Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins

These are absolute gems, they taste almost like cupcakes but I've made them more healthy by using whole wheat flour and wheat bran.  I made mine into mini muffins because I didn't think there would be enough for 12 large muffins.

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat and added extra baking powder, about 1/2 tsp more)

1/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

1/4 cup wheat bran

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used natural)

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup chocolate chips (try the Special Dark ones, they are great!)

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  In a mixing bowl, stir together first 6 ingredients, mixing well while making a well in the center of the mixture.

3.  In another bowl, mix brown sugar and peanut butter with a mixer on medium speed setting until fluffy.

4.  Add egg and beat well.

5.  Now add the flour mixture to the beaten mixture; at the same time slowly add the milk and beat until well blended.

6.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

7.  Grease a muffin pan or line the pan cups with paper baking cups.

8.  Spoon batter into the cups, filling it about 3/4 of the way full.

9.   Bake for 15 to 20 minutes for regular sized muffins and 10 minutes for mini muffins or until golden.

Beer Bread mmmm

I love beer bread!  It's easy, it's quick and it's delicious.  I have used this recipe many times and in many different variations.  For example, I've made it cheese beer bread and today I made it garlic beer bread!  I can't wait to taste it this time, it never lasts long.

Ingredients

3 cups flour (sifted)

3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)

1 teaspoon salt (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)

1/4 cup sugar

1 (12 ounce) can beer

1/4 cup butter
 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix dry ingredients and beer.

3. Pour into a greased loaf pan.

4. Pour melted butter over mixture.

5. Bake 45 minutes, remove from pan and cool for at least 15 minutes.

Good enough to eat? I think so!

Tonight I made turkey soup from homemade stock.  Last night I boiled down a turkey and chicken carcass with carrots, celery, onions, salt and pepper.  Today I finished off the soup by straining the stock and adding fresh carrots, celery, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, brown rice and the leftover chicken from the beer can chicken I made yesterday for supper.  We also had grilled cheese sandwiches on the cheddar beer bread I baked yesterday.

Pita Pizzas

This is not really a special recipe but just an idea to help save carbs when you make pizza at home.  We use whole wheat pitas to make individual pizzas and top them with our favourite toppings.  Today I used mushrooms, red and green peppers, tomatoes, onions, pepperoni and canadian bacon as well as mozzarella.  My favourite thing to do is to combine the regular pizza sauce with buffalo chicken wing sauce for more of a kick.

Rotisserie Chicken on the bbq

I was very excited to try this out and it turned out great.  I took a rather large chicken and did a dry rub of smoked salt, montreal chicken seasoning, granulated garlic and rosemary and then put it in a plastic bag for several hours (I recommend 3 or more).  Then I put a head of garlic and a lemon inside the cavity of the chicken to prepare it for the barbecue.  To cook the chicken, we preheated the grill to 225 C and then turned off two of the burners.  We put in a drip tray beneath the chicken and filled it with white wine and positioned the chicken on the non lit side of the bbq for indirect heating.  It took about 2 hours and came out just wonderful.  Here is the picture:

Oriental Mini Meatloves

If you're looking for a way to control your portion size, this recipe is great!  The flavour is wonderful and you can use the recipe to make meatballs if you prefer that.  I used a jumbo muffin tin for part of the meat mixture and a regular size muffin tin for the rest (perfect size for my 2 year old).  They didn't fill up the cups as nicely as I thought so they are a bit irregularly shaped but the taste is great.  They cooked for exactly 30 minutes and came out perfectly done.  The sauce is also great but a bit too sweet for me.  Perhaps less honey would be better next time.  I served them over instant rice and drizzled the sauce over the top.  As usual, I got this recipe from recipezaar.

Oriental Mini Meatloaves with Honey Garlic Sauce

Meatloaves


1 1/2 lbs ground turkey or ground chicken
1/3 cup water chestnut, chopped fine
3/4 cup fine breadcrumb
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup soya sauce
1/4 cup green onion
1 egg
2 teaspoons oxo low-sodium instant chicken bouillon granules
1 garlic clove, minced

Sauce

1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons soya sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic
 
Directions
 
1. Meatloaves-Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Mix lightly but throughly to blend.
3. Divide into 12 muffin cups.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
5. (You can freeze the loaves at this point. Place into a large ziploc bag, label and freeze. To serve: heat in oven or microwave until warm, serve with sauce.).
6. Or Remove from pan and serve with honey garlic sauce immediately.
7. Sauce-Combine ingredients in a sauce pan.
8. Cook and stir on low heat until hot and bubbly.
9. Serve with rice or Oriental noodles.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake bars

This weekend we got some hard news, my Baba had passed away after 88 years of wonderful life.  She was an excellent cook and always had the yummiest treats for us when we visited.  I decided to make these bars as a pick me up and a tribute to her, she would have liked to add them to her repertoire.  Some notes for next time I make it, definitely make sure your oven rack is not set to the lowest, it took about 35 minutes to cook when it should have taken only 25 and use a smooth raspberry jam, not a jelly.  I damaged the top of the cheesecake a bit trying to smooth the jelly over the top.

Ingredients

12 OREO Cookies, finely crushed

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

3 squares BAKER'S White Chocolate, divided

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs

1/4 cup red raspberry preserves

HEAT oven to 350ºF. Mix cookie crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 8- or 9-inch square pan. Melt 2 chocolate squares as directed on package.

BEAT cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add melted chocolate; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 25 to 28 min. or until center is almost set. Cool 5 min.; spread with preserves. Melt remaining chocolate square; drizzle over cheesecake. Cool cheesecake completely. Refrigerate 4 hours