, this is healthy and tasty!”

Tasty? Yes. Healthy? Goodness, no!

Fast food and doughnut joints like McDonalds & Tim Hortons have recently started new lines of smoothies, and one of their most popular flavours is Strawberry-Banana. Order it from there? You get something very tasty in under a minute. Make it at home? You get something just as tasty (if not more!) in about 2-3 minutes. I’d choose the latter.

You see, when you make it yourself, you know exactly what’s going into it. Restaurant chains say that you get a whole serving of fruit – but it’s ixnayed by all of the sugars, preservatives and artificial flavourings that’re knocked into there.

So, I know that there are about 250,000 other web-pages and blogs that could tell you how to make this kind of smoothie, and some probably taste better than mine. But what I’m here for is just this, to spread my ideas to the world. And smoothies just happen to be a forte of mine.

Ingredients

• 1 medium banana (pre-frozen and cut up; about 8 chunks)
• 7-9 average-sized strawberries (increase amount accordingly if the berries are abnormally large/small; cold but not frozen)
• 1/2 cup Silk PureAlmond almond milk
• 1/4 cup white cranberry juice (Ocean Spray is preferred by me, but there are lots of others)
• 1 tsp lemon juice (of course, freshly squeezed from an actual lemon is unparalleled, but I suppose ReaLemon is the leading substitute)
• a pinch of salt
• Whey protein powder (Optional) (The best is Precision All-Natural, which is raised without any artificial growth hormones and contains no artificial colour/flavour)

1. Pour almond milk and white cranberry juice into blender
2. Pop fruits into blender
3. Fasten lid onto blender and use ice crusher until fruit is light pink (at this point, add just a little more almond milk, depending on how thick or thin you want your smoothie)
4. Puree until smooth, about 6-9 seconds
5. Add lemon juice, salt and whey
6. Puree for another 5 seconds or so, until smooth
7. Pour and enjoy

Note that there will be strawberry seeds in the mixture; if you want you can strain it, but it will take a while…

 

Liquid Salad

An interesting recipe that speeds up your fat metabolism to the max when you don’t have enough time to make a super smoothie!

8oz vegetable juice (Mott’s Garden Cocktail or V8 are my favs!)
2tbsp Green Superfood (Greens+ or AmazingGrass are great!)

Mix it all together to counteract toxins, flush out excess water and, as aforementioned, superboost metabolism!