Thursday, June 17, 2010

One New and One Old

Let me start with the old recipe. I have made this once before and we liked it but this time it was soooo much better because I made some changes. I got this recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cook book and you can get it here but I will tell you the changes I made.
First I made a whole wheat pizza crust instead of all white flour. You can get a recipe for whole wheat pizza crust anywhere. The Eating Well website has a good one. I cant remember which one I used but next time I will try one that only calls for whole wheat flour and no white flour. I also didnt use any meat, it was vegetarian. I made the crust then baked it for a few minutes. Then I took some black refried beans and heated them up in a pan with some fat free milk, maybe half a cup to soften them up and make them easier to spread. I spread the beans on the crust and then spread taco bell sauce over the beans and added the green chiles and cheese. I baked that for maybe 4 minutes then pulled it out and added the lettuce and tomatoes. I only used half of the dough so the crust was pretty thin but it was really good.

Next is the new recipe. These are called Spiced Apple Cider muffins. They were really good. It calls for maple syrup which I didn't have but they were fine with out it and even fewer calories from the missing sugar.
Here is the recipe

Spiced Apple Cider Muffins


Streusel:

  • 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
  • 4 teaspoons whole-wheat flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts (optional)



Muffins:

  • 1 cup whole-wheat flour
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup apple butter, such as Smucker's
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup apple cider
  • 1/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup canola oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

To prepare streusel: Mix brown sugar, whole-wheat flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in walnuts, if using.

To prepare muffins: Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.

Whisk egg and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in apple butter, syrup, cider, yogurt and oil. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups (they'll be quite full). Sprinkle with the streusel.

Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.



Thursday, June 3, 2010

I had a feeling...

Last month when I weighed in I had a feeling the Wii was wrong. I need to buy a scale. So when I got on this morning it said I had lost 6.4 lbs but the weight was 168. So I think last month was way wrong. However I am in the 160's and I am still closer to my goal than I was a year ago.