Comments (19)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, March 16, 2010 7:39 am

Hi

Thank you for all the sweet comments about my new job!

Everything is going well so far! I’m way busier doing this than my job at work… go figure

Ok… I have a question for you…

What decade were you born in?

I was born in the mid seventies… graduated high school in the early nineties, then graduated college in the late nineties…

And yes… I’m aware that I’m aging myself right now

The eighties were a huge part of my life.

I am a true product of the eighties!

I love the music, the movies, everything!

I have the Sirius Eighties music channel programmed in my car.

Growing up… I wanted to be Molly Ringrald (specifically in the movie “Pretty in Pink”.)

I can do the same dance routine that Kevin Bacon does in Footloose…

….. Did I just admitted that?!?!! …..

My favorite song from the eighties is “Into the groove” by Madonna. I can’t get enough of that song.

I loved Madonna in her eighties days…

I even have pictures of me and my friends all dressed up with our lace gloves, tulle skirts, and big bows in our hair… and no… it was not halloween.

Over the weekend I was reminiscing…

Growing up in the eighties, my mom ALWAYS had Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies and Little Debbie Star Crunch in the house.

This led to an intense craving for Oatmeal Cream Pies…

Insert Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

These completely cured my craving!!!

They are so moist and taste just like an oatmeal raisin cookie… but in a dense muffin form.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the cream filling is missing.

You see… when I was little, I would take one bite of the oatmeal cream pie, then just eat the cookie part…. not the filling…

Weird… I know…

I actually considered making a glaze to go on top… but decided these were perfect as is!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2/3 cup old fashioned oats
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, oats, cinnamon, and sugar. Mix until blended… set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine canola oil, apple sauce, and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until combined.

Add raisins to mixture and gently fold in.

Line muffin tin with liners.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin cup… will make about 7 muffins.

Bake for 23 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!!!

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Question of the Day?

What’s your favorite decade? Mine is totally the eighties

Comments (29)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, January 19, 2010 9:05 am

Hi.

Can I tell you a secret?

Promise not to tell?

I have a situation… a closet situation.

I consider myself a pretty organized person. A true Type A…. kinda…. except for one thing….. my closet. I can’t keep my closet organized to save my life. There’s been times where I’ve taken everything out, organized it to a tee, then within 3 months, its a complete mess.

What’s so difficult with putting something up where it belongs? I have shoe racks… very pretty shoe racks. I have nice hangers, pretty hooks for all my belts and scarves, and nice deep shelves for my sweaters. So what gives? What’s up with me?

Saturday morning my husband looked at me, opened the door to my closet and said “FIX THIS.” “THIS WEEKEND.”

So, to further procrastinate cleaning my closet, I went to the grocery store and came home with dinner ingredients and figs. Beautiful big dried turkish figs.

I decided to make some muffins. Vegan Fig Muffins.

Ok. Before you think I’ve gone all vegan on you, I have to say something. These are dense, moist, and rich. You wouldn’t even know they were vegan unless I told you. If you like figs, you’ll love these.

First, you want to combine the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine, sugar, canola oil, fig preserves, and vanilla. Mix until fig preserves are blended through.

Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients, then gently fold in chopped dried figs.

I like to spray my muffin cup liners with non-stick cooking spray. I also use my handy dandy ice cream scooper to get nice size muffins.

You want to bake them until nice and golden brown, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fig preserves
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup roughly chopped figs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl, set aside. In a mixer, combine sugar, canola oil, applesauce, fig preserves, and vanilla. Mix until blended well. Add flour mixture with sugar mixture. Mix until combined. Gently fold in chopped figs.

Line muffin tin with cup. I like to spray the muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray. Use a regular size ice cream scoop to scoop out the batter into the muffin cups.

Bake for 27 minutes rotating once until golden brown or toothpick comes out clean.

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Question of the Day?
Do you have any “situations” like my I do with my closet? I’m still working on that one by the way

Comments (10)

By Estela - Weekly Bite, December 10, 2009 12:18 pm

I have more banana’s than I know what to do with.

I keep on buying them, then right when they’re about to go bad, I peel them, throw them in a ziploc bag and put them in the freezer.

Then, I buy more bananas, and the cycle repeats itself.

I have thirty-seven bananas in the freezer.

Just kidding…

Not Really….

I was gonna use my tried and trusty Vegan Banana Muffin recipe, but then I thought… “Hey, I should branch out… try something new.”

This was a big mistake. There’s a reason why I love my original recipe so much!

Since I had enough bananas to feed entire entire monkey village, I used my favorite recipe to bake another batch and added a streusel topping.

All you do is follow the recipe for Vegan Banana Muffins.

Before you pop them in the oven, make the streusel topping. It’s really easy.

Streusel Topping:

3 Tablespoons cold butter cut in the small squares

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1.5 teaspoons cinnamon

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it looks like crumbs. If you don’t have a processor, you can use a pastry cutter.

Top each muffin with about 1 tablespoon of streusel topping.

Bake according to directions on original recipe.

ENJOY!

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Question of the Day

Have you ever strayed away from a trusty recipe and regretted it?

I’ve done this on several occasions. I should’ve learned my lesson by now