Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Only a month after moving into my new apartment, I decided to finally start using my awesome new kitchen for what it's meant for... cooking (as opposed to using it as my diet soda storage/chilling room).

I decided to start by baking some grab and go breakfast foods! These apple cinnamon muffins can be found in the Everything College Cookbook. They're pretty delicious, if I do say so myself. 

Yes, I use my heart plates for pretty much everything.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups diced apple (I forgot to measure and just used one gala apple)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, Fahrenheit. Grease a muffin pan (or use muffin cups).
2. In a small bowl, add the egg and vanilla extract to the buttermilk and beat lightly. Add the oil and mix to combine. 
3.  In a large bowl, stir the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar into the flour and blend well. Stir in the cinnamon and nutmeg. 
4. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir to form a batter. Be careful not to overmix the batter; don't worry if there are still lumps. Stir in the diced apples. 
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins so that they are between 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes. 

Makes 12 servings

Nutritional Information (per serving):

• Calories - 162
• Total fat - 5.36g
• Unsaturated fat - 4.43g
• Carbohydrates - 25.46g
• Sugars - 10.75g
• Protein - 3.1g

Note: nutritional information may not be entirely accurate, as the values were found through some light Googling.  

Having these muffins around for breakfast will be perfect! Not only will it mean that I stop going by McDonalds for their Sausage McMuffin with Egg each morning on the way to work (which would be a guilty pleasure of mine if not for the fact that I have zero remorse about liking them so much), but it also means that I'll have an excuse to use my new individual muffin/cupcake carriers!

How perfect are these?

Next up: Pesto Chicken Pasta from the Everything Healthy Cooking for Parties Book. 

What's your favorite grab-and-go breakfast? Do you like that many McDonald's locations are now starting to serve a limited breakfast menu at midnight?Are you jealous that my new kitchen has an island and lazy susan cabinets?

Egg Muffins and My Ability to Always Stay on Track with Diets Always

Remember when I was all "Oh, I'm totally going on South Beach Diet, and it's going to be super awesome and successful and I'll totally not give up after the first day!"

Well good news! I didn't give up after the first day! However, I may have given up after three days. What? I couldn't help it! The best part of Lent (food-wise) is enjoying grilled cheese sandwiches on Fridays!

However, before I quit the diet, I did manage to try out a new grab-and-go breakfast recipe: egg muffins.

Egg Muffins
Recipe courtesy of Kalyn's Kitchen

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

15 eggs
1-2 tsp. Spike Seasoning
1-2 cups grated low fat cheese (I like sharp cheddar)
3 green onions diced small (optional)
Other chopped vegetables (optional)
Diced canadian bacon or lean ham (optional)

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
2) Spray muffin pan with nonstick spray.
3) In the bottom of the muffin cups, layer diced meat, veggies, cheese, and onions, as applicable, until muffin cups are about 2/3 full.
4) Break eggs into large bowl, add Spike Seasoning, and beat well.
5) Pour egg into each muffin cup until it is 3/4 full and stir lightly with a fork.
6) Bake 25-35 minutes or until muffins have risen and are slightly browned and set.

Voila!

Even though I made some modifications to the recipe (I didn't include any vegetables or Spike Seasoning, partially because I have no idea what Spike Seasoning is), I like to think that they turned out pretty well! While the two I made with just egg and cheese were pretty bland, the ones with ham were delicious!

You can make these ahead of time and store them in the refrigerator. Just 2 minutes in the microwave and you're good to go!

What's your favorite grab-and-go breakfast recipe? Has anyone had much success staying on the South Beach Diet? Are you angry and confused as to why I haven't been here in over a month?

Garlic Green Beans with Mushrooms

As someone with the same food preferences as the average 8 year old, I find it very exciting when I finally come across vegetables that don't disgust me. In general, when trying to get in my 3-4 servings of greenery a week (I know, it's supposed to be daily, but I'm just one woman!), I usually stick to carrot sticks, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, or anything else you would find in a child's Barbie lunchbox (yes, because that is where I do my grocery shopping... in school lunchrooms). In fact, with the exception of potatoes and corn (and only corn that is still on the cob and has had nothing weird done to it), there are very few vegetables that I will willingly eat cooked. Raw spinach salad is tolerable, I suppose (but not handsome enough to tempt me), but the smell of cooked spinach is enough to make me gag! I have a similar reaction to cooked broccoli and asparagus (I used to have to leave the room when Kirsten would make dinner in our college apartment because she really liked cooked peas and the smell was overwhelming).

There are, however, a couple dishes of cooked veggies that I've enjoyed over the years. In an effort to create a healthy, affordable lifestyle for myself, I've decided to start trying to prepare some of these vegetable dishes at home. I thought I'd be able to get by by just eating the raw vegetables that I've come to love, but it has become apparent that eating the same unseasoned veggies every day gets old really fast. To this end, I recently made my third attempt at Garlic Green Beans and Mushrooms.

Garlic Green Beans and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

A few servings of Green Beans
2-3 cloves of Garlic
Handful or so of Mushrooms (or, if you would prefer, squash)
1 1/2 Teaspoons salt
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Directions:

1) In a skillet or sauce pan, bring 1" of water to boil.
2) Add 1 teaspoon salt and green beans.
3) Boil green beans for 8-10 minutes.
4) Drain green beans and dry pan.
5) With pan back on stove, add olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, mushrooms, and garlic.
6) Sautee mushrooms and garlic until cooked.
7) Add green beans back into pan with another 1/4 teaspoon salt and stir everything together until warm.
8) Serve.

Note: the ingredients and instructions aren't very exact because there is a lot of room for error





My mom started making these green beans a few years ago, and it wasn't long after that I finally tried them and conceded that they were, in fact, delicious. I didn't even mind the mushrooms (or sometimes squash) in the dish, even though I generally dislike them (coating something with garlic can do wonders). I'd tried making these green beans twice before with terrible results (in spite of the extremely large margin for error). Each time, I forgot almost all of the seasonings and used too much oil, thus burning the green beans pretty badly (not to mention that the splattering oil also burned me). This time, when asking my mom for the recipe over the phone yet again, I decided to actually listen and write things down so as to not mess it up. And guess what? I didn't mess it up! I boiled the beans, added the seasonings, sauteed the mushrooms, and mixed it all together just like she said, and it turned out really well!

This opens up so many possibilities!

How do you feel about cooked vegetables? Are there any that make you gag at either the taste or smell of them? Do you really want to learn how to make the chicken shown in the picture? If so, directions can be found here!!