Maple Spice Muffins

My co-author (Little Frances' Mommy) has been raving about the cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld for months now. I FINALLY remembered to look for it in my local bookstore, however I was only able to find her second cookbook "Double Delicious". Since I was anxious to test some of her recipes, I purchased it.

Only 2 days after buying, I was ready to try some recipes; today's recipe comes from "Double Delicious! Good, Simple Food for Busy, Complicated Lives" by Jessica Seinfeld.

Ingredients:

• Non stick cooking spray or paper baking cups
• 1/4 cup trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread (other butters could be substituted)
• 1/2 pure maple syrup
• 1-6 oz container of low fat lemon yogurt (I used fat free greek yogurt for extra protein; fat free was the only lemon greek yogurt I could find)
• 1/2 cup non fat sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 1 large carrot, washed and grated
• 1 small apple, grated
• 1/2 cup raisins (I accidentally ommitted this, but I am glad I did raisins are a major choking hazard and I would have needed to remove them or chop them super small for Little Joy)
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I have no idea what pastry flour is, mine is just 100% whole wheat flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/4 teaspoon slat

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.
3. In a large bowl, stir together margarine, maple syrup, yogurt, sour cream, egg, carrot, apple and raisins, breaking up the margarine with a spoon.
4. In a separate smaller bowl (about 4 cup size) combine all remaining ingredients (this should be all the dry ingredients).
5. Sprinkle the dry ingredient mixture over the margarine mixture.
6. Stir JUST until combine; do not over mix. The mixture will be quite lumpy.
7. Divide batter among 12 muffin cups (it will look like the muffins cups are very full, but that's ok).
8. Bake until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle (about 20-25 minutes). I did allow mine to get too brown because I was worried they would dry out knowing this was a "healthy" recipe; the peaks of my muffins were slightly browned when a toothpick came out clean.
9. Serve warm.

Yield: 12 muffins

Timing: I would wait until 12 months and be sure your little one knows how to chew drier ingredients. Again, since my little one had molars by about 12-13 months I could give her more advanced foods early. These muffins are the texture of moist bread, so a 12 month old should be able to eat it fine, just break it up small. If your child is older, they can probably handle larger pieces.

Storage: The author recommends storing muffins in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or wrapping individually and freezing for a month.

Tip: If you are making this for breakfast, combine your dry ingredients the night/day before and place in a sealed container to save time in the morning. Also, shred carrots the night/day before and place in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator. I would not recommend shredding the apple the night before as it will brown and get too juicy. It only took me about 10-15 minutes this morning to get the muffins in the oven since I did a little prep work. I can use all the extra sleep I can get right now (28 weeks pregnant right now).

Miscellaneous: Only down side to these is some of these ingredients might not be in your pantry already. Also, fun side note if you make this according to the recipe without my alterations there are only 195 calories per muffin.

Difficulty: 2 out of 3; it is actually quick and easy especially if you follow the tip above.

Epicutie Rating: YUMMY IN THE TUMMY--see right side of page for descriptions

Little Joy ate an entire muffin and was all smiles the entire time! My hubby and I loved them too. They are no fatty blueberry muffin, but still super delicious. Makes you feel good to know that you ate something healthy and nutritious!

Step 3: All "wet" ingredients combined. I shredded my carrots vs grated and it was fine.

Step 4: All dry ingredients; it smelled SO good!

Step 7: Ready to bake

Done!

She saw the muffins and started licked her hand in excitement!

First bite!

CHEW, CHEW, CHEWING it!!!

All gone and happy she has a full tummy; do you think she loved them??

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Many readers have told me they are looking for recipes with "hidden" veggies so when I saw this recipe in my "Parent's" magazine, I knew I had to try it. I was so excited to test this recipe on our whole family because anything with cinnamon and blueberries is right up our alley and the best part----zucchini is hidden inside.

For those of you who do NOT like zucchini please do not be discouraged by this recipe. The zucchini flavor is completely hidden and all you taste is the blueberry cinnamon goodness! Try it and I think you will love it!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (I used regular whole wheat flour and it worked fine)
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup oil (olive oil can be used but it make change the flavor, I used vegetable oil even though I generally try to stay away from it, but on occasion its perfectly fine)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1 cup blueberries

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly coat the bottom of a mini loaf pan or one regular loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine first 8 ingredients; set aside.
4. In a separate smaller bowl combine eggs, oil and vanilla; add to flour mixture and stir until combined.
5. Gently stir in zucchini and then blueberries.
6. Spoon batter in to prepared pan(s).
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes for mini loaf pans, about an hour for a 9 inch loaf pan OR until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan (tip: loosen the bread by inserting a table knife around the edges).
9. Serve warm or cool completely and re-heat to serve.

Yeild: One loaf pan or eight mini loaves.

Timing: Provided you have introduced all these ingredients seperately AND know eggs are not an allergen, I would recommend this as early as 12 months (maybe as soon as 10 months if you have a good chewer).

Storage: Fresh for a few days or up to 3 months in the freezer.

Miscellaneous: I think the bread would have been a bit more moist if I had used the pastry wheat flour, but it still turned out great.

Difficulty: 2 our of 5; pretty easy stuff for the deliciousness that it produces!

Epicutie Rating: Yummy in the Tummy--see right side of page for descriptions.

I was totally not surprised that Little Joy was prepared to devour as much Blueberry Zucchini Bread as I would give her. The light sweetness and hint of cinnamon seemed to tickle her fancy---this was a big hit!

Ingredients

Recipe from my "Parents" magazine

Step 3: Combine first 8 ingredients (dry ingredients)

Step 5: All ingredients combined.

Step 6: Spoon batter into pan.

Cooling

Cooling

See that grin behind the bite?

MORE!

AND MORE!