Mingle it up

Whole Wheat Orange Cranberry Muffins

Oranges or rather Clementines are huge hit at home. Clementine is a lovely little Mandarin family fruit which tastes more or less like an Orange just smaller, easier to peel & almost seedless. That’s why I will refer to them as Oranges instead of Clementine :), just used to saying Oranges.

Orange Muffins are my husband’s favorite. When I make these they go really fast. Within 4-5 days, a dozen of them are already eaten. But hey they are definitely better to snack on than cookies or a bag of chips.

Ingredients
1 Cup Whole Wheat
1/4 Cup Wheat Bran
1 Egg (I use an Egg Substitute Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1/4 Cup No-Sugar Added Apple Sauce
2 tbsp Canola Oil
1 tsp Vanilla
2 -3 tbsp Sugar Or Honey - Depending upon how sweet you like (I use 2 tbsp of Splenda- Sugar Substitute)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch of Nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1.5 tsp Orange Zest
2-3 tbsp Fresh Orange Juice
1 Orange - roughly chop the peeled fruit into bite size pieces
2 Tbsp Dried Cranberry or Raisins (You can use more if you like them)
3 tbsp Milk

Makes 6 Medium Sized Muffins
Around 140-150 Calories per Muffin.
Oven Temperature - 350 def F
Time - 22-25 Minutes.

Exact same steps as before
1. Sift in the dry ingredients like Flour, Salt, Baking Soda, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg. Add Wheat Bran and Orange Zest into the flour mixture & mix well.
2. Now add Wet Ingredients + Sugar separately in a bowl. Start with blending Sugar, an Egg with Canola Oil and then add other wet ingredients.
3. Now mix the wet ingredients in dry along with roughly chopped Oranges & Raisins.
4. Don’t over mix it; just make sure everything is well incorporated.
5. Line your paper cups in Muffin pan & grease them well (Or you can choose to not use them and drop the batter directly into your Muffin pan. But make sure to grease your pan well then).
6. I generally use an Ice-Cream scoop to scoop out the batter evenly in all the cups.
7. Place the filled Muffin pan in the Preheated Oven for about 20-25 minutes.
8. Check with the tooth-pick to see if they are done. Let them cool on the Wire rack for 5-10 minutes.

Whole Wheat Apple Raisin Muffin
I just love Red Delicious Crispy Apples. They look also so vibrant & radiant. No wonder these were the first I tried in my muffins :).If you are trying Muffins for the first time please go through My Muffin Story post to read some muffin making tips.
The most important one is don’t over mix the batter. Around 10-12 strokes of folding the wet & dry ingredients should do it otherwise you will end up in tough muffins.

Here is what you will need for your Muffins
1 Cup Whole Wheat
1/4 Cup Wheat Bran
1 Egg (I use an Egg Substitute Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1/4 Cup No-Sugar Added Apple Sauce
2 tbsp Canola Oil
1 tsp Vanilla
2 -3 tbsp Sugar Or Honey - Depending upon how sweet you like (I use 2 tbsp of Splenda- Sugar Substitute)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch of Nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 Cup grated Apple with Skin (About 1 Medium Apple)
2-3 tbsp Raisins (If you like more you can add more)
3-4 tbsp buttermilk (2 tbsp of Yogurt diluted by 2 tbsp of water)

Few Slivered Almonds for decoration on top of the muffin.

Makes 6 Medium Sized Muffins
Around 140-150 Calories per Muffin.
Oven Temperature - 375 def F
Time - 22-25 Minutes.

1. Sift in the dry ingredients like Flour, Salt, Baking Soda, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg. Add Wheat Bran into the flour mixture & mix well.
2. Now add Wet Ingredients + Sugar separately in a bowl. Start with blending Sugar, an Egg with Canola Oil and then add other wet ingredients.
3. Now mix the wet ingredients in dry along with grated Apple & Raisins.
4. Don’t over mix it; just make sure everything is well incorporated.
5. Line your paper cups in Muffin pan & grease them well (Or you can choose to not use them and drop the batter directly into your Muffin pan. But make sure to grease your pan well then).
6. I generally use an Ice-Cream scoop to scoop out the batter evenly in all the cups. And sprinkle some slivered almonds on the muffins.
7. Place the filled Muffin pan in the Preheated Oven for about 20-25 minutes.
8. Check with the tooth-pick to see if they are done. Let them cool on the Wire rack for 5-10 minutes.

Hi Everyone,

Back again with some breakfast ideas J . I am a working woman so generally don’t get enough time in the morning to whip up some hot breakfast for me & my husband. We used to generally eat Cereals or WW toast with Peanut Butter with a cup of tea. But recently most of the times we would skip it since it was boring to have the same thing over n over again. Giving breakfast a skip would make me extremely hungry during Lunch time and would keep me unsatisfied the whole day. It was just not working. If you have read my previous blogs you might know by now how much I love Trader Joes. So one day my husband decided to try TJ Muffins for breakfast. He liked it but not so much, that’s when I decided to give it a try & make my own.

My Muffins are definitely inspired by several muffin recipes out there on the web. But I have tried to make few variations in mine to make them healthy, power-packed & surely tasty enough that you would look forward to have them every dayJ.

In my muffins you can find

-Reduced oil (I add some “No Added Sugar Applesauce” for moisture),

-Reduced sugar (prefer to keep it balanced with natural sugar of the fruits in the muffin),

-only Whole wheat flour used,

-Use little Wheat Bran in all muffins - This boosts the nutritional value (read fiber, protein) in my muffins

-Always Fruit. My breakfast muffins always contain fresh fruits like Apples, Oranges, Strawberries, Banana, Pineapple.

You can also add ground Flaxseeds in your muffins to pump up your Omega-3 Fatty acids intake. Flaxseeds can help reduce cholesterol, your blood pressure etc.

Muffin Making/Baking Tips from AllRecipes.Com