Yogurt lunch ideas

I have this yogurt thing that I've been taking for lunch lately.  I recently discovered that greek yogurt is very different than regular old Dannon.  The smell doesn't bother me and it is a great substitute for mayo and has a lot of uses in baking.  Fat-free greek yogurt is so creamy an delicious and good for you!!  I have settles on Fage as the best greek yogurt.  I have tried pretty much every brand at this point searching for the best one, but Fage is creamy and not too sour and it's not that expensive, plus it comes in the biggest container.  So I invented this yogurt lunch thing and people at work keep asking me about it, so here's what I do...

Pumpkin Apple Greek Yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fat-free greek yogurt- Fage is my favorite
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin- I get the 365 Whole Foods brand
• 1 apple- diced and microwaved for 3 minutes
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp sugar or 2 packets stevia
• handful of oats
• raisins or craisins (optional)
• nuts (optional)

Method:

First I dice and microwave my apple, sometimes I use pear and sometimes I throw banana in there too.  The apple is the only one that I microwave though, it just has such a great flavor when it's cooked.  Then once that is cooked for 3 minutes I throw it in with the yogurt and pumpkin and mix it.  The warm fruit warms the yogurt and is really nice.  Add the cinnamon and sweetener and mix it.  Now you can eat it without the oats, but I like a little crunchy oat on top, with the cinnamon and apple, the oat is a nice addition.  Sometimes I add raisins, craisins, or something else for a little pop.  You could definitely add nuts, pecans would probably be really nice with the pumpkin.  I could also see a little coconut or even chocolate chips if you wanted to get fancy.  In the end, this is a pretty low fat, lean protein lunch.  I bring it to work a lot in tupperware and eat it when I have 5 minutes free.  It is really delicious and as I said before, everyone always asks me about it and then thinks that I'm some sort of cook because it sounds very complicated to make.  Meanwhile I just dump everything together and stir it up while I'm making my morning coffee.  Ha.  Well give it a try and enjoy!

Mini banana muffins are better when rolled in cinnamon sugar

I made these banana muffins yesterday and they turned out good, but a little white looking as my mother pointed out.  They were definitely cooked through, but hadn't gotten any color on top.  This was partly my fault for not adding any whole wheat flour to the recipe, a lot of times that's how I hearty-up an anemic looking muffin.  If you use only white flour a muffin turns out more like a cupcake and loses it's breakfast appeal.

Banana Oatmeal Cinnamon Mini-Muffins with Golden Raisins
Recipe adapted from Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 mashed overripe banana
• 1/2 cup raisins

• cinnamon sugar for dusting 

Method:

Preheat your oven to 400 and spray two mini-muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.  In a small bowl add oats to milk and let soak while preparing batter.  Mix flour, b powder, b soda, and salt in a small bowl, set aside.  In another bowl mash the bananas and add b sugar, egg, and oil.  Add milk and oat mixture to bananas.  Now pour the wet into the dry and fold to combine, add raisins and fold a couple of more times.  Don't over-mix at this point.  Divvy the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 12 minutes.  Test the center of the muffin, it should bounce back when you poke it, better a little under than over-done.  Pull the muffins out of the oven and while still warm throw them into a bowl of cinnamon sugar.  Completely coat the muffins and then let them cool on a wire rack.  Enjoy!!

Apple cinnamon muffins

Saturday morning and the guys are here refinishing the floors.  To combat the smell of polyurethane I decided to bake some cinnamon muffins.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Oats and Almonds
Recipe adapted from My Recession Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups ap flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon 
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup soy milk 
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 3 apples worth of peeled and cored apple chunks
• 1 cup rolled oats
• almonds for topping

Method: 

Preheat oven to 430.  Paper a 12-cup muffin tin.  Mix flours, cinnamon, b soda, b powder, salt in one bowl.  Mix sugar, milk, apple sauce, oil, vinegar, vanilla, and molasses in another bowl.  Mix dry into wet and then mix in oats and apple chunks.  Divide into muffin tins and top with 3 almonds each and sprinkle of cinnamon.  Put into oven and turn temp down to 400.  Bake for about 25 mins.  

Wedding cookies?

I was calling these wedding cookies but apparently they are called "will you marry me cookies" because they are so good that someone will fall in love with you if you bake them. So obviously I made them for my mom.

Will You Marry Me Cookies
(Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Oat Cookies)
Recipe adapted from The Cooking Channel

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup uncooked rolled oats
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup dark  chocolate chips
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

In a small saucepan melt butter, remove from the heat and add the sugars.  Let the pan cool for 10 mins add egg yolks and vanilla and whisk to combine.  In a separate bowl Mix all of the dry ingredients, pour the butter mixture to the dry and combine.  (Can be done in a mixer).  Add the chocolate chips and combine.  Chill the mixture for about 30 minutes and then place walnut-sized balls of dough onto prepared cookie sheets and bake in 325 degree oven 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.  

