All Puffed Up

Sometimes it’s kinda fun to make a meal out of something that technically isn’t a meal. Like cereal. Is cereal dinner? From a balanced nutrition standpoint, probably not. But when it’s late or you’re tired or you just don’t feel like turning on the oven and dirtying up a bunch of pots and pans, cereal totally hits the spot. And I don’t know about you guys, but whenever Eric and I go on vacation, we always find a local ice cream parlor and make big ol’ sundaes dinner at least once. Ice cream for dinner is a vacation MUST!

Obviously this is not an every day thing, but every once a while it feels nice to forgo all the rules about what makes a balanced meal and just have fun with food.

Eric really likes finger food type stuff. Anything bite-sized that he can just pop into his mouth is always going to be a hit with him. The guy has been working extra hard lately and needed a little bit of cheering up. Let’s face it – if he needs cheering up, then I need cheering up. If he’s blue, I’m blue. I must love the guy or something. Huh. How about that. 😉

So on Saturday, I decided we’d have a non-dinner dinner. Not a balanced meal? Meh. So what. It’s Saturday. For dinner, we had bread, cheese and meat. In tiny puff form that made it extra easy to eat way too many. Success. Although, for the record, I did cut up some raw veggies to eat on the side. So, I did do SOMETHING right. 🙂

These little babies are super easy to make and a lot of fun. They are the perfect make-ahead snack for a game day or an appetizer spread. They are light, fluffy and cheesey with a great hint of crunch around the edges (which I just cannot resist. EDGES RULE!) The pepperoni gave them great flavor. Really these are pretty customizable. Perhaps bacon, cheddar and scallions for your next brunch spread or Parmesan, garlic and herb for a side on lasagna night. Any veggies, cheese or meat you desire can be mixed into this puffy batter. The combinations are endless!

PEPPERONI PIZZA PUFFS (Recipe Source: Everyday with Rachael Ray)

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup whole milk (I used 1% with fine results)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 4 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
• 4 ounces pepperoni, cut into small cubes (about 1 cup)  (I used turkey pepperoni)
• 1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce (I used Newman’s Own marinara – my preferred jar sauce!)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through, then stir in 1 tablespoon basil. Sprinkle the puffs with the remaining 1 tablespoon basil. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping. Serves 4.

Note: These can be made ahead of time. Place baked puffs on a baking sheet and put in the freezer until frozen. Transfer to a storage bag. When ready to eat, preheat oven to 350 degrees, place puffs on a baking sheet, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes until warm.

ENJOY! 🙂

Donut Stop Believin’

Raise your hand if you grew up in the Chicago area and vacationed on a lake in Wisconsin as a kid. Yep. Me too.

Is that a requirement for a proper Chicagoland upbringing or something? Is it written in stone somewhere? I’m thinking yes, because it seems like every family had a spot in Wisconsin they returned to year after a year. As a child of the greater Chicagoland metro area, thou shall:

• Enjoy assorted field trips to the aquarium, planetarium and Art Institute.
• Stop putting ketchup on your hot dogs by the age of 10.
• Spend at least a week every summer “Up North”

See, it is written. 🙂

For as long as I can remember, my family went up to Northern Wisconsin for a week every summer to stay on Plum Lake.  At 4, at 11, at 18 there are pictures of me standing on the shore, smiling my wide “school’s out” smile. I look different in each one, but the background is frozen in time. My mom stayed on that very same lake every summer when she was a girl. The beach, the pier, the slanty, rugged cottages – everything looks exactly the same, whether it be 1960, 1990 or beyond. It’s pretty near and dear to our hearts to say the very least!

Here we are! Mom at Plum Lake circa 1962 and me around 1989. The best parts of these photos? Mom’s bathing cap. That.is.Awesome! Gotta keep that nasty lake water out of your hair! And my life jacket. Like I’m going to drown there in three inches of water. That whale is the best! I forgot about that thing… Thanks for pics, Mom and Dad!

Plum Lake is miles and miles from the hustle and bustle of the big city – under a dark, cool canopy of lush, green forests. Nestled among the trees is a beautiful, clear, sandy bottom lake and clusters of tiny cottages straight out of days gone by. A week at the lake was a week full of casting a line off the pier, boat rides and skipping rocks. A week full of sand in your bed, swing sets and drippy ice cream cones. Slamming screen doors, supper clubs, and small town shops. Salt water taffy, buckets of minnows and belly laughs.

