Morning Glory Muffins

When I first saw this recipe they sounded amazing! They had lots of good things inside (whole wheat flour, pineapple, coconut, zucchini, carrots, etc.) and I was excited to try them. They were really good but I almost felt like they had too many things in them so that the flavors kind of weren't noticeable. A week or so after I had made these I went to the Saturday Market in Salt Lake and one of the stands was a bakery, they were selling another version of Morning Glory Muffins, these ones had Bran in them and not all of the items in them that these had had and they were soooo much better, so maybe I just need to find a good bran muffin that I like. 

Morning Glory Muffins

Recipe came from My Baking Addiction

Morning Glory Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup grated zucchini
1 medium tart apple, peeled and grated
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup flaked sweetened coconut
1/3 pecans; coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line a muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, combine flours, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and kosher salt. Whisk the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined.
3. In another bowl, combine the eggs, applesauce, vegetable oil and vanilla. Stir in carrots, zucchini, apple, pineapple, coconut and pecans.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined, but do not overmix.
5. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Notes:

- No whole wheat flour? No problem, simply sub in all-purpose
- I always use kosher salt when baking; however, feel free to substitute table salt.
- Feel free to substitute unsweetened applesauce and/or coconut in this recipe.
- These muffins are best served the same day; however, they will keep overnight in an airtight container.

Sumptuous Sunday

Strawberry Lemonade Scones

Bacon Ranch Potato Salad

Root Beer Float Cake

Oatmeal Nutmeg Scones

Strawberry Bread

DIY Soda Icee

Whole Wheat Bagels

Frozen Hot Chocolate

Whole Wheat Pretzel Bites

Cheddar Bacon Wrapped Hamburgers

Empanadas de Horno

This is one of the recipes that I grew up eating, it was something that wasn't too hard for my Mom to make and they weren't too messy so we could take them on road-trips with us. The original recipe that my Mom sent includes the directions to make your own crust, I was feeling lazy and was a little low on time so I cheated and used store-bought pie crust. Feel free to do whatever suits your needs. I also grew with my Mom using ground beef instead of the steak, I didn't have ground beef so finished up the package of ground turkey from the freezer. My roommates do not like raisins so those were not included, neither was the hontaka chili.

1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 pound boneless beef sirloin steak , cut into 1/4-inch cubes
2 tablespoons seedless raisins , soaked in 1 cup boiling water for 10 minutes and drained thoroughly
1 teaspoon dried hontaka chili , seeded and crumbled, or 2 small pequin chilies, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound plus 2 tablespoons butter , cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/3 cup water
2 hard-cooked eggs , each cut into 8 wedges lengthwise
6 pitted green olives , quartered

First prepare the filling in the following fashion: In an 8- to 10-inch skillet, combine the onions, oilive oil and 1/2 cup water, and boil over high heat until the water is completely evaporated. Add the meat and cook, stirring constantly, until it is browned on all sides. Stir in the raisins, chili, paprika, cumin, salt and a few grindings of pepper. Set the filling aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 deg. To make the dough, combine the flour, salt and butter in a large bowl. Use your fingers to rub the flour and butter together until they blend and look like coarse meal. Pour the water over the mixture all at once and gather the dough into a compact ball.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, making a rough circle about 1/8 inch thick. As you roll, lift up the dough from time to time and sprinkle a light dusting of flour under it to prevent the dough from sticking. With a cookie cutter 5 inches in diameter or an empty can of similar size, cut out 5-inch circles. (Or using a plate or saucer 5 inches in diameter as a pattern, cut out the circles with a knife or pastry wheel.) Gather the scraps of dough together into a ball and roll out again. Cut out similar 5-inch circles.

Place about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the meat filling in the center of each circle, leaving at least 1/2 inch of dough exposed around it. Top the filling with 1 piece of egg and 2 pieces of olive, and moisten the exposed dough with a finger dipped in water. Fold the empanada in half to form a crescent, and press the edges firmly together. Following the pictures opposite, shape the edges of the empanadas. Arrange the finished empanadas on an ungreased baking sheet. If they must wait, cover them with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate them.