Muffin Thursday: peach muffs

Fresh Jersey peaches plus oats and brown sugar.  But not a whole lot of brown sugar.  Which makes this muffin not so bad for you.  Portable breakfast.  Like oatmeal you can hold in your hand.  I actually threw these together the other night after dinner while my friend's birthday cake was in the oven.  My peaches were about a day away from being too ripe so I recycled them into a muffin.

Peach Oat Muffins
Adapted from Alida's Kitchen

Ingredients:
(dry)

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup rolled oats

(wet)

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 peaches cut up and mashed

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray (or line with paper liners).  In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In a large bowl, combine all wet ingredients.  Fold wet into dry. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Chocolate Chip Anzac Biscuits

Have you ever heard of Anzac Biscuits? I started seeing recipes for them on taste spotting a few months ago and I loved their golden color. As usual I was sold by the awesome cookie photos. Apparently they are an Australian cookie that used to be made very thick and hardy and they kept well, for this reason soldiers took them to eat during war time.

This recipe comes from Whisks and Whimsy. The only changes that I made were to use honey instead of golden syrup and I added chocolate chips. I baked my cookies in a little longer to get the desired brown-ness, they really can't get over cooked because they're supposed to be really crispy.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut or unsweetened finely shredded coconut
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix flour, oats, coconut, and salt in bowl and set aside.
Mix boiled water and b soda in small bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar.
Add honey and mix to combine.
Add b soda/water mixture to bowl and mix just til combined.
Add dry ingredients and mix til combined.
Add chocolate chips and mix in.

Drop tablespoon sized balls on cookie sheet, I pushed mine down to be little discs, they don't have to be really far apart because the cookies don't spread as much as regular chocolate chip ones do.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies have achieved desired brown-ness. I let mine get pretty good and brown.
Let them cool on the sheet, they are really soft when you pull them out of the oven, but they harden on the sheet so don't start picking at them until the coconut really hardens up- about 15 mins.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins with Raspberry Jam

It's peanut buller jelly time!! So my friend's boyfriend takes peanut butter and jelly to work every day for lunch (yeah I know) and that was my inspiration for this muffin. If Joe was going to eat a muffin this would be it. I'm thinking about peanut butter jelly cupcakes for his birthday.

This recipe comes from lovefoodeat. It's pretty healthy. I didn't add any sugar because I put in extra banana and I backed off on the peanut butter a bit. It's all whole wheat flour and it's actually vegan because of the flax meal instead of eggs.

I experimented with a new baking technique on this recipe. I am now preheating the oven to 425 and baking the muffins for a few minutes to get a nice crust and a puffy muffin, then I turn it down to 400 or so and bake them the rest of the way. So far good results!! Really nice crusty top. Which I loooooove. This might be my new thing.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp ground flax seed + 4 tbsp water
3 mashed bananas
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 cup water

jelly of your choosing- I used raspberry

flax seeds (for sprinkling on top)

Method:

Preheat oven to 425
Mix flaxseed powder and water, keep it aside. Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well (1st paragraph). In a separate bowl, mash bananas and add all other wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) and mix well. Pour the dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix till everything is combined. Do not over mix. Grease your 12 cup muffin tin and pour about 2 tbsp of batter into each cup. Then spoon in 1 tsp of jelly into each cup. Then with your remaining batter cover the jelly taking care to spread the batter evenly between each cup- don't run out. If you want bigger puffier muffins only use 9 cups. Sprinkle some whole flax seeds on top for looks. Bake the muffins for 3 minutes at 425 and then turn the temp town to 400 and bake for another 12 minutes or until they bounce back to the touch. Let them cool and enjoy!!

Muffin Thursday: Olive Oil Blueberry Muffins

This recipe comes to us from Giada De Laurentiis via Food Librarian.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup oats

1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons 2% milk
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 400.
Mix dry ingredients (1st paragraph) in small bowl.
Mix wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) in another bowl.
Mix dry into wet just until combined.
Fold in blueberries.
Put batter into muffin cups and bake about 25 minutes or until they bounce back to the touch and knife comes out clean.

Coconut Banana Oatmeal Bars

I was feeling adventurous today... I took a simple bar recipe and made it into a delicious combination of natural sweetness with a butterscotch surprise.

