Cranberry-Orange Muffins

If I have a holiday tradition, it has to be making Cranberry-Orange Muffins or Bread. Bread takes a little longer to bake and makes a nice, neat package for gifting. Muffins offer individual servings, and you don't have to worry about crumbles as you do with cutting the bread.

The basic recipe comes from Betty Crocker's Cookbook, New Edition (2005), from their Blueberry Muffins recipe on page 67. I made some substitutions based on a recipe I followed years ago and cannot recall where I got it (maybe an older Betty Crocker Cookbook).

My recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour - or whole wheat flour* - or 1 cup each flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh cranberries**
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or other nuts, if desired

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners or grease or spray the bottoms of the cups with some kind of shortening.

Mix orange juice, vegetable oil, and egg well in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until ingredients are moistened. Fold in the remaining ingredients. Divide batter among muffin cups.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins

*if using whole wheat flour, add a little more orange juice to mix in the dry ingredients and to make the batter a good consistency - you don't want it too stiff or too runny

**some recipes call for chopped cranberries, but I leave them whole without any issues

This is a most excellent recipe for baking in a toaster oven, baking 6 muffins at a time.

Tomato Basil Soup

I decided to make some soup today. Most of the time, I throw in a little of this and a little of that and a bouillon cube or two and call it soup. Today, I thought I would use a recipe - and ended up blending two recipes together.

I used a recipe on page 200 of Betty Crocker: The 300 Calorie Cookbook and a recipe on page 49 of Tosca Reno's The Clean-Eat Diet Cookbook. I ended up with the following recipe:

Ingredients:

Olive oil cooking spray
2 1/2 pounds tomatoes, assorted varieties
1 T. olive oil
1 c. carrots, sliced
1/2 c. onion, chopped
4 c. lite, fat-free chicken broth
1/4 c. fresh basil, chopped
1/2 c. orzo pasta
2 c. kale
1 tsp. honey
3 T. lemon juice
1 tsp. red pepper sauce

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray. Cut tomatoes into smaller pieces and spread out on baking sheet. Roast in oven for 20 minutes.

Heat olive oil in Dutch oven. Saute carrots and onion. Stir in chicken broth and bring to a boil. Stir in tomatoes and basil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes.

It made a lot, probably 8 or more servings. I ran the recipe through a calorie counter, and it comes to about 185 calories a serving. The estimated cost per serving is $2.25.

I will be eating this all week. And will have to freeze some of it.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Breakfast

Tosca Reno (in The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged!) suggests boiling eggs for breakfast and other meals each day. She also suggests pouring boiling water over oatmeal and letting it set for 10 minutes. She says the oatmeal is cooked and ready to eat by then.

One egg is enough for me. Sometimes I'll boil a bunch of eggs to store in the fridge and eat one for breakfast and maybe one later on in the day. Sometimes, I like my egg fried or scrambled or poached.

With that egg, I've been having either one slice of whole grain toast with a natural nut butter (currently, that's cashew butter) or a bowl of oatmeal or multi-grain hot cereal. With an egg, a full serving of cereal is too much, so I make a little less. I've found that Tosca's method works to partially cook the oatmeal, but that it's too cool for me to eat. I still have to pop it into the microwave for about a minute. And I find I have to watch oatmeal in the microwave, as it tends to volcano rather quickly.

Other mornings (or for lunch), I'll have Fiber One pancakes (sometimes with chia seeds mixed in) with blueberries or mixed berries. And I'll top it off with a little real maple syrup, usually less than a recommended serving worth.

Teavana!

I love Teavana teas. They are expensive, but I don't know that they are all that more expensive than other good loose teas. I can buy a canister's worth and it will last me quite a while.

I love their chai/chai blend the best of all. This consists of a blend of White Ayurvedic Chai (their most popular tea) and Samurai Chai Mate. The salesperson talked me into getting German rock sugar, saying it tasted much better than regular sugar in their teas. I have found that Teavana teas taste awesome without sweetener of any kind. Nor do I need milk or lemon or anything else in them. Since plain tea has about 2 calories per cup, I can drink all I want, being mindful of any caffeine content they may have.

I have even bought a little mesh strainer ball, which I carry to work. I carry whatever tea I want in a little plastic container. I can have the convenience of instant tea any time I want a cup. All I have to do is heat up some water, add the tea, wait for it to steep (3 minutes, in most cases), and enjoy!

Current Inspirations

Books (I've started reading both of these books; I don't foresee finishing either in 2011):

• The Spark, by Chris Downie.
• The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged!, by Tosca Reno.

Cookbooks (from which I plan to draw a healthy diet):

• The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook
• Betty Crocker: The 300 Calorie Cookbook

Magazines (from which I plan to draw healthy recipes and/or workouts):

• Clean Eating
• Yoga Journal

These will keep me busy for a while!

Just 17 Days to a New Year!

I thought a good motto for 2012 would be "2012's to work on ourselves." And then I thought, I could blog about how I work on myself throughout the year...and maybe beyond, if I don't get bored with the whole blogging thing by February 2012.

I plan to eat as "clean" as possible (whole foods or processed as little as possible foods), work on fitness (I have a membership at the local Y that I need to use), and maybe get a little more organized. Lofty goals! But I've got a full year to do it - and a year with 366 days, at that.

I was inspired, in part, by Julie Powell. She had a popular blog and wrote a best-selling book that was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep. I can only dream of such popularity!

My original idea was to eats soups and/or salads every day for a year. But I thought I'd get tired of that notion before a week was up. My current plan is to try a few new healthful recipes and/or foods each week. I work in direct care (I work in a home with adults with developmental disabilities), and I get to help them cook some meals (I work with other staff who cook the rest of the time). A perk of the job is taking the clients out to eat, and a goal has always been to make healthful choices in restaurants - and help my clients to do likewise.

I recently picked up a copy of "Yoga Journal." I plan to incorporate yoga into my daily plan, also. Back in the late 1990's, I did yoga almost daily. I want to get back into it. It's a good lifestyle.

I guess those are enough goals for now. No need overwhelming myself (or anyone else) with more.