Comments (11)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, February 23, 2012 7:49 am

I can’t remember the last time I baked. Seriously, it’s been months. During the holidays I think I baked maybe one thing which is completely unlike me.

After day’s of major chocolate cravings I found myself in the kitchen whipping up the most intense chocolate muffins. They are simple, easy, and made with just a handful of ingredients.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cup natural unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup dark chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Combine your flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, & brown sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until all ingredients are blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together your applesauce, canola oil, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is combined. Stir in your chocolate chips. Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Let cool & enjoy! These muffins will quickly become the answer to all of your chocolate cravings .

Comments (21)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, September 14, 2011 7:30 am

Breakfast is serious business in our house. Every morning this little face wakes up and the first thing she ask’s for is food.

I do my best to cook her a solid meal like oatmeal, eggs, or french toast, but, between managing a 7 week old and getting M ready for school in the morning, sometimes quick and easy is exactly what we need.  Smoothies and muffins are perfect.

At some point during the week or the weekend, I like to cook a batch of oat bran muffins and I always make sure we are stocked with both fresh and frozen fruit for smoothie making.

M is obsessed with smoothies.  Her flavor of the moment is peach. M’s Peachy Keen Smoothie consists of fresh peaches, frozen mango chunks, a banana, and low-fat milk.

And of course, a super cute cup makes drinking smoothies extra fun.

Smoothies + Muffins makes for a perfectly quick breakfast!

Peachy Keen Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 fresh peach, sliced or cubed
• 1 banana (can be fresh or frozen)
• 1 cup mango chunks (I use frozen, but fresh can be used as well)
• 1/2 cup low-fat milk (more if needed for desired thickness)

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth & enjoy!

Oat Bran Muffins (adapted from Allrecipes)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (regular whole wheat flour)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup applesauce
• 2 eggs

Combine all dry ingredients in bowl and whisk until blended through. In a separate bowl, combine your vegetable oil, applesauce, and eggs. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until all ingredients are mixed through. Line a muffin tin with baking cup liners. Spoon batter into cups about 3/4 full (I like to use an ice scream scoop for accuracy). Bake at 400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Comments (19)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, April 30, 2010 9:52 am

I had every intention of blogging yesterday! I don’t know how it happened… but the day just got away from me.

Between juggling a baby who wouldn’t nap and accidentally dropping the coffee pot and watching it shatter all over the floor… it was a heck of a day!

Is it sad that my biggest concern was getting a new coffee pot before the next morning? I can handle a lot of things… but take my morning coffee away and I’m a mess!

I did manage to squeeze in a much needed trip to Trader Joe’s. I impulsively purchased a container of dark chocolate covered expresso beans, and then proceeded to eat a handful or two at eight o clock at night.

Why did I do that? Why?

Why did I ingest one of the most concentrated forms of caffeine, coated in more caffeine?

As you would guess, I ended up getting over caffinated, couldn’t go to sleep, and ended up baking strawberry bread muffins at 10:40 p.m.

The inspiration came from Sarena. She posted some gluten-free Strawberry Bread on her site… so naturally, I decided to make them into my most favorite food… muffins!

This was my first trial with this recipe creation. They came out good… but not awesome. I think I added too much applesauce for the amount of strawberries I used.

Here’s the recipe… but if you make these… cut the applesauce to 1/2 cup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoons flax meal
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 cup applesauce (cut down to 1/2 cup when you make this)
• 3 cups fresh strawberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with muffin liners.

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine vanilla, canola oil, and applesauce. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients… stir until combined. Take two cups of strawberries. Chop them and then mash them. Use whatever you have to mash them. I used a potato masher.

Add mashed strawberries to batter and stir until combined. Take last cup of strawberries, roughly chop them, and then fold into batter.

Fill muffin cups with batter, 3/4 full.

Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Place muffin tin on cooling rack and allow muffins to cool until completely cooled.

Enjoy!

Have a great weekend!!!

If you’re in DC, the weather is suppose to be incredible!! Enjoy!