Amish Friendship Bread

I'm sure that you've heard about Amish Friendship Bread...somehow in the last week or so our apartment has received the bread bag twice from people. The first time we didn't do too well and decided to just throw it away but the second time we succeeded and tonight we baked a yummy looking bread!

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

This is the Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe that you’ll need to make the Amish Friendship Bread (above). It is very important to use plastic or wooden utensils and plastic or glass containers when making this. Do not use metal at all!

Ingredients:

1 pkg. active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.

2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.

3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.

For the next 10 days handle starter according to the instructions above for Amish Friendship Bread.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe

Day 1 - receive the starter (the recipe for the starter is below)

Day 2 - stir

Day 3 - stir

Day 4 - stir

Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.

Day 6 - stir

Day 7 - stir

Day 8 - stir

Day 9 - stir

Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.

After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2/3 cup oil

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional).

Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour (individual oven temperatures vary). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans. Makes two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread.

Janet's Cornbread

Janet made cornbread to accompany the Spanish Rice, we ran out of white flour so she used whole wheat flour...so good. I don't think that I'm ever going back to making cornbread with white flour. This recipe is simple but de-lic-ious! (and yes the picture is the same for this and the Spanish Rice but I didn't really think about taking two different pictures)

3/4 cup yellow Cornmeal

2 1/4 cup Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

3 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Milk

3/4 cup Vegetable Oil

3 Eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 400* F. In a large bowl, measure cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; blend well. Add milk and oil slowly. Pour in eggs and stir just enough to blend thoroughly. Pour into greased 9x9-inch pan. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly brown.

Taco Biscuit Bake

While at work I like to take the opportunity to look through my bosses recipe books and get ideas, she has several of the Taste of Home magazines and this is one that I picked up from it. The recipe suggests topping it with sour cream and salsa, my roommates preferred it without the toppings. I did use ground turkey instead of ground beef, my roommates said it was good and that they couldn't really tell the difference. The one thing that I might do a little differently is use a can of beans instead of chili, I am slowly liking the taste of canned chili less and less- my roommates liked it though.

Taco Biscuit Bake

Recipe came from Taste of Home

1 lb. lean Ground Beef

2/3 c. Water

1 envelope Taco Seasoning

2 tubes Buttermilk Biscuits

1 can Chili

1 cup Cheese

Salsa and Sour Cream, optional

Cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain.

Stir in water and taco seasoning.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes until thick.

Quarter the biscuits; place in a greased 9x13-inch pan.

Layer with beef, chili, and cheese.

Bake uncovered at 375*F for 25-30 minutes until cheese is melted and biscuits brown.

Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Traditional White Bread

I wanted something to go with the lasagna today and I figured that slices of bread would be a good addition, it was something that I could make beforehand and would still be good without being warm. This is actually the recipe from my breadmaker cookbook. It's really simple and I've made it 6-7 times now with perfect results every time. I'm a huge fan of warm bread with a little bit of butter...favorite thing to do, put the ingredients in the night before and then put it on delayed setting so that it finishes right as I'm waking up....yum!

1.5 pound loaf

1 cup and 2 tbs water

1 tbs butter or margarine

1 3/4 tsp salt

3 cups flour

1 tbs dry milk

2 tbs sugar

2 3/4 tsp active dry yeast

2 pound loaf

1 1/3 c. water

4 tsp butter or margarine

2 tsp salt

4 cups flour

4 tsp dry milk

2 tbs sugar

2 tsp active dry yeast

1. Measure and add liquid ingredients to the bread pan.

2. Measure and add dry ingredients (except yeast) to the bread pan.

3. Use your finger to form a well (hole) in the flour where you will pour the yeast. Yeast must NEVER come into contact with a liquid when you adding ingredients. Measure the yeast and carefully pour it into the well.

4. Snap the baking pan into the breadmaker and close the lid (I put the pan in the maker before I put the ingredients because I don't want the liquid to get jostled and touch the yeast).

5. Choose the setting for bread and crust color and then start.