Blueberry orange muffins

I can’t tell you how many blueberry muffin recipes I have tried over the years. For some reason, I can never get them to be as tasty as the ones I buy from grocery store bakeries. Something about them just never turns out right and I can’t figure it out. They are either too dry, not sweet enough, bland, or they fall apart once they are baked. Maybe it’s human error, or maybe just all those recipes suck. This recipe – does not. It is amazing.

These muffins are the best blueberry muffins I have ever had. They are sweet, citrusy, crunchy, full of blueberries, moist, tender…everything I want in a muffin and more. I chose to use whole wheat flour and applesauce in place of some of the fat in order to make them a little healthier. If you want to make them even more healthful, you could omit the sugar topping (although, it tastes amazinggg) or use a sugar substitute in them. You could also sub out 1/4 cup of the flour for 1/4 cup of flax meal.

Ingredients
Adapted from The Little Kitchen
Makes 12 muffins

Muffins
2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk (I used light vanilla soy but any kind of milk will work)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries

Blueberry jam

1 cup blueberries
1 Tbl sugar

Orange sugar

1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbl orange zest

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper liners.

For the jam: In a small sauce pan, combine blueberries and sugar. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

For the orange sugar: In a small bowl, combine sugar and zest. Mix with your fingertips, allowing the sugar and zest to blend together. Set aside.

For the muffins: In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Whisk to combine.

In another bowl, wisk together milk, eggs, oil, applesauce, zest and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into dry and stir until just combined. Fold in blueberries.

Spoon mixture into muffin tin and top with 1 tablespoon of the jam mixture. With a toothpick, swirl the jam into the muffin batter. Top with 1 tablespoon of the sugar mixture per muffin.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

Whole wheat dark chocolate blueberry muffin bread

This is for all you people who only eat the muffin tops.

This tastes exactly like a blueberry muffin, only like ten times the size and minus the muffin bottom that you secretly never want to eat. My dad will be so proud. He only ever eats the muffin tops and has literally asked me multiple times to find a way to just make muffin tops. Well, now I have found a way.

If you’re big into baked goods like me, you will love this bread. It’s dense, it’s moist, it’s chocolatey, it’s got blueberries in it, it’s got a streusel, it’s whole wheat.

OK, I have given you every excuse to make and love this bread. Make it!! Eat it! Love it!

Ingredients
Adapted from How Sweet It Is

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
2/3 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup blueberries tossed in a spoonful of cornstarch
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Streusel

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
pinch of salt
1 Tbl. butter melted

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside

In another bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until well combined. Add in vanilla and milk and mix thoroughly. Add wet ingredients into dry and mix to combine. Add in butter and mix.

Fold in blueberries and chocolate and pour into loaf pan.

Mix together all ingredients for streusel and crumble over top of batter.

Bake for 50-55 minutes.

Enjoy!

Superfood baked oatmeal

Oats – Superfood
Oats are low in calories and high in protein and fiber. They are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates which your body needs in order to sustain energy. They are also a rich source of thiamine, iron, selenium, and contain phytonutrients that help reduce heart disease and some forms of cancer. They also help lower cholesterol.

Blueberries – Superfood
Blueberries are one of the three major superfoods (along with spinach and salmon). They contain more powerful disease fighting antioxidants than any other fruit or vegetable. They also have some anti-aging benefits. If you eat one cup of blueberries daily, the increased level of antioxidant play an important role in prevention of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, senility, cancer, and degenerative eye diseases.

Walnuts – Superfood
Walnuts are the flagship superfood nut. They are one of the few rich sources of plant derived omega-3 fatty acids. They are rich in plant sterols, which help lower cholesterol levels. They are also a good source of fiber, protein, folate, and vitamin E. Finally, they are the nut with the highest antioxidant activity.

This oatmeal keeps you full for hours and it is packed with many great foods to boost your health. It is a great “make ahead” breakfast that you can just keep in your fridge and reheat whenever you want some. It would also make for a great healthy dessert if you added some dark chocolate chips!

