Meatless Monday: Cran-Blueberry Mini Muffins

First of all, I want to thank everyone who shared kind words and wished me well after the news in my last post. Things continue to pick up and return to normalcy at home. We are very fortunate to have not been hit harder.

One of the things I was happiest about after getting my electricity back was getting my oven back along with it! Although it uses gas, it has an electric starter...so, no baking to keep things warm and cozy during our power outage :(

But, I got back to work right away and baked up these easy-to-make and super tasty little muffins. Lily's favored request of the day after trying these babies was: "I want more muffin, Mommy."

Cran-Blueberry Mini Corn Muffins
(makes 2 dozen muffins)

Ingredients:

1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
1/2 cup canola or coconut oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine corn meal, flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Next, beat eggs in a separate large bowl, then add honey, milk, and oil and mix together. Slowly beat in dry ingredients until well-combined with wet. Add the blueberries, cranberries, and corn last.

I hope you do a neater job than I did...

Spoon mixture into greased or lined muffin tins, then put in oven to bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes before enjoying :)

These were easy and yummy and perfect for any time of the day. And don't they look cute?

Using fresh berries and corn packs these little muffins with antioxidants, vitamin C, fiber, and other beneficial nutrients. You can also try using whole wheat flour if you'd like to make them even healthier; the only reason I didn't is because I wasn't sure if they'd taste the same, but I may try that next time. The last time I used whole wheat flour when a recipe called for white I wasn't very pleased with the results.     

I'm not sure if you heard, but due to the reign of terror from Sandy, Halloween was post-poned to November 5th in NJ, so expect a be-lated Halloween post later this week, by Wednesday if not Friday. I hope you all aren't completely sick of October-related blog posts yet!

Now it's your turn to share your Meatless Monday dish below! No rules, other than please only link-up meat-free recipes. No other un-related links or I will remove them. Sorry to sound so harsh, but let's keep it true to what it is, ok? Link up as much as you want, and feel free to spread the word with the button below. Thanks, and have a great week! 

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Meatless Monday: Frozen Tahini-Banana Bites

Every so often I stumble across a recipe that gets me really excited. The requirements for such excitement usually are:

• unusual prepartation or ingredients
• uses ingredients in a way I never thought of
• is not only delicious, but also healthy!  

And I get especially excited when it's an easy-to-make dessert that is sugar-free and I just so happen to have all the ingredients readily available! 

I came across the recipe for Frozen Yogurt Tahini Banana Cups (what a mouthful!) via Simple Living with Diane Balch (currently my favorite food blog, I might add!) when Fox in the Kitchen linked it up onto the Foodie Friday blog hop. Fox in the Kitchen has a wealth of awesome recipes on her blog, so do check her out, and she based the recipe off of the vegan version from The Veggie Nook (lots of good stuff there, too!). And she got the recipe from Sketch-Free Eating, a blog that has many amazing raw-based recipes, and they got it from...somewhere. I couldn't find the original recipe on their blog, they have way too much amazingness on there that easily distracts me...

SO, with all that being said, you know this recipe has to be awesome if so many people felt the need to keep passing it on! I made a batch for a Sunday afternoon gathering, and I'm sorry to say they did not go over as well as I'd hoped, although I found them to be so yummy and delicious that I ate half the batch myself. They are lightly sweetened and just melt in your mouth! Not everyone is as enthusiatic about healthy-eating as I am. That's why I am so grateful for my blogging community that can appreciate recipes like these, at least I hope so...

I had the cute Disney cupcake liners left over from Lily's 2nd birthday party :)

Frozen Tahini-Banana Bites
(this is the exact recipe from Fox in the Kitchen, but I just think that title is less of a mouthful!)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of cold-pressed coconut oil
1/2 cup tahini
1-2 ripe banana
1/2 cup plain regular or Greek yogurt 
4 tbsp honey or agave (you can use less, but I thought this was the perfect amount)
1 tbsp raw sesame seeds
Pinch of sea salt
24 blueberries+ for topping (optional)
24 cupcake liners 

Note: the recipe from Fox in the Kitchen says this makes 2 dozen, but I was only able to make half of that with this amount. Perhaps I used too much batter per cupcake cup, or perhaps I just used larger-sized cupcake cups than she did, but if you want to make the full 24, I suggest not to be too generous with filling each cup with the mix.