So if you leave out the peanut butter and the butterscotch chips this recipe is crazy healthy- no added sugar, no gluten, no animal products. It's vegan, gluten-free, and sugar conscious. You can definitely add nuts, chocolate chips, any kind of seed or other fruit you want, a tbsp of molasses would make it darker and richer, I think the possibilities are endless. Next time I want to try baking it in a smaller pan so they come out thicker, because they don't rise they stay short and dense. It might be nice to have them thicker and crustier on the outside with a soft inside. Some sort of crusty top might be nice too, like coconut or oats on the top that will get toasted and brown. Hmmm...

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/3 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

2 large, ripe bananas
2 apples, peeled and grated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peanut butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 350
Line a 9x9 pan with tin foil and brush foil lightly with canola oil
In one bowl combine all dry ingredients- 1st paragraph
In another bowl combine all wet ingredients- 2nd paragraph
Combine wet and dry and pour into pan
With a fork press the mixture flat into the pan
Bake for about 35 mins or until the bars are brown and toasted on the edges
Let sit for a few minutes- they do taste really good warm so you can eat them right away
Keep in tupperware in fridge because of the fruit

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Coconut Oat Cookies

I knew I was going to see my friend Maya tonight so I searched gluten-free cookie recipes on food gawker (basically just like taste spotting) and came up with a few interesting returns. I liked the looks of this recipe because it uses generic gluten-free flour (which I buy in bulk from the Co-op) and oat flour which I can make in the food processor. However it calls for Xantham Gum and Gwar Gum but I read that you can just sub ground flax seed so I did. I added the chocolate chips to make this the best gluten-free cookie that I have made to date.

1 cup all purpose gluten free flour (like Bob’s Red Mill Brand)
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut
3/4 tsp ground flax seed
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oats
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Measure out the flours, coconut, flax seed, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices into a bowl and whisk to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl cream the butter with the sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, then stir in the oats and chocolate.
4. Scoop 2 tbsp-sized balls using a spoon, form into balls, flatten slightly and place on a cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes. You may need to slightly flatten out the cookies before baking to avoid weird shapes because the oat flour is so dense that it doesn't melt into a perfectly shaped cookie like regular AP flour.

The cookies are done when they have a nice brown color and are set to the touch, they will bake more on the sheet once you pull them out of the oven so don't overdo it in the oven.

Muffin Thursday: Chai Spice

Starting something new today: Muffin Thursdays. Every week a new muffin recipe. This week we're doing Chai Muffins. I got the idea from a combination of a chamomile cupcake recipe and chai shortbread cookies. I still want to try the chamomile in a muffin at some point. So I changed some of the proportions and added a few things to make these muffins more hearty and rustic.

(Makes 6 muffins)

Ingredients:

1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C AP Flour
1/3 C Bran Flakes
1/2 C Oats
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Allspice
2 Bags Chai Tea- put tea leaves right into dry ingredients bowl

1/2 C Sugar
2 Tbsp Molasses
1/2 C Milk
1 Egg
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 C Apple sauce or more if mix looks dry once wet and dry combined

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all dry ingredients (first paragraph of ingredients list) and set and set aside.
Combine all wet ingredients (2nd paragraph) and set aside
Pour dry into wet bowl and mix just until flour is absorbed. If mix is dry add a little milk or applesauce, if too wet throw in some more oats and mix just until combined.
Drop batter into muffin tins and fill just to the top or a little over,
Bake for 10-12 mins and then check them, they should bounce back to the touch and a knife should come out clean when stuck in the middle.

Enjoy!!

Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

My mom and I made these from Natalie's Killer Kitchen for my mom's school. When we made the crust we doubled the crumble part of the recipe to cover the top of the bars- the original recipe didn't make enough to cover the top. But when we baked them the filling absorbed all of the top crumb so next time we will try to stick the original recipe and let the top be a little naked.

Crust

1 cup AP Flour
1 cup Quick Cooking Oats
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
6 TBS Butter, melted
3 TBS Orange Juice

Filling

1 1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
3/4 cup Sour Cream (I used light)
1/2 cup Sugar
3 TBS AP Flour
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Orange Zest
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

1. Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, in a large bowl and combine with a spoon until clump free and evenly mixed. Add the butter and orange juice and mix with a spoon until fully combined. Press half of the crust mixture into a prepared 11×7 inch baking dish.
2. In a separate bowl add the cranberries, sour cream, sugar, flour, orange zest and egg. Mix until fully combined. Spread cranberry mixture over prepared crust; sprinkle reserved oat mixture evenly over filling. Bake for 40 minutes, or until edges are golden. Cool completely before cutting.

Photo Credit: Natalie's Killer Kitchen