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup milk
1 large egg
2 Tbl butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas
3/4 cup fresh blueberries

In a bowl, combine oats, 1/2 of the walnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, mix together milk, egg, 1 Tbl of butter, maple syrup, and vanilla.

Spray a baking dish with non stick spray and place bananas in a single layer of the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with half of the blueberries. Pour oat mixture over the top of the fruit, making sure it is an even layer. Drizzle milk mixture over the top of the oats. Make sure to distribute it evenly. Sprinkle remaining blueberries and walnuts over the top.

Bake the oatmeal for 35-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the oats have set.

Remove from the oven and pour the remaining 1 Tbl butter over the top and serve!

*** This oatmeal can be reheated and eaten throughout the week!!

I used this book as a reference when researching the benefits of the superfoods in this recipe. If you are interested in learning more about them, this is a really great book to read! It has some amazing recipes, tips, shopping lists, and information that will put you on a really healthy track!

Blueberry and brie crostata

Some food combinations were just meant to be together; peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, coconut and Brussels sprouts. Oh wait. Is that last one just me? Blueberry and brie cheese might not sound like a food pairing you would think to try right away, but this crostata is borderline life changing.

I have always enjoyed the classic baked brie with apricot preserves wrapped in a buttery and flakey puff pastry and baked until a golden, gooey, delicious mess. But I had never considered turning that delectable appetizer into an elegant dessert, until now. I recently stumbled upon this recipe and thought, “Yes, this sounds intriguing. I shall make this now.” Oh, and I made it. Three times. In a row. This dessert is so delicious. Sweet, but savory. Fruity, but creamy. Rustic, but elegant. All the things in a dessert that I love and so much more.

The crust for this dessert is a very basic, but always-delicious pastry crust. The filling is equally simple. Once the crust is rolled out and the brie is layered in the middle ever so gently, blueberries mixed with sugar, lemon, and cornstarch are place upon it. It is then baked in the oven until golden-brown and oozing with a cheesy, fruity mess. A beautiful mess.

Ingredients
Adapted from Perry’s Plate

Crust

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 Tbl sugar

Zest from one lemon

1/8 tsp salt

10 Tbl butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled

3 Tbl ice water

Directions

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, lemon zest and salt until combined.
Add in the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
One tablespoon at a time, add in ice water until dough begins to form.
Remove from food processor and gather into a disk.
Cover in plasic wrap and allow to chill in the refigerator for at least one hour.

Filling

1 pint of blueberries

6 oz. brie cheese, sliced into thin slices

Juice from one lemon

2 Tbl sugar

1 Tbl cornstarch

1 egg, beaten

1 Tbl raw sugar

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, combine blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Set aside.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll into a circle about 1/4 inch thick.
Lay slices of brie in the middle of the cidle, leaving a 1 inch boarder.
Pour blueberry mixture over top of the cheese and gently start to fold the outside edges of the dough around the filling.
Brush the outside dough with the beaten egg and sprinkle the crust with the raw sugar.
Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Fruit Pizza

Over the weekend I was really jonesing for some fruit pizza.I never crave fruit pizza so I figured I might as well make one since I wasn’t sure when this would happen again. Turns out – fruit pizza is awesome!

I tried – really hard actually, to make this fruit pizza healthy. But there are just some things that you can’t mess with. Sadly, sugar cookies are one of those things.

Ingredients

1 recipe of your favorite sugar cookies. I used these

8 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/4 cup agave
1 t cinnamon
Fruit of your choice – I used blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and bananas.

Form sugar cookie dough into a circle on a pizza pan and bake according to the recipe you used. Once baked, let the cookie cool completely.

Once your cookie “crust” is cooled, you can assemble your pizza. First put down a layer of the cream cheese frosting and then layer your fruit over top. Once you have done all of this, your pizza is really to be enjoyed!