And donuts for breakfast. Every.single.day. The best part of all! Hey, it’s okay on vacation, right? Waking up in the morning, watching the sun toss millions of tiny sparkles across the lake, and sinking my teeth into a soft, fresh donut was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

A tiny bakery in St. Germain was the source of this delicious bounty. Every couple days, I’d get up early and head to town with my mom. Once inside, I’d breathe in the heavenly aroma of sugar, butter and frying dough. Marveling at the piles of treats in the glass case, my stomach would begin to grumble. Choosing was always the hardest part! These were some seriously good donuts. Me personally? I was partial to the cake donut with chocolate icing (they slathered it on nice and thick too. No wimpy, tasteless, crumbly glaze here. There were TEETH MARKS in the icing after you took a bite. Now that’s what I’m talking about!) and the apple fritters bursting with juicy bits of real apples and drenched in glaze that stuck to your fingers and lips.

Up North. What a great place to be a kid. And eat donuts.

It’s been about 10 years since I’ve visited Plum Lake but I’d really like to get back there someday to carry on the tradition with my own kids. Maybe I’ll even have a donut or two while I’m there, considering I can’t even remember the last time I had one.

See, donuts are just not real high on my list of acceptable foods to eat. Apples, broccoli, brown rice. Acceptable for every day. Fried dough covered in sugar? Not acceptable for every day.  Personally, I think it’s kind of hard to find a good donut – not to mention all the unnecessary calories – so that’s why I tend to avoid them. And since I don’t fry at home, I don’t see homemade donuts in my future any time soon.

Instead, I’ll just rely on these baked donut muffins to curb any fried dough cravings. I spotted this recipe over at Elly Says Opa! and have had it saved for a while just waiting for that donut craving to hit. Not saying these are healthy by any means, but baked usually beats fried. It’s like scissors to paper, if you will. These are so easy to make and really do mimic the flavor profile of a cake donut – soft, moist with just a hint of spice. The chocolate glaze makes them just a little bit naughty while still remaining mostly nice. 😉 And who can resist colored sprinkles?? Not me! They may not be the same as the real thing I remember so fondly from my childhood, but they’re a good grown-up stand in. 🙂 Eric had a hard time deciding if they were breakfast or dessert. I told him, it’s okay to swing both ways. 😉

CHOCOLATE GLAZED DONUT MUFFINS (Recipe Source: Originally adapted from: Elle’s New England Kitchen, as seen at Elly Says Opa!)

INGREDIENTS:

For the Muffins

• 2 cups AP flour
• scant 1 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. allspice
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1-1/4  tsp. vanilla extract

For the Glaze

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• sprinkles (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a standard muffin tin.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the canola oil, butter, milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until well blended. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, combining gently by hand until just moistened.
3. Spoon the batter in the prepared muffin tins and bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.
4. To make the glaze, combine the chocolate chips, butter, corn syrup and vanilla extract in a double boiler (or in a stainless steel or glass bowl over some simmering water). Stir until the chocolate is melted and everything is incorporated.
5. Dip the tops of the muffins into the glaze and immediately top with sprinkles, if using. Makes 12 muffins

ENJOY! 🙂

Top of the Mornin’!

I don’t know about you but I’ve GOT to have breakfast. I’m a little bit baffled by those who don’t eat breakfast. How do they function? If I don’t have breakfast, I never wake up. I drag around with a grumbly tummy that feels totally gross. I need something to get me going and keep me going all morning long.

But breakfast is a tough meal. As much as I love food, I love my sleep just a little bit more. The whole getting up, getting ready, getting out the door on time part is enough work. I don’t need the added chore of breakfast hanging over my head.

The other difficult thing about breakfast is it’s GOT to keep me full. Is there anything worse than looking over at the clock when your stomach starts rumbling and realizing its only 9:30? Oh, I hate that. I’m not a huge snacker, so I just see what I can do first thing in the morning to keep me full right through noon. I could eat a giant, cream stuffed, chocolate frosted, greasy, heavy fried donut. That would keep me full for about three days. Sounds delicious but obviously, that’s a poor choice…fullness or not!

A healthy breakfast muffin sounded like just the thing for a fresh, homemade breakfast we could grab on the go. These Oat Applesauce Muffins are really easy to make and quite good. And since they’re made with 100% whole wheat flour, chock full of oats, and only about 100 calories each, you can pair one of these with some lowfat yogurt and a bit of fresh fruit for a tasty healthy breakfast!

This is a great base recipe that can easily be adapted and changed with what’s around the house. Different fruits could be subbed in. You can add flax or bran for an extra nutrition boost. It’s an empty canvas, really! Those are my favorite kinds of recipes! This time I added a few spices to warm up the flavor and mixed in some chopped apples for extra moisture and sweetness. They taste better the next day after the flavors had a chance to meld and develop a bit.

