Recipe: "Healthier" Bran Muffins

Here's another muffin recipe for you.  Sorry for the lack of real juicy posts lately--I know some of you, or maybe all of you, could care less about the recipes I come up with in my spare time.  I should probably stop baking because all I do is bake and then eat....all of them.  I figured that I won't have homemade baked goods for 6 weeks so why not make as many as I can before leaving.  That includes other items like pizza and gelato, yum!

So I love bran muffins.  Call me a freak or a health snob but I cannot get by without a good bran muffin recipe.  My mom makes the best ones I know--healthier than most places since bran muffins from bakeries, cafes and places like tim hortons, Starbucks and dunkin donuts can pack some serious fat, sugar and calories...yuck.  Why disguise a unhealthy muffin as healthy by tacking on the word bran?  If i'm eating a bran muffin it sure as hell better be a healthy one.

"Healthier" Bran Muffins

half batch. Double if you'd like more!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup brown sugar (or 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar)

1/2 box bran cereal **I used plain bran flakes

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups buttermilk **

I used two cups almond milk and 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 egg/ 1 egg white (if using oil use 2 eggs)

3/4 cup vanilla chobani 0% (or 1 cup oil)

Raisins or other dried fruit to taste

Directions:

1. combine dry ingredients in large bowl

2. make a well

3. combine wet ingredients, make sure to whisk egg together with yogurt or oil.

4. pour wet into the dry

5. mix well

Bake: 400 degrees for 20 minutes

**these are a "bit" chewier than other muffins but I really like them.  My mom complained of the lack of sugar but I found them to be quite enjoyable!

Midnight Muffins: Greek Yogurt Blueberry Muffins

Yesterday was a great day, from start to finish.  I woke up at 7 and made my way to Pilates at the YMCA.  The class was really enjoyable--not having done a pilates class in years I was nervous and voiced my concerns (rather told the instructor) that I was new and asked what equipment to get.  At the end of the class she complimented my form and mentioned that I looked strong in my movements.  I truly appreciated this compliment and it set the day off to a great start.  Pilates was followed with some bike then lifting where I ran into two friends from high school so it was more of a reunion if anything.

From there I met up with Brendan and made breakfast.  We packed and goofed around all day until we sat down to a amazing late dinner with a delicious bottle of wine.  What a perfect day.  When I got home around 11:30 I was tired but not ready for bed.  Being the child I am I had remembered that Pretty Little Liars had premiered last night so I decided to tune into that while I drank some tea and let my melatonin kick in.  For some reason I got it in me to make muffins while "calming down" so I made a concoction of two recipes and made myself my first batch of Greek Yogurt Blueberry Muffins--a step for me that I hadn't thought I would take this soon but I am so excited to have created and mastered a recipe of my own...on my first try!  

What beautiful muffins!

They're a little chewy but so good and if I had to calculate out all of the fat/ calories and sugar i'd say they're healthier than a normal muffin!  

Tell me what you think of this bad boy.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Quick Oats

1/2 cup orange juice

1 6oz carton of greek yogurt (I used vanilla)

1 egg white

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

dash of salt

1 1/2 cup blueberries

1. Mix together oats and orange juice

2. add in greek yogurt and egg white, whisk together

3. in a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.  

4. fold wet into dry

6. add blueberries into mix and pour into cupcake pan

**The changes that I made to this recipe were as follows:

instead of 1/2 cup oil and an additional whole egg, I added the greek yogurt.  The recipe also called for 1/2 cup white granulated sugar but instead I went with 1/4 brown sugar (a lot of reading has told me that the flavor is comparable!)  I also took the 1 1/2 white flour and made equal parts of pastry flour and ww flour!

Happy Hump Day!

To Grandmothers House We Go: Lady Antebellum

Summer concert season 2012--a shorter, more condensed version than years 2010 and 2011 but still a winner.  Cara, Mandy and I started this one out with drinks at my grandma's house and walked our way over to CMAC.  Best new concert drink of choice? Champagne, Citron Vodka, Flavored seltzer and cranberry juice.  It tastes great and goes down smooth making for a great starter to the night.

It poured cats and dogs (not to use the most corny description ever) but it did and then the sun came out and the night was great.  We took our hoods off and put the umbrellas away, got our $9 coors lights and made our way around the concert.  In years past we would get to concerts super early for the best seat but we definitely mingled around the entire time--no seat necessary and we definitely saw more people. 

By the end of the show we had found my parents and then a few others friends that we walked down to the front row with.  We could almost touch the members of Lady A..literally. It was amazing.

ON the way home we decided to try and find the tour bus and were halted by security.  We decided it would be smart to trek through the woods back to the other side of the venue so we crouched down and made our way ducking every so often from the yells and flashlights of security.  The night was surely an adventure and we made the best of the one concert we have together...some serious memories were made that will definitely last a lifetime.  I love you girls and will miss you so much this summer.

Two Recipes: Lunch & Dessert

Good morning and happy thursday.  I cannot believe how cold it is outside today--cold relative to the 90 degree weather we were experiencing last weekend.  I sure hope it warms up for all the festivities this weekend (bonfire tonight, out tomorrow, game saturday and concert sunday!)

Anyways, yesterday I had great plans of making protein shakes and egg salad along with some sort of dessert.  The good news? I did it all plus a little cleaning and laundry AND had time to work, walk and go to Wegmans with a friend.

