whole wheat

Avocado Muffins

June 7, 2018

These muffins are 100% inspired by our recent trip out to California. We were lucky enough to attend Billy’s work conference at a very nice luxury resort in Huntington Beach where they really pampered us with some good food.

Considering that it is California, they really stuck to a healthy “California” themed menu and avocados were all over the place! Even in the muffins! I had never even heard of baking bread or muffins with avocados before (as the main ingredient and not a substitute for butter), but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised!

The avocado itself doesn’t actually provide a whole lot of flavor. But there is a subtle richness to the muffins that make them delicious all on their own. No fillings or mix-ins needed!

However, I can totally see myself making these muffins again and mixing in some blueberries, almonds, or any other favorite muffin mix-in!

How to Make Them

First, cream together the mashed avocado and sugar just like you would butter and sugar.

Next, mix in the eggs.

Then, mix in the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Then mix in the milk until smooth.

I used a combination of whole wheat and all-purpose flour for these muffins to make them slightly healthier and I love the nutty flavor whole wheat flour provides.

Then spoon the muffin batter into a lined muffin tin.

One thing I think these muffins need so they aren’t so plain is a little sprinkle of turbinado sugar. It creates a really crunchy sweet top that makes these muffins even better!

Finally, just bake until the tops are golden brown, about 20 minutes.

And there you have it. Super yummy avocado muffins! Who would have thought of making a muffin with an avocado? I guess I have to thank our trip out to Huntington Beach for this one!

Supplies and Recipe

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Sugar-Free Sugar Cookies

October 24, 2017

If there is one thing you can find in abundance on this blog, it’s sweets. And I don’t discriminate, I like sweets of all kinds – cookies, cupcakes, cakes, brownies, ice cream. But I do like balancing my sweet tooth with a healthy diet (most of the time). Sometimes I can have the best of both worlds and have my sweets but also be healthy.

Case in point: sugar-free sugar cookies.

Now, I know what you are thinking. How can you make a sugar cookie without sugar? While there may not be any refined sugar in these cookies, there are some all natural sweeteners (agave syrup and Stevia) in these cookies that give them their classic sweetness without the sugar rush.

In addition, the cookies are made with some whole wheat pastry flour which really amps up the healthy factor. Almost making these cookies guilt free. Almost.

These sugar-free sugar cookies already have the sugar-free thing and whole wheat flour going for them, but, in addition, they also use half as much butter as my classic sugar cookie. Thanks to the moisture provided by the agave syrup, you only need a half a cup of butter to make a full batch of cookies.

To make the cookies, I start by mixing together the butter, agave, and stevia. Then I add the egg and vanilla. After that, I mix in the whole wheat pastry flour.

You could also use plain all-purpose flour or normal whole wheat flour. Just be warned that by using 100% normal whole wheat flour you will end up with a distinct whole wheat taste. If that doesn’t bother you then go for it! If it does, I recommend finding some whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour or mix in half all-purpose and half whole wheat to still get the whole wheat benefit.

One great thing about this dough is that it can be rolled out immediately if you are short on time. But I prefer to wrap my dough in plastic wrap and to let it chill for about an hour before rolling it out. This not only helps the flour soak up some of the moisture, but it makes it a lot easier to roll and cut out.

Normally when I roll out my dough, I just roll it out right on my pastry board with a little bit of flour. But because this dough is a little on the dry side (whole wheat flour tends to do that) I want to use as little flour as possible. To roll out my dough without it sticking to anything, I roll it between two sheets of parchment paper and a tiny sprinkling of flour. Of course, I could do this with my normal sugar cookies, but I am just too lazy.

Then I cut out my cookies as normal and pop them in the oven to bake.

These cookies are perfect for decorating because they keep their shape really well, but are also really light and fluffy thanks to the agave syrup. For decorating these cookies, in keeping with the sugar-free theme, I made a batch of this sugar-free buttercream frosting. I did attempt to make sugar-free royal icing…but I am pretty sure that is impossible. You just need some sugar to make the icing work.