OAT APPLESAUCE MUFFINS (Recipe adapted from: Allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used a sugar and artificial sweetener free variety. If the color of the muffins looks funny it’s because it’s pomegranate applesauce!)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup chopped apples

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place oats in a small bowl, pour in buttermilk. Let sit for at least 30 minutes at room temp.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
3. In a large bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and brown sugar. Stir in oat/buttermilk mixture, applesauce and egg; mix well. Fold in apples. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.

**Note** I greased the muffin cups instead of using paper liners as suggested by the reviews. If paper liners are used, they may stick.

ENJOY! 🙂

Strawberry-Rhubarb Fields Forever

For my first job out of college, I worked as a receptionist. Wow, I’ve come a long way since then. Oh, wait….hmmmm.

Okay, moving on.

Anyway, one of the my responsibilities was to water the plants on Friday afternoons. This proved to be most difficult for my fancy degree holding self. I could get the CFO a refund on his non-refundable plane ticket. I could deal with some real jerks over the phone. I mastered the ever elusive book binding machine AND unjammed the copier in a single bound, but for the life of me, I could NOT remember to water the freakin’ plants! No amount of sticky notes, to do lists or MS Outlook reminders were going to stand in the way of me forgetting water the damn plants.

You can guess what happened next – yup, the plants withered and died (much to my embarrassment and horror of others in the office – apparently one of them was some expensive tree thing? I’m not sure…) and I realized a green thumb was something I clearly didn’t have. I actually avoided any and all plants for quite sometime after that. Then we bought our house and everyone else in the neighborhood had such nice flowers on their porches in the summer. I was weed green with envy. I wanted pretty flowers too!

The first summer I tried, I kept them alive through like mid-July – then I’m not sure what happened. Maybe I went out of town for a while and left them neglected for too long. Dying plants seem to just sneak up on you. One day, they seem okay and then by the next morning…not so much.  Last year I tried again and did much better, but I wasn’t working so I did better at remembering to take care of them. I didn’t do as good with my herbs though…I think I had them in a spot that was too warm. This year, I’m going for the gold medal in gardening. I solemnly swear to keep my all my flowers and herbs alive and well for the entire season. Scouts honor. I’ll expect some kind of merit badge in recognition after all this. Thanks.

Now, lucky for me, I get a head start when it comes to some of the greenery in our yard. I’m talking about the stuff that does it’s own thing. I don’t water it, or prune it, or cover it up, or bring it in for the winter. I do absolutely nothing – I full on neglect the things – and they keep coming back. Ah, the lazy homeowner’s dream come true!

There’s my lovely lilac bush on the far western edge of our backyard:

It blooms fresh and fragrant and purple year after year with absolutely no help from me!

Then there’s these little guys:

Okay, not technically a plant. A weed. I can’t get rid of these guys even when I try so I have just decided to embrace them – Hooray for the humble dandelion! And being the kind and considerate neighbor I am, I like to share my weed wealth with everyone. Get one windy day and watch those little spores scatter. Another day or so and look they are in your yard too! Weeds for everyone! No need to thank me. Really, it was nothing. 🙂

And finally, the previous owners planted:

RHUBARB!

Actually, I didn’t even realize this was rhubarb for a while after we moved in. See, our house is on nearly an acre of land and the rhubarb patch is way out on the outskirts of the yard and, frankly, I just didn’t see much of reason to venture out that far. One of our friends pointed it out to me. I had one of those REALLY? moments that I tried to hide. Of course, I knew that I had rhubarb in my yard – this is my house after all! Duh. Now I make it point to use at least some of it each spring.

This is one resilient plant! It makes me smile that I can do absolutely nothing to cultivate the rhubarb patch and it comes back year after year yielding a delicious tart bounty that I can use to make up something totally yummy. It’s only good until about the first of July, then it starts to dry out. It’s definitely a spring/early summer treat. In fact, I think (don’t quote me, I actually have no idea what I’m talking about) when it starts to flower like in the photo above, it’s nearing the end of it’s yumminess. The stalks that are ripe and ready for picking are bright red and about a half inch to an inch across. They give very easily from the ground when picked and appear moist. The stalks that are flowering are much thicker, brittle and don’t want to give way from the ground – and thus not good eats.