So in case you missed this one on pinterest or your time spent checking out other blogs, here is some Egg and Avocado Salad!

Ingredients:

5 eggs (3 without yolks)

1 tbsp Lt. Mayo

1 Avocado

Grape Tomatos

Salt, Pepper, Cumin to taste

Boil 5 eggs, chill and remove the yolks from 2-3 of them (this removes some of the extra stuff that you don't really really need). Chop with either a food processor or by hand.  

Mix in 1 sliced and chopped avocado. Add desired amount of Mayo. Add salt, pepper and cumin to taste. Mix again and enjoy :)

This was the perfect dinner along with some tomato soup at work.  The avocado didn't brown for a few hours so it was the perfect yellow, white and green color (which scared my mother who refused to try it).

After work I went for a quick walk/ run with my mom and decided to try something of my own (aka no recipe).  

This is what I came up with:

Broiled Peaches with Vanilla Yogurt and Pomegranate Balsamic Drizzle.

Ingredients

1 peach (cut in half)

Brown Sugar

Granola

Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt

Sweet balsamic vinegar

sprinkle brown sugar on halved peaches and let sit for 5 minutes.  Place in broiler on 400 for 4-5 minutes.

remove and add granola of choice (I used Be Kind honey granola)

Dolup of Vanilla Yogurt

F. Olivers royal pomegranate drizzle to finish.

These recipes so so easy, delicious and just the right amount for a snack, lunch or dessert, enjoy!

Chocolate Blueberry Morning Blast

Okay so I definitely have gotten back to my favorite summer routine of getting up early, exercising and coming home to make a great breakfast and blog about either that or something else more exciting..okay maybe not so much the more exciting part since I have been busy working every day but there will be more exciting days to come.

Last night during my evening boredom slump after work I made myself a list of some recipes I want to try this week

Here is what I came up with:

1. Egg and Avocado salad

2. Protein shakes (post-workout)

3. Greek Quinoa Salad

4. Protein pancakes

5. Oatmeal Peanut butter & carob chip squares

6. Cedar Plank Salmon with some sort of salsa (thanks wegmans!)

Today I am tackling the first two and am starting bright and early.  I was up by 8 and went to Cardio Pump with my cousin.  This whole group class environment is pretty foreign to me since I love working out and running by myself (it is my "me" time) but it was actually a challenging workout and I had fun doing it.

Into the mix:

1 packet of chocolate spire-tein protein powder

1 cup blueberries

8 oz almond milk

oh so creamy but a bit too chocolatey, maybe i'll try vanilla next time and less milk! This baby mae two batches for me.

Do you use protein powder? If so, what kinds and if not, why not?

Recipe: Egg White Protein Oats

So yesterday I woke up early and started my day with a little pinterest.  I am addicted, I know this but the whole website is amazing and great for getting new ideas for crafts, exercises and meals.

I saw that my friend Clare had posted some amazing recipe/photo of microwave oats with an egg in them.  I thought, wow so easy and a great protein meal.  It was then decided that I would try my kitchen skills out with oats, eggs and a microwave.

I used the following:

1/4 cup quick oats

a dash of cinnamon (a lot actually)

1 whole egg

a little almond milk 

handful of  blueberries

put all these in a mug and whip them up.  Microwave for 2 minutes and volia!  I will warn you that when doing this in a coffee mug the oats puff up beyond the mug which caused the loss of some blueberries and a whole lot of juice to go all over the microwave (messy cleanup!)

These were...mhhh, okay. I wasn't impressed with how much I could actually taste the egg but I added some more almond milk and brown sugar and we were good to go.  Since I was working all day yesterday it was a good thing I had such a hearty breakfast, this baby lasted me until I got out of work at 4pm (I was starving at 2 but didn't have time) so A good meal to hold you over for, say, 5 hours!

Today I went with a different mix:

1 egg white

1/4 cup multigrain oats (different from yesterday)

dash of cinnamon

almond milk

water

The first batch didn't have enough liquid and I got more of an oatmeal/ egg crunch pancake. So I tried again to make sure I had the right amount of liquid per oats.

Volia!  Added some organic crunchy PB, strawberries, blueberries and half a nanner.

Nothing like sweet summertime!

A Graduation & Vacation

Congrats to this guy for graduating from Colgate University last weekend! 4 years of friends, fun and lots of visits from me, I couldn't be more proud of him.   I spent graduation weekend with Brendan and his family with a huge picnic, ceremonies and one last night with his friends. I had the most amazing time and am so happy to have met so many amazing people through Brendan at Colgate. 

Next up was a trip to Montreal, my gift to Brendan for graduation.  I had been keeping this trip a secret for so long and then accidentally told him the week before (oops!). The drive, a longish 6 hours, was filled with many coffee breaks and breakfast sandwiches and ended with some serious traffic to get to our hotel.  We had the most amazing time perusing Montreal, exploring restaurants and the typical touristy sites and even got caught in the middle of a huge protest.

After going to London and wearing my classic sperry's around the city ALL DAY I learned my lesson and went with some sneakers.  All day I continually mentioned how touristy we looked with our sneakers and camera bag but it was fun and I made quite a few jokes about it.

We went to a few markets for cheese and baguettes, the Biodome (because you're never too old for the zoo), famous restaurants that were suggested by Anthony Bourdain himself (Dominion Square Tavern, Beauty's Lucheonette, and St. Viteur's Bagels)...YUM!

Congratulations Brendan!!