Applesauce Oat Muffins

This is actually Katie's recipe she shared with me but I am posting it so I don't lose it :)

Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins

Yield: Makes 12 muffins

I always double this recipe because they freeze so well!

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled/old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 tablespoons butter or coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins, optional

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners or grease the muffin cups. Set aside..
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the oatmeal, applesauce, milk, egg, vanilla, butter and sugar. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt (and cranberries or raisins if using). Make a well in the center and pour in the applesauce mixture. Stir until just combined (don't overmix or the muffins will be dense and dry). The muffin batter texture might be a bit different (wetter?) than other muffin batters but no fear, carry on!
4. Distribute the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Don't overbake or the muffins will be dry.
5. Remove the muffins to a rack to cool completely. Once cool, I place 6-9 muffins in a large freezer ziploc bag, suck all the air out (oh yes I do) and seal the bag, then freeze, pulling them out one by one to stick in my kids lunches or warm slightly for a snack.

Here is the link to the recipe

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/healthy-oats-and-applesauce-muffins/

I replaced half of the butter with half as much non fat plain yogurt
    - so I used 2 TBS melted butter and 1 TBS plain non fat yogurt
I replaced half of the sugar with baking stevia
    - so I used 1/6 cup sugar and 1/6 cup baking stevia

Mine only took between 15-16 minutes so make sure you check them right at 15.

Only 100 calories in each muffin if you do the substitutions and very yummy!

Coleslaw

This is a really tasty coleslaw recipe that we eat with bbq pork/pulled pork/whatever you want to call it on the lionhouse rolls. You can easily substitute yogurt for sour cream and/or mayo, and we half the recipe and just buy a small bag of coleslaw mix from the store so there really is just a large spoonful of each in it which isn't too terrible. We never use a whole head of cabbage (it is way too much for us) so halving it always works better for us. Again, this is stolen from Shandra's website...

1 head green cabbage (or can use 1/2 red & 1/2 green)
1/4 c. green onions, sliced
1/4 c. grated carrots
1/4 c. celery, chopped
(this is the equivalent of 2 bags of coleslaw mix we've decided)

Dressing:
1/3 c. apple cider vinegar
1/3 c. yellow mustard

2 T. ketchup

1/4 c. sour cream

1/4 c. mayo

2 t. salt

1/2 t. black pepper

1/2 t. cayenne pepper

1/2 c. sugar, to taste

Slice cabbage, green onions, and carrots fine.  Chop celery. Add cabbage,  green onions, carrot & celery in a large serving bowl. *We just use one bag of coleslaw mix with half of the dressing recipe.  In another bowl, combine dressing ingredients together and whisk until smooth.  Pour dressing over cabbage. Cover with plastic and chill. This coleslaw is great served on top of BBQ pork/beef sandwiches, with fresh deli bun.

Lionhouse Rolls

These are the best rolls ever. They are supposedly the recipe from the Lion House restaurant at Temple Square, and they really are delicious. I make these as both wheat and white, I just use less flour if they are wheat and add some honey (or more sugar if I don't have honey for some reason). I have even done half wheat and half white flour as well. They are super easy, just need time to rise twice. I stole them from Jared's cousin Shandra's website (http://dealstomeals.blogspot.com/2009/03/lion-house-roll-recipe-perfect-every.html)

Lion House Rolls

2 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
2 tablespoons dry yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter or shortening
5-5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
Mix the water, sugar, butter, salt, dry milk, and 5 c. flour together until combined. Make sure to tap the flour down in the cup with a knife until it is settled into the cup (giving you a full 1 cup measurement). *NOTE: I never do this :) After this has been sufficiently mixed, add the eggs and yeast. Mix together again until combined. Add the last 1/2-1 c. of flour to the dough (if needed and too sticky). Let this mix on high for 5 minutes until the dough becomes slightly stiff and stretchy. Let the dough rise until doubled in size. Pull and roll the dough into balls and place thirty rolls on a cookie sheet (5 rolls by 6 rolls). Let them rise on a cookie sheet until the balls begin to touch. Bake at 350 degrees on the middle rack for 25-30 minutes. Butter tops after roll are out of the oven.

