Recipe of the Week: Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins

As you may have noticed, we LOVE muffins. Especially healthy ones! And well, I also happen to love chocolate, so what could be better than a healthy chocolate muffin??? A GF, SF triple chocolate muffin that you make in your blender, that's what!

Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins

1 3/4 c Oats
3 egg whites
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp. vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup hot water
1 cup sugar substitute (I used zsweet, but would probably recommend 1/4 c stevia instead)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Preheat to 350. Blend all ingredients except chocolate chips in blender until smooth.   Stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips and scoop mixture into muffin tin or use foil liners (I did not and my muffins stuck to my liners).
Bake for 10 minutes, remove and add remaining chocolate chips to tops of muffins.  Bake for additional 5 minutes.



These muffins tasted AMAZING! However, my batter was really watery (not sure if I measured wrong somewhere?) So in turn they needed to be in the oven for close to 20 minutes and they didn't get nice and fluffy like the picture I saw on Pinterest, and my chocolate chips "sank" to the bottom of the muffins! Zsweet also tends to have the laxative effect is isn't the best sugar substitute to use! But they still tasted good and were nice and moist! Might have to try them again with a few modifications to get a fluffier muffin!

Candy Cane Science

Still have candy canes laying around the house? We had some how accumulated a ton of candy canes over the holidays. So when I found this candy cane pin on Pinterest, I thought it would be perfect!

It's a pretty basic "experiment" that was great for a 3 year old.

We filled our bowls with ice water, warm water, hot water, and vinegar. Made some predictions about what would happen to the candy canes in each bowl, then dropped them in. Nothing to fancy happened obviously, but the water changed color, the candy canes "melted" in the hot water, and "froze" in the ice water.

Then, we added some baking soda to the bowls and talked about the "bubbles" we saw in the vinegar, and why not the other bowls.

Then I let her stir/play with everything for a little, eat a candy cane, and she was happy (and hopefully learned a little science too :) )

Found this idea and a few other candy cane ideas at www.teachmama.com

Recipe of the week: Cornbread

We have been eating a lot of chili lately! Taco chili, chicken chili, and I'm making some white bean chili right now! But I decided I needed some cornbread to go with my chicken taco chili and came across this great recipe on my Allrecipes app.  I modified it slightly, so here is the recipe I used.


Sweet Cornbread
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup white sugar (I used a little less)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon honey


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish.
2. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix egg, sour cream, milk, honey, and butter in a small bowl. Fold egg mixture into flour mixture until just moistened; pour into prepared baking dish.
3. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.

Cornbread...missing the piece I used for my chili :) 

Chicken Taco Chili and Cornbread

I enjoyed this cornbread.  I thought it was very moist and tasty.  I cut out some sugar and substituted honey, so it wasn't super sweet.  I think it would definitely be better with regular all-purpose flour too.  But it was still good!

I'm back with the big reveal!

I have been a little absent from blogging lately, but I'm back (for now) and finally ready to reveal my Baby Boy's nursery! Yep, he's 8 months old already, but better late than never right :)

So here it is...Our Fire Truck Nursery! (Sorry for the poor Iphone photography!)

This is our Baby Boy's Nursery! And here is where you can find some of these items:

Crib: Babies R Us, Babi Italia (was purchased in 2009 and was my daughter's furniture)

Canvas: Etsy custom painting (not linking to the seller because we had some major issues with them!)

Bedding: Nojo Engine 27 We purchased it at Bed Bath and Beyond, but it is available elsewhere 

We hope to center the shelf on the wall at some point, but for now it is holding our video monitor , so we had to have it that close to the crib.

Ladder: Was my Grandfathers, whom my son also gets his middle name from <3 We left it pretty much as is other then buffing up a few spots and cleaning it a bit.  

Shelf: Pottery Barn Kids Outlet

Lamp: Nojo Engine 27 Lamp from Kohls (and no we DID NOT pay the price it is listed for now, nor would I recommend paying that much for it)

Antique Fire Truck: Was my Dad's, found it in my Mom's basement <3

Glider: Hand me down from my sister, we haven't been motivated enough to paint/stain it to match the rest of the furniture!

Nightstand: Marshalls 

Lamp: Was a gift, but I believe it was purchased at Hobby Lobby

Dresser: Babies R Us Babi Italia

Hamper: Nojo Engine 27 Hamper from Kohls

Shelves: Target, but they were wedding gifts and I can no longer find them on their website

 We are still in search of a few odds and ends/antiques to finish off the room.  We may find those things by the time he turns 18 :)