Not all my stalks are flowering so I still have a little bit of time left to use it. 🙂 I think rhubarb is a bit of an aquired taste. Personally, I love it. The tartness just lends itself so well to both sweet and savory dishes. The combo of strawberry and rhubarb is a classic and by far my fave. Sweet, juicy summer strawberries and crisp, tart rhubarb – yeah, you really can’t go wrong. Now what to make with this delicious pair? Pie is played, jam and jelly is too much work – something that went together quickly but still tasted great….

Enter the Strawberry Rhubarb Streusel Muffin! A delightful sweet, spicy breakfast treat. I basically just took my blueberry muffin recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and tweaked it a tiny bit. I uped the sugar a bit to compensate for the tartness of the rhubarb and added closer to a cup of fruit rather than 3/4 of a cup to make them extra juicy and delicious. I love this muffin recipe – they are incredibly light and fluffy. So tender and moist. You could really put anything you want in them and they will be perfect every time. Gotta love a versatile recipe! 🙂

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB STREUSEL MUFFINS (Recipe adapted from: Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/4 cup chopped rhubarb, cut into quarter inch chunks
• 1 tbs. powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh strawberries
• 1 recipe Streusel Topping (below)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Grease twelve 2.5 in muffin cups or line with paper baking cups; set aside
2. In a small bowl, toss together chopped rhubarb and powdered sugar; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl dry ingredients. Make a well in center of flour mixture, set aside.
4. In another bowl combine egg, milk and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir until just moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in rhubarb and strawberries.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, fill each two-thirds full. Sprinkle strusel topping over the tops. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in centers comes clean. Cool for 5 minutes. Remove and serve warm.

Streusel Topping:

Combine 3 tbs. all-purpose flour, 3 tbs. brown sugar, and 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg. Cut in 2 tbs. butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

ENJOY! 🙂

PS….just for fun, a couple more pics from my yard:

A robin’s egg and clover! 🙂

This is the view from beyond my rhubarb patch. Look closely, City Slickers, this is what country living looks like. Ooooo. Rural-ness. 😉 ::cue dueling banjos…NOW!::

Okay, that’s deceiving…we actually live in town but we’re on the far south edge and there’s not much past us. I’m a suburban girl so this is a bit different for me. I’ve pretty much only seen my neighbors out my windows my entire life. Really, the only backyard view I’m used to is that of the old lady that lived behind us shaving her husband’s neck hair on their patio. True story.

And, finally, me with a couple of rhubarb stalks. Eric insisted on taking my picture with them. Oh yeah, don’t eat rhubarb leaves – highly toxic. And ignore my yoga pant/t-shirt combo…dressing up to bake is not something I usually do. Please and thank you. 🙂

Use your Nog(gin)

If there’s one holiday tradition you probably wouldn’t see me enjoying, it’d be eggnog. I remember trying a taste of some at a friend’s house when I was like 11 and that was it for me. Way too thick and creamy. That was 15 years ago and up until now, I had absolutely no desire to give it another try.

But then I got to thinking…just because I don’t want to drink it from the carton, doesn’t necessarily mean I wouldn’t like it another way. You won’t find me eating cream cheese right out of the package on a bagel either, but you will for sure find me using it to bake up something fabulous. Maybe I should give eggnog another chance this year…

I spotted a recipe for an eggnog muffin in my December issue of Midwest Living and just had to give it a try. Now, let me stray off topic here for a second and say that I big pink puffy heart this magazine. It’s full of all sorts of Midwestern hidden treasures – places to visit, ideas to try, recipes to make. I just love it! The Midwest has so much to offer all year round, it’s no wonder I can’t imagine living anywhere else. It is truly the perfect place to call home! 🙂

Enough bragging on my home turf – back to the recipe!

I nearly panicked when I poured the eggnog out of the carton, because honestly, just looking at it, I thought – there’s no way I’m going to be able to handle this! But I’d committed to making the muffins, so making them was what I was going to do. Now, you will notice that the recipe calls for mixing melted butter with two eggs, the eggnog and the extracts. The first time around, I didn’t let the butter cool long enough and I cooked my eggs when I added them to the butter. Oopsies… So I had start over. The second time, I let the butter cool for 15 minutes AND put it in the fridge for 5 minutes and it was much better.

You will also notice in my photo that the topping looks a little sparse. That’s probably because I tried to cut the butter into the flour/sugar mixture with a couple knives (I don’t have a pastry blender…need to put that on my list!) and I gave up way before I had the right consistency, so it just kind of disappeared on top. Still tasted good though! 🙂

I was pleasantly surprised by the results, especially after the initial scare of actual watching the eggnog come out of the carton for the first time. LOL. I found the muffins to be very moist and quite rich, but not overly sweet. Just one is more than enough. I think they’d be dynamite with the addition of a bit of cinnamon to warm up the flavor a bit and maybe some chopped pecans for crunch and texture. These would be great at a holiday brunch along side something savory like a breakfast casserole and fresh fruit. Yum!

