He is Risen!!!

Happy Easter! It is a great morning here at our house! The kids woke up early, super excited to run downstairs to find their Easter baskets. The Easter Bunny did a great job hiding baskets throughout the house—the kids ran through the rooms opening doors and cabinets, turning over pillows, and tossing aside blankets. But, this year, EB was a sneaky, sneaky bunny—eventually mom and dad had to step in to help. 🙂

After the excitement of baskets, we all settled in to watch the story of Jesus rising from the grave—the questions, comments, and excitement of the kids are all so refreshing! They are so honest in their observations and making connections to their lives today. Makes for one proud mama (and papa!)!

Easter is also a time for our whole family to get together in celebration…so guess what else that means?!?! Baking time! To help foster in the warm springness of the season, it turned out to be a lemon filled weekend! I made all sorts of scrumptious treats that I’ll be sharing over the next few posts—lucky friends and neighbors who got to be taste testers will know what I’m talking about! 😉

To start our deliciousness off right, we begin with some lemon blueberry muffin cakes…holy moly! I highly recommend using fresh blueberries and fresh lemons—OMG! The combo go together so well making for a sweet, and just tart enough, morning meal. While making the muffins yesterday, I literally had to swat away little hands and fingers, making promises for the morning. While taking pictures, one of our dear little friends stood by vigilantly, making comments the whole time…”Those sure look yummy Ms. Erika”, “Can I have one NOW Ms Erika?”, “Look over there Ms Erika” (trying to trick me while she snuck one away!). Too cute…and her patience was finally rewarded! 😉

   

  

Lemon Blueberry Muffin Cakes

1 stick Earth Balance butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 TBSP grated lemon zest
¼ cup plus 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
¾ cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup applesauce
6 ounce container blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 baking cups with cupcake liners**.
2. Combine ¼ cup sugar and ¼ cup lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is slightly thickened. Let stand while you are making the muffins.
3. Combine the almond milk, remaining 2 TBSP lemon juice, and vanilla in a bowl.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in another bowl.
5. Beat butter, lemon zest, and remaining cup of sugar in a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add the applesauce, beating well after adding.
6. Beat in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.
7. Gently fold in the blueberries using a rubber spatula.
8. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake 25-30 minutes.
9. Transfer pan to a wire rack and brush the tops of cakes with the lemon syrup. Let stand for 10 minutes and remove from the muffin pan and allow to cool completely on wire rack

**I had slightly more batter than the 12 muffin tins, so I used the remaining batter to fill a mini-loaf pan.

These yummy breakfast (or anytime) treats pack some big flavors! What’s one of your favorite lemon combos??

Scrumptious Cinnamon Carrot Muffins

I must be on a cinnamon kick…wait…who am I kidding?!?! When am I not on a cinnamon kick? I could really put cinnamon in just about anything…muffins…cookies…cakes…scones…pies…tarts…you name it—let’s put cinnamon in it! I’m also a big fan of using up ingredients in the house. For some reason, we’ve had an abundance of carrots in the house. Weird, right? The kids must have been going through a carrot phase or something, and now they’ve moved on to another vegetable. (One of the benefits of having a vege mom! 😉 )

So…what does one do with an abundance of carrots? Why, bake of course! We—and by “we” I mean Aaron—pack the kids lunch for school every day. They get tired of sandwiches, so I do my part by trying to help with some variety. One of my contributions that I like to make is different kinds of muffins. Muffins are great because the kids love them, they can act as both a breakfast item and a lunch item, and you can make a bunch at once, covering a few meals. They can be frozen and thawed quickly, and they can pack quite a punch!

These muffins are a great combo of moist, sweet, healthy, and…scrumptiousness! The kids loved them! They were actually gone before I could even think of freezing them, and I’m pretty sure we only made it through one lunch serving.

I love that these muffins have whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and of course carrots…on some level they must be healthy…right? When grating the carrots, make sure to use the small side of the grater—the finer the carrots, the better!

Cinnamon Carrot Muffins

*Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons wheat germ
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• ½ TBSP vinegar
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 cups finely grated carrots (4-5 carrots)

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper cups.
2.  Whisk flours, wheat germ, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Combine the almond milk and the vinegar and put aside. Whisk remaining ingredients in a separate bowl; add in the almond milk mixture. Fold dry ingredients into wet and mix until just combined.
3.  Spoon batter into cups, filling 2/3 of the way full.
4.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 22 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

So, go ahead and bake up some of these deliciously scrumptious…umm…healthy (?) muffins!  And go ahead…add an extra pinch of cinnamon.  I wouldn’t blame you 😉

What do you like to use cinnamon in?

 

Frustration Relief and Muffin Time

Yahoo!!!  It’s Spring Break time!!  The kids and I are excited to have the week off together (Aaron still has to work…booo…), but our break started off a bit rough—we were all on each other’s nerves, kids were picking fights with one another, and all I wanted was some quiet.  After running some quick errands, I decided that we all needed some alone time.  Jax went to his room to nap, Connor went to his room to nap, Mads went to her room to play, Zoe went to my room to read, and Zachary went to the living room to build Legos.  I, surprisingly ;-), went to the kitchen.  Ahhh…the sanctuary of the kitchen and the quiet of separation…

Until 20 minutes later—Mads wanted to switch to a different room, Jax was hollering for mom, and Zachary kept asking what he should build next.  It was nice while it lasted.  Luckily for everyone I’m sure, it was make your own pizza night, so I made pizza dough—lots of kneading and punching down—what great frustration relief!  Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner (strategic planning???), and we welcomed the distraction.

Fast forward to today…and thank goodness for a good night’s sleep!  Everyone is so cheery, talkative, and working together today!  I’m sure the excitement of a trip to Denver for hotel swimming and a visit to the zoo doesn’t hurt either!  😉  While I was making muffins for breakfast this morning (OMG…these muffins are sooooo good!), they all got their backpacks to pack for Denver.  We’ve got two complete ninja sets, a doll and her wardrobe, about 10 books, a bag of Legos, a boat, a Magna Doodle, and who knows what else!  I guess we’re staying in Denver all week?

So, the muffins I mentioned?  They are so scrumptiously good!  I’ve got this old handwritten recipe for zucchini bread from my mom that I dug out of the cupboard.  I love me some zucchini bread, and the kids love them some muffins, so why not marry the two?  I made a few adjustments (my favorite being the addition of the brown sugar…love it!!!), and they turned out so great!  It was another muffin morning of little helpers…Connor got to whisk (while singing a whisking…not whiskey…song), Zoe filled muffin cups, and Jax washed dishes.  We’re gonna have our own regular sweat shop going soon.  It’s not illegal child labor if they’re your own kids, is it?

Zucchini Muffins

1 cup applesauce
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP wheat germ
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamo
2 cups finely grated zucchini
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Whisk the applesauce, sugars, and wheat germ together.  Add the vegetable oil and mix to combine.
3. In another bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.  Add this to the wet mixture and stir to combine.
4. The batter will seem a bit thick, but add the grated zucchini and the vanilla.  Stir to combine, and the moisture from the zucchini will thin out the batter.
5. Fill the 24 muffin cups ¾ of the way full.  Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.
6. Remove from the oven.  Allow to cool for a few minutes and then remove the muffins to a cooling rack.  (Try one warm—mmm…mmm!)