What I used

Combine the coconut oil, salt, honey or agave, and tahini in a small bowl; it will work better if the tahini and coconut oil are softened or melted. Next, add the yogurt until well-combined. Slice the banana(s) into 24 slices. Spoon some of the mixture into each cupcake liner, then place a piece of sliced banana on top, sprinkled with some of the sesame seeds. Place cupcake cups on tray in freezer and freeze until batter is set, for about 5 or so minutes.

The batter

After first freezing phase

Take the tray out of the freezer then spoon the rest of the batter on top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and then place tray back into freezer. Allow treats to freeze for at least one hour before serving.

Now, to "add a little something", I placed a single, fat blueberry on top of each treat to make it look a little more appealing. I think they came out cuter-looking that way, and you can of course get even more creative with whatever you choose.  

Another thing I did to make things more fun was to put blueberries in the middle of one of the treats for one of the kids to find. Whoever got the treat with the blueberries in the middle won a prize! (In this case, my friend's daughter found them and she won a word card game. She was very pleased with this:). 

After taking my first bite, I thought of so many other creative ways you can mix this recipe up. Here are some suggestions:

• use peanut or almond butter in place of tahini
• add raw carob or chocolate shavings as topping
• add extra fruit to the middle or top
• mix chocolate, vanilla, almond, etc. flavoring into batter
• put jelly in the middle

I am going to try and make them with peanut butter and chocolate next time! They may go over better with the pickier eaters in my life that way. Plus, how can such a flavor combination go wrong?

The general consensus of this recipe among my family and guests was:

Friend 1: "Good, but weird."
Friend 2: "Tastes like halvah; could use more banana."
Daughter of friend 1: "No thanks." (she's vegan)
Daughter of friend 2: "Yum." (she found the blueberries)
Lily: peeled off the banana and left the rest
Paul: "Yuck!"
Me: "Yum, yum, yum, I'll eat the rest!"

I hope the mixed response does not deter you from trying this if you're curious and especially if you're passionate about raw food and healthy eating. This is super-easy and cheap to make and definitely a much better alternative to store-brought popsicles and ice cream. 

Tahini is an incredibly tasty and versatile ingredient that I don't think is used much at all in the western world. It is a very popular condiment and ingredient in parts of Africa and the Middle East, used as a sauce in many yummy dishes. Tahini is essentially sesame paste; when mixed with water and a little salt, if makes a salty, nutty sauce that can be used as a topping on things like tofu, chicken and vegetables, or as a great salad dressing. This is the first time I've seen it used in a dessert other than Halvah. If you don't know what Halvah is, it is like a Turkish candy bar (pictured below). 

Halvah can also refer to any sweet, dense sesame seed treat, but this is the most recognized and commercial version in the West

Sesame seeds contain an abundance of vitamins and minerals such as copper, manganese, calcium, iron and vitamin B1, plus much more! That's a lot for such a small seed. These nutrients can help heal and prevent ailments such as arthritis, colon cancer, and osteoperosis. They also help to lower cholesterol and support bone health.

Have a happy Meatless Monday and do let me know if you try this unique recipe, and also if you decide to pass it on as well :)

Meatless Monday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!!!!

I have had a lot on my plate lately, and I feel that I start many posts like this, but it's true. So I apologize for not posting anything on Friday or for Sweet Saturday. I know some people like to link up with me, and I hope Sweet Saturday will be back soon (as well as the Meatless Monday link-up). I have some personal things going on right now plus planning for my Lily's birthday (which is today!!!!) and have had to turn my attention else where.