Homemade Baked Taquitos

These are awesome, easy, and a great way to use left over meat. (Sorry no picture, we ate them all and I forgot to take one before we started eating)

You will need:

Shredded meat - We just use whatever leftover meat we have (chicken, pulled pork, a roast, etc)

Shredded cheese

Tortillas (corn or flour, doesn't matter)

Oil

Whatever you like to dip them in (salsa, sour cream, guacamole, etc)

1. Shred whatever meat you'd like to use.

2. If you think the meat needs more of a taco seasoning then just add your favorite taco spices. You can also just mix in salsa. We did that with pork and it turned out good.

3. Shred a bunch of cheddar cheese (or buy a bag of shredded cheese)

4. Warm a tortilla, add about 1/4 cup meat, and sprinkle cheese on the meat. Beware, too much filling will break the tortilla (duh, but I always do this).

5. Roll up tortilla and place on baking sheet seam side down

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you are out of meat or tortillas.

7. Brush oil onto each taquito.

8. Bake at 400 F for about 8 to 12 minutes (until they are as crispy as you want them).

Seriously, these are my new favorite food. You barely use any oil, they are super fast and easy to make, and they are delicious. I could seriously eat 100 if my stomach could fit them all. Lucy loves them, too, which is always good :)

The difference between flour and corn tortillas is just taste. If you warm them up well they both are soft and easy to roll. Flour ones tend to be bigger and taste like the outside shell of a crunch wrap supreme from taco bell if you've ever tried one of those (Ben and I love them I know for sure). The corn ones are smaller and taste more like a traditional taquito and are also really good. We usually make both kinds to use up leftover tortillas we have.

And if I spelled taquito wrong I am sorry. I'm too lazy to go look it up.

best cupcakes ever

Our neighbor just shared this awesome cupcake making secret with us. You can use it to make cakes too. They are super moist and delicious.

Combine:

1 box cake mix

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/8 cup oil

1 1/3 cup water

1 cup sour cream

3 eggs

* if you make chocolate then add some cocoa powder to help it taste more chocolately. The sugar and flour might lessen the flavor. For some reason this only happens with chocolate.

Only fill tins half way at most or they'll overflow when baking.

Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.

Healthy Strawberry Pie

Ingredients:

Crust:
9 sheets honey graham crackers
2 Tbs butter (melted)
2 Tbs sugar
4 tsp water

Filling:
2/3 cup non fat greek plain yogurt
1/4 cup splenda
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping:
3-4 cups fresh strawberries (cut up)
splash of lemon juice (to toss)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Crumble graham crackers in food processor.  Add butter, water, and sugar and pulse until just moist.  Press crust mixture into greased pie pan and bake for 10 minutes.  Allow to cool completely on wire rack before adding filling.

In small bowl mix yogurt, splenda, almond extract, and vanilla.

In another bowl toss diced strawberries in a little bit of lemon juice.

Once crust is cooled add filling then top with strawberries.  Cover and chill for 3 hours.

Nutrition Info (1/8th of pie):
Calories: 130
Total Fat: 4.4 g
Saturated Fat: 0.5 g
Carbs: 20.9 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sugars: 10.2 g
Protein: 3.3 g

Note: You can replace the splenda with sugar and it will add 22.5 calories per slice. The original recipe called for light cream cheese instead of greek yogurt.

Monster Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
3 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn syrup
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup candy-coated milk chocolate
pieces

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a very large bowl, beat the eggs.
3. Add the remaining ingredients in order, mixing well.
4. Use an ice cream scoop to put on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

That's right there is no flour in these cookies, so that makes them healthy ;) They are awesome and you really do need to use an ice cream scoop to make them turn out right.