whole wheat carrot muffins

After just buying a new mini muffin pan this past weekend, I immediately needed to bake some muffins. Voila! This is a great recipe, it was so easy to make and good for you too. I could not stop eating these little veggie muffins.  

whole wheat carrot muffins
from serious eats

ingredients

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit, plus more for greasing tin
• 2 cups (7 ounces) finely grated carrot
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice from 2 lemons
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 liquid cup honey
• 1 cup (5 ounces) whole wheat flour
• 1 cup (4 ounces) cake flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

directions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tin with butter. Toss the carrots with the lemon juice in medium bowl. Add eggs, butter, and honey to bowl and whisk to combine.
2. Whisk together whole wheat flour, cake flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger in large bowl. Add carrot mixture to bowl with dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until combined. Beat vigorously with wooden spoon for 30 seconds.
3. Fill wells of muffin tins a little more than halfway with batter. Bake 15-18 minutes, until the centers of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed with a finger tip.

carrot ginger dressing

I love salad so much I can eat it everyday. What I also love is making homemade salad dressing, which is one of the easiest things to make. This carrot ginger dressing is not only easy to make, it is healthy too.

carrot ginger dressing
ingredients

• 1 cup of carrots, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh ginger
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup miso paste

directions

1. blend all the ingredients in a food processor until pureed. 
2. toss dressing with chopped romaine and cherry tomatoes.

cheddar cheese biscuits

What is my fix for a bad day? Baking! This past Wednesday was completely off for me; I must have woken up on the wrong side of bed. Anyways, I had a craving for cheese biscuits. These were so easy to make.

cheddar cheese biscuits
adapted from: food and whine

ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/3 cup butter, cold, cut into chunks
• 2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
• 6-7 oz grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 – 2/3 cup milk
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes 

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degree F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and garlic powder.
3. Add the cubed butter. Using a pastry cutter or a fork, cut butter into flour until it is coarse, pea-sized.
4. Add oil, grated cheddar cheese and the milk. Stir till well combined and holds together.
5. Make sure to keep adding milk a bit at a time, just until the dough is moistened and you can no longer see any raw flour.
6. Drop approximately 1/4 cup portions of the dough onto an un-greased cookie sheet or a Silpat using an ice cream scoop or large spoon.
7. Bake for 15-17 minutes in a preheated oven.
8. While biscuits are baking, melt 3 tablespoons butter is a small bowl with 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and the parsley.
9. When biscuits come out of the oven, use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Do this a few times – it’s fun to watch all the butter getting absorbed into the biscuit! Use up all of the butter. Serve warm.

pumpkin muffins

I love the fall. It is my favorite season, not only for the weather but the seasonal goodies. Pumpkin, sweet potato, and butternut squash are a few of my favorite {fall} things. This past weekend, I had a craving for some pumpkin baked goods.

pumpkin muffins

ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1¼ cups vegetable oil
• ½ cup sugar
• 5 tbsp. flour
• 1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• 4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line muffin pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil.  Mix on medium-low speed until blended.  With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.
2. To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend.  Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly.  Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.
3. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with  batter.  Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

paper wreath

To greet the trick or treaters, I made two wreaths to hang on our front doors. The wreaths are a craft set from martha stewart.