Muffin Tin Monday with Savory Corncakes Recipe

This week Pierce had a bunny skewer of cheddar cheese, a medley of roasted beets/orange bell pepper/summer squash, strawberries, and corncakes topped with sour cream and verde salsa.  What a pretty meal with all those colors, huh?

The recipe for corncakes was a new one, out of my June Runners World magazine.  Figured I'd share the recipe, as it's easy.

1 can (14.75 ounces) creamed corn

1 cup yellow corn meal, divided in half

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 large egg

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Heat creamed corn in a medium saucepan over medium high heat.  Stir in 1/2 cup cornmeal.  Whisk in water, then oil, then egg.  In a bowl, mix remaining 1/2 cup cornmeal with flour, salt, and baking powder.  Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined.  Heat a griddle (I'm sure you could use a frying pan instead) over medium heat; brush lightly with oil.  Working in batches, drop batter in generous 1/4 cup portions over hot griddle.  Cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.  Finish with a dollop of yogurt and honey or (like us) sour cream and salsa verde.  Makes 12 cakes.  Serves 4.  Calories = 325 per serving

Also, last time I made roasted beets several people requested the recipe.  All I do is just peel the beets and chop them into 1/2 inch sized cubes.  Place on a cookie sheet and drizzle with balsalmic vinegar and olive oil.  Sprinkle with a little freshly ground pepper and sea salt.  Roast in the oven at 400* for 20 minutes, stirring once halfway. 

You can link up with Muffin Tin Monday for more fun kids' lunch ideas HERE.

Easiest Blueberry Muffins Ever

It's Muffin Tin Monday but we didn't make tins this week.

We did, however, make some really easy muffins.

This recipe comes together so quickly that you can easily throw them together in a morning.  Pierce loves them, and we've even taken them to his preschool for a mid-morning snack.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups pancake mix
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

In large bowl combine pancake mix and sugar. In another bowl whisk egg, water, and oil. Stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in blueberries.

Fill paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400* for 14-16 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes before removing to wire rack.

1 muffin = 173 calories, 6 grams fat, 3 grams protein.

Recipe is from Taste of Home last May 2010.
 
Enjoy!

If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, be sure to check it out here!

Making Your Own Tortillas - Easier Than You Think!

Way back in May 2003 Backpacker Magazine had an issue that included a recipe section on tortillas.  We've been making them ever since.  It is one great recipe.  And so simple.

You need:

3 cups white flour

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup warm water

Combine the flour, salt, and oil in a large bowl and mix until crumbs form.  Add water and mix until you can form the dough into a ball.  Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it until it is smooth.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set aside for at least 15 minutes.  Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll each into a ball.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out each ball into an 8 inch circle.

Now with this batch, I experimented with using 1/2 whole wheat flour.

I found this made the dough less stretchy.

Normally when we put the dough on our tortilla maker, we just smush and it turns into nice even tortillas. 

But with the whole wheat flour we ended up with smaller tortillas.

They still tasted good though. 

Incidentally, you don't need a tortillas maker to cook these.  We've made them in a skillet many times.  Just roll out and cook for 45 seconds on each side in a nonstick skillet.

Makes 12 8 inch tortillas.

So many uses, but here's what we did with ours this time around: 

Spiced Persimmon Muffins

Remember last Fall, when Paul harvested all those persimmons off our tree?  You can read about it (and see what a persimmon looks like) HERE.  Someone actually commented anonymously on that post, saying that our persimmons looked like cervixes, which I thought was hilarious. 

Anyhow, Paul tucked a bunch of persimmons into the deep freezer, and I decided to try out a new recipe for Spiced Persimmon and Pecan Muffins I'd torn out of Cooking Light magazine back in November.  I slightly simplified their version.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped pecans, divided

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 cup plain fat free yogurt

1/3 cup ripe mashed persimmon

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup canola oil

2 tsp peeled fresh ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/2 cup diced persimmon

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375*.  Place 1/2 cup pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Bake at 375* for 8 minutes or until pecans are fragrant and toasted (I skipped this step).

Combine flours and next 6 ingredients (through cloves) in a bowl.  Stir well.  Combine yogurt and next 6 ingredients (through eggs) in a bowl, stir well with a whisk.  Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stir until just combined.  Fold in persimmon, cranberries and toasted pecans.  Spoon into 18 muffin cups coated w/ cooking spray.  Sprinkle tops w/ 1/4 cup pecans. 

Bake muffins at 375* for 18 minutes.  Cool 5 minutes on wire rack and remove from pans.  202 calories, 7.4 grams of fat, 3.7 grams protein, 2.4 grams fiber.

These muffins are so wonderful.  They are really moist and have so much flavor but without the spices being overwhelming!  And as a bonus, Pierce and the twins loved them too!

The Persnickety Persimmon

The other day I was reading my friend, Greenmama's blog (click HERE to visit) and she had a recipe for persimmon bread up.  Huh.  We have persimmons too.  But I've never done anythign with them, other than eat one off the tree.

My friends said, "What the heck is a persimmon?" when I told them I was making the bread.

Well, it's a frumpy little fruit.

And they aren't really ripe until they fall to the ground.

Ugly little things.  Tiny.

They have a taste similar to apricots or plums.  They have a pit.  Or two.  Or none.  It just depends.

The bread recipe calls for a cup of pulp.  So I smushed and removed pits for a bit to get my pulp.

And then I stole a few from the hubby's homemade wine-to-be stash to top off my cup of pulp.

Shhhhh.  Don't tell him.

The recipe is:

3 tbsp softened butter

1/4 cup honey

1 egg

1 cup persimmon pulp

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

pinch of cloves

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Bake at 350* for 45-50 minutes.

Now I got my goodies mixed up and it looked a little dry.  Nothing worse than a dry quick bread.  So I took the liberty of adding in 1/2 cup of applesauce.

And then, since I'm counting calories, I did the nutritional analysis using the Livestrong website.

171 calories, 7 grams of fat, 3.8 grams of protein per slice.

Finished product:

I guess it's a bit reminiscent of a less spicy pumpkin bread, if pumpkin bread had an apricotiness to it.

I know it sounds weird, but it's really very tasty!

Thanks, Greenmama, for the idea and the recipe (she said the recipe came from Laurel's Kitchen Breads Cookbook).

Hot Cross Buns

This month's Family Fun magazine had a recipe for hot cross buns that we wanted to try.  I've never made them before.  Go here for the recipe.

Turns out that 3 year olds like to knead.

Yes, his hands were washed first.  That's blueberry stain from lunch.

They turned out beautifully.  Except for that I stink at squeezing iced crosses from a ziploc.  Is there a dummies book on how to do that?

Oh yum.  They taste good even with ugly icing.

Waiting for Daddy to get home, to tell him about learning to make dough and the adventures of the day.

Check back tomorrow.  I'll be doing a giveaway!  And you don't have to be a blogger to enter (plus, it's going to be a good one - all sorts of things for pampering youself :-))