I hope today's post makes up for my slight absence :)

I decided to try my hand at baking a cake for Lily's mini party which we had on Saturday with my parents and a close friend. The big party is this upcoming Sunday, so expect a fun post on that next week. I wanted to try this recipe I concocted for whole wheat lemon-blueberry pound cake, making this the third cake I have ever made. I found a fairly simple and basic recipe to base it off of, and the results were quite tasty, yet things did not go exactly as expected as you will soon read about.

Whole Wheat Lemon-Blueberry Pound Cake

(based off of this recipe from food.com)

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar

1 cup fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
2 eggs , well beaten
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unbleached flour

2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
^{1 tsp lemon extract}

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together sugar and butter in large bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, then add lemon juice and extract. Mix together. In a separate bowl, combine flours, salt and baking powder, then add bit by bit to the wet mix until well blended. Lastly, mix in milk and then the blueberries. Pour cake batter into parchment paper-lined 8" or 9" round or square pan, or tube pan (I used a round pan because I do not have a tube pan). Pop into the oven for 1 hour, or until toothpick can be inserted into center of cake and comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for about 20 minutes before removing from pan, then setting onto wire rack or cutting board to cool. Serve as is, or frost with whipped cream cheese frosting, recipe below.

^{Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting}

^{(makes 2 cups)}

8 oz package cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Whip the cream until stiff peaks form in a large bowl. Combine the rest of the ingredients into a separate large bowl and beat together until well combined and creamy. Slowly add in the whipped cream until completely combined, but still fluffy. Spread on to cake once it is completely cooled. 

Now, I have to admit, I did not line my pan with parchment paper. I used a non-stick pan (despite the fact that I prefer not to use those, I had one I figured I could use for this purpose this one time), so I thought I would not have to line it. Boy was I wrong. When I got the cake loose from the pan, it broke into several different pieces, as you can see from the image below.

mixing...

After adding the blueberries

Looks good...

oops.

I was not happy, but I just had to laugh at myself for not following proper instructions, and I felt it was clearly a lesson learned. BUT, not to be discouraged, I brainstormed a bit and then came up with a solution for what to do with the now crumbled cake pieces. I broke the cake up further into small, cube-like chunks and then layered them in wine glasses between layers of the whipped cream cheese frosting. The results were not only delicious, but stunning as well!

This version of pound cake is yummy, but also healthier than the average pound cake with the added benefits of whole wheat flour and blueberries. I would've used 100% whole wheat flour instead of a combination of both whole wheat and unbleached, but I wanted to maintain the fluffiness and not have it come out too dense. It came out tasting like a wholesome blueberry-lemon muffin. Tired little Lily didn't even make it to the serving of her cake, so we didn't sing happy birthday to her. She's only 2 though, and I don't think she really cares...

Everyone who did have some loved it though, and the few guests who came for the small party were impressed not only with the taste, but with the presentation as well. So, if you ever have the same problem I did with the cake falling apart, don't stress! Just get creative! There are plenty of ways to salvage a yummy dessert without losing your cool.

As I said before, I don't have a whole lot of experience in cake making. When I bake desserts, I usually bake cookies and brownies because...well, they're easier! But, I hope to test my hand at cake making a lot more, and will let you know what I decide to do for the cupcakes for Lily's big birthday party which is next weekend. I'm thinking basic yellow or red velvet...

This cake is safe for babies to eat who are at least 9 months old, as it's not too sweet and has natural fruit for baby's benefit. However, you may not want to give them too much icing as there is a lot of sugar in it, but it's chock full of calcium and vitamin D as well with the amount of dairy it contains.



Have a great week! I will be doing my best to get back on my regular blog schedule this week, but next week I'm MOVING, so I can't say what things will be like during the latter half of the month. So much change is coming, change that is desperately needed. I'm still holding my recipe contest which you can read all about here, so send me your favorite healthy family recipes! I've only received a couple so far, and they both sounded awesome!!!