EGGNOG MUFFINS WITH NUTMEG -STREUSEL TOPPING (Recipe Source: Midwest Living)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup dairy eggnog
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. rum extract
• Nutmeg-Streusel Topping (recipe below)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Grease twelve 2-1/2-inch muffin cups or line with paper bake cups; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and nutmeg. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

2. In another bowl, combine eggs, eggnog, melted butter, vanilla and rum extract. Add egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy.) Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full. Sprinkle streusel topping over muffin batter in cups.

3. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm. Makes 12 muffins.

4. Nutmeg-Streusel Topping: In small bowl, mix 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg using pastry blender. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

ENJOY! 🙂

Orange good, Chocolate great…

Orange and chocolate…really, REALLY great!

It seems like the chocolate/fruit combination is a love it or hate it kind of thing. I love it! I know some people don’t care for it at all. Chocolate and strawberry is always good. Chocolate and cherry too. I don’t care for chocolate and raspberry quite as much, but I’ll still eat it. My absolute favorite though is chocolate and orange! Mmmm… Something about it just works. I used to love those Toblerone chocolate oranges you can get at Christmastime. They come in a foil wrapper in the shape of an orange and you whack it real hard on the counter before you unwrap it. Then when you open it up it’s all “sliced” like orange wedges. Yum!

I was looking for something easy to bake today and I remembered that I had brought home a third fun cookbook from my mom’s collection the last time I was home. This one!

I just love old-timey cookbooks. It really makes you think about what it would be like cooking in another era. In many ways, I think it’d pretty much the same. Special treats for special people. Food to celebrate with and bring people together. Those things will never change! This one is full of chocolatey goodies that use Hershey products. I used to flip through this one a lot when I was a kid because it’s got a ton of neat photos inside. I found a muffin recipe inside that satisfied my craving for something sweet and my requirement to get it done quickly. Mmmmm…

CHOCOLATE CHIP ORANGE MUFFINS (Recipe Source: Hershey’s 1934 Cookbook)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsps. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 to 2 tsps. grated orange peel

DIRECTIONS:

1. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat the egg and add to the four mixture
2. Add milk and vegetable oil, stirring only to moisten the flour. Mix in the milk chocolate pieces and the orange peel.
3. Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake in a hot oven (400 degrees) for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 12.

ENJOY! 🙂

It’s Breakfast…I Can’t Have Cake…

I know! I’ll have a muffin! Ha!

I went into the Target on Friday with the intention of purchasing one thing: Dishwasher Liquid. But then I saw that blueberries were on sale. And they looked so very plump and delicious. And I thought about how I hadn’t had a blueberry muffin in a long long time. And…well…you can guess what happened next: I picked some up of course!

I had planned on making these Saturday night for breakfast this morning, but my plans were derailed when Eric announced early Saturday morning that he was interested in buying a car and he needed me to go with him so I could drive our other car back. The kicker? The car was parked at dealership in St. Cloud, MN. So after a ridiculously long day, about 14 hours round trip, 9 of which were driving…I didn’t really feel like making muffins! Then this morning, I slept way too late to make these breakfast!

Well, after lunch I decided that, yes, I still wanted muffins. They’d make a great afternoon snack and they’d be great for breakfast for the rest of the week! 🙂 I went back to my trusty red plaid Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, it never fails me! These turned out moist, juicy and delicious! I really like the streusel topping. It added just the right amount of sweetness and crunch. Totally hit the spot!

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS (Recipe Source: Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (I used fresh)
• 1 recipe Streusel Topping (below)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Grease twelve 2.5 in muffin cups or line with paper baking cups; set aside
2. In a medium bowl dry ingredients. Make a well in center of flour mixture, set aside.
3. In another bowl combine egg, milk and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir until just moisted (batter should be lumpy). Fold in blueberries.
4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, fill each two-thirds full. Sprinkle strusel topping over the tops. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in centers comes clean. Cool for 5 minutes. Remove and serve warm.

Streusel Topping:

Combine 3 tbs. all-purpose flour, 3 tbs. brown sugar, and 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon. Cut in 2 tbs. butter until mixture rsembles coarse crumbs. Stick in 2 tbs. of chopped nuts. (I used pecans)

ENJOY! 🙂