What's worse than being sick all weekend? Being sick on your birthday weekend.
That's right.. as soon as we got done with a lovely Italian birthday dinner Friday night, I could feel my body starting to shut down and was in bed by 9... lame.
So while I should have been out celebrating all weekend, I was instead curled up on the couch surrounded by tissues, cups of hot tea and way too much medicine.
Come Sunday morning I was ready to do something; still not feeling particularly keen, I was determined to get in the kitchen and bake something anyways.
Not being able to sleep the past few nights turned out to be a great time to brainstorm some new recipe ideas.
Mountain Man said he could taste the healthy in these muffins (but in a good way he insisted) and I need all the health I can get right now, so I was by no means offended.
So if you're needing a little healthy in your life or just looking for something delicious for breakfast, these are the muffins for you.
Apple & Cranberry Muffins
swEEts original
Oven: 375 Bake time: 20 minutes
Makes 12 muffins
1 cup AP flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flax seed meal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup pear sauce* or apple sauce
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Granola Topping *optional
1/2 cup quick oats
1/4 cup bran flakes, crushed
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1 TBS brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4-1/2 cup honey
To make granola topping, mix all ingredients in a small bowl- adding just enough honey to coat ingredients.
Preheat oven to 375. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, add flours, sugar, flax seed meal, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
In a small bowl, mix egg, yogurt and pear(or apple) sauce.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well with wooden spoon.
Fold in diced apples and cranberries.
Using an ice cream scoop, fill muffins 2/3 way full.
Generously sprinkle granola topping on top of each muffin.
Transfer to oven and bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Because I was out of apple sauce I got a little creative and made my own pear sauce.. it was very easy to make and turned out to be quite delicious- easily substituted for apple sauce.
Pear Sauce (Just enough for the muffin batter)
2 pears, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
1/4 cup water
2 TBS sugar
In a small sauce pan, cook water and pears over medium heat.
Bring to boil and allow pears to soften- about 5 minutes.
Transfer pears to food processor, add sugar and pulse to puree.
What do you do when you're sick?
Happy Baking!
