Healthy Zucchini Muffins

I recently read a memoir about life in a rural small town in Wisconsin.  In the book, the author recounted how crime is very low in his little village and the only time that people need to lock their car doors is during zucchini season, otherwise they may return to find several large squash sitting on their seats.  Zucchini is one of those plants that is such a prolific producer that every gardener grows them as an insurance policy.  Even if your tomatoes failed this year, you got plenty of squash!  We chose not to grow zucchini this year because Scott is not a big fan of them.  But as gardening tends to go, I swapped some hot peppers for a large zucchini from a friend's garden.  I hunted online for a healthy zucchini bread/muffin recipe, found this one, modified it and baked these AMAZING muffins.  It's an easy recipe and you probably have zucchini hanging around, so take it for a spin!

1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup stevia (you can use Splenda or sugar)

1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups shredded zucchini

3/4 cups vanilla almond milk (you can use any kind of milk)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons maple syrup (can use honey or agave)

1 egg 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix in rest of ingredients and pour batter into muffin tins.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Makes 12 muffins. 

 

Sonny Maye's Famous Apple Cake

About 10 years ago, my dad found a recipe for an apple cake in an old church cookbook from the 1960s.  He tweaked it and created a masterpiece!  This cake has been requested for birthdays and is famous in Charles Town.  (okay maybe not famous but...)  This cake is moist, delicious and all around goodness on a plate!  It's my dad's culinary legacy.  And I love that I can carry on the legacy and share this amazing cake with my friends!

Cake:
4 cups diced raw apples
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
2 eggs (or equivalent of egg replacer)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup oil

 Combine apples and sugar and let stand for one hour.  Mix dry ingredients together.  Beat eggs, oil and vanilla.  Mix half of the dry ingredients and all the apples.  Add oil and egg mixture and rest of dry ingredients.  Mix well by hand.  Pour into 9X13 pan and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick margarine
1/4 cup milk (can use non-dairy or dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in saucepan.  Cook over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes.   Pour over cake while hot.

Awesome Cookies

Hubby plays chess at the library every other Thursday evening.  I usually just stay home, relax and do whatever I want to do.  It's my ME time.  Tonight I was in a rather Betty Crocker mood and felt like baking cookies.  But not just any cookies...healthy cookies!  Much to hubby's dismay, I just can't bring myself to bake anything unhealthy and most of the time the results are "eh...I think this needs some tweaking."  But tonight, the healthy cookies I baked were AWESOME!  Hence the name, Awesome Cookies.  They are adapted from this recipe.

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

3 Tablespoons maple syrup

2 cups quick oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine bananas, peanut butter and maple syrup in large mixing bowl.  Mix dry ingredients and add to wet.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Drop by tablespoon full onto baking sheet.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.  Makes around 15 to 20 cookies.   

Bourbon Butterscotch Blondies

It's a snowy relaxing afternoon in the hills, so, of course, I'm baking...again...  I've been baking and trying out new recipes a lot this winter.  Some have made it to the blog, most have not.  I often tell people I'm a better cook than I am a baker.  Maybe I'm turning a corner in my culinary career because these little bars are moist, sweet, semi-healthy and oh so yummy!  And for a bonus, they are hubby-approved!  I honestly toyed with calling them "Scott's Blondies" because he liked them so much, but Bourbon Butterscotch Blondies had a better ring.  My recipe is adapted from this one.

1 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Splenda (or sweetner of choice)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 stick melted margarine
2 Tablespoons vanilla soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup bourbon (or whiskey)
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Make a well and add wet ingredients.  Fold in butterscotch chips.  Pour batter into a greased 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Allow to cool before cutting.

Microwave Blueberry Crumble

Our blueberries are starting to ripen!  YIPPEE!!!  And that means it's time to break out all those wonderful blueberry recipes I love!  This one is fantastic, simple and great for a nightly sweet treat!  I found this recipe last year, and the only tweak I made is to use Splenda instead of sugar.  Here's my version:


3 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
3 Tablespoons Splenda or other sweetner 
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup Splenda
3 Tablespoons flour (I used whole wheat)
2 Tablespoons chopped almonds
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
3 Tablespoons margarine


Mix blueberries, Splenda and cornstarch in greased glass pie pan.  Cover and microwave for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring at least once.  In a small bowl, combine the oats, Spelnda, flour, almonds, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Cut in the margarine, making a nice crumbly mixture.  Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the blueberry mixture.  Microwave, uncovered, for 2 to 3 minutes, until butter is melted.  

Nannie's Old Fashioned Sugar Cakes VEGANIZED!

Snow Day #5...I was bound to start baking sometime. Didn't it seem like that's all we did last year on snow days?! I'm planning on baking Christmas cookies this weekend to take to work next week. But I had to test drive a veganized version of my favorite Christmas cookies--my great-grandmother's sugar cakes. They turned out exactly the same as the originals (and I would know since I've made these cookies every Christmas since I was 13!). These are basically a fluffy, buttery sugar cookie that for some reason my family refers to as sugar cakes. It's a very easy recipe, and actually was not hard to veganize. Here it is:

2 cups sugar

4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks vegan margarine (such as Blue Bonnet Light), melted

1 cup soy milk

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup applesauce

Mix soy milk and vinegar; let stand for a few minutes (this creates "buttermilk"). Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Add melted margarine, vanilla, applesauce and soy milk. Mix by hand. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Makes about two dozen cookies (depending on the size--I tend to make mine HUGE). You can also top them with sprinkles or raisins (which is my dad's favorite). I put dried cranberries on top today--YUMMY!

Robin's Vegan Pumpkin Pie

My vegan friend Robin has been super helpful and supportive as Scott and I have taken on this veggie adventure. She gave me this recipe a month ago; I, of course, had to make it for Thanksgiving. What's Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie?! It turned out fabulous! We even had a pumpkin pie expert and hard-core carnivore deceived! (Don't worry, we told him he ate tofu AFTER he gobbled down his piece! ha ha)

Makes one 9in pie (**note-you will probably have a little extra filling)

* 1 pound soft tofu (try “silken” tofu for a creamier texture)
* 1 can 15 or 16oz pumpkin purée
* 3/4 cup maple syrup
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1 9-inch unbaked pie shell

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Blend all of the ingredients (except for the pie shell) in a blender or a food processor until smooth. Pour the mixture into the unbaked pie shell and bake for 30 minutes. Then turn down the oven temperature to 350°F and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes, or until the filling is set.