Full disclosure, though, the sprinkles are 100% sugar. I struggled to find any sugar-free sprinkles and decided in the end that cookies with 99% less sugar than a normal frosted sugar cookie is pretty dang good. Of course, if you are looking to eliminate all the refined sugar, you can just skip the sprinkles. Or make your own.

These cookies will be perfect for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, you name it. You can frost them with sugar-free frosting, or use my favorite royal icing (which is basically pure sugar) if you are just looking to cut out a little bit of sugar.

I am so happy to have this recipe in my back pocket now. Next time I make cookies for my friends’ kids (or myself) I will certainly use this recipe to cut out some sugar and make my cookies a bit more healthy!
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Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Bread

March 24, 2017

Guys, do you know how easy it is to make pita bread at home? Okay, so maybe “easy” isn’t the right word. It’s totally doable, though. If you can make pizza dough, you can definitely make pita bread.

When you really think about it, they are almost exactly the same thing. Pita bread is just a smaller version of pizza dough and the recipes are practically identical.

I tell you all this so that you are not intimidated by the pita bread. Of course if pizza dough intimidates you, then this isn’t helping. Don’t you worry though; I have a whole blog post that will get you over that real quick.

Like most bread, it all starts with the yeast. If you haven’t worked with yeast much, it may seem a bit scary. But don’t worry, I got you. I will teach you everything you need to know right now.

Yeast thrives in a warm, sweet environment. So as long as you give the yeast a little bit of sugar (honey counts) and heat it up a bit, your yeast will do whatever you want (not unlike myself).

I stir my yeast into water that is about 100 degrees (it feels just warm to the touch, not hot!) with a bit of sugar dissolved in. After about 10 minutes, it should be foamy, like you see in the picture above.

The yeast mixture is poured into a mixture of flour, baking soda, and salt along with a bit of olive oil.

After a it gets all mixed together, it will be a bit of a shaggy mess. Now it’s time to get kneading. You can have your stand mixer do the work for your, or you can roll up your sleeves and do the dirty work yourself. Knead the dough until the shaggy dough becomes a smooth, elastic ball of dough.

At this point you would transfer the dough to a greased bowl so that it can proof until it’s doubled in size. This is the part I always forget to take pictures of, so you are just going to have to trust me on this.

After the dough has proofed, divide the dough into 6-8 smaller balls of dough and roll out into discs. Lay the discs out under a damp cloth and let proof for another 10 minutes or so.

Now is the fun part! Baking them! It is so fun to watch them puff up into these huge bread balloons.

If you want a little extra color and char on the pita, throw them on a hot skillet and cook for another minute or so on each side.

Now you have prefect little pita pockets. Because they puffed right up in the oven, they will turn right into pockets once you cut open one end or cut them in half.

Also, like most things, I prefer these homemade pitas much more than the store bought ones. Especially right out of the oven! Delish!

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Fluffy Green Pancakes

March 13, 2017

With St. Patrick’s Day a couple days away, it seems appropriate to feature some green-hued foods, don’t cha think? These fluffy green pancakes were actually inspired by those pancakes the Internet gave Chelsea Clinton such a hard time about. I guess I wasn’t as disgusted as everyone else, because I thought they would be perfect for St. Patty’s Day! Also, what a good way to sneak some extra veggies into your diet?

Before you are completely turned off by spinach in your pancakes, let me assure you that they don’t taste anything like spinach. You can’t taste it at all! So you really could trick your kids into thinking you made green pancakes just for St. Patty’s Day!

These pancakes don’t just get their green color from the spinach. There is also a bit of matcha green tea powder in there to get it an extra umpf. It aslo gives these pancakes a bit of caffeine, which I am not going to turn down in the morning.

Start by blending together the spinach, egg yolk, milk, lemon juice, and butter until it resembles that green smoothie you force down ever not and then (just kidding, I love green smoothies!). Then add the flour mixture to the blender so that the blender does all the work, not you.

I would suggest adding just part of the flour mixture at a time, otherwise the blender will just get overwhelmed and you will end up stirring it yourself anyways.

You should be left with a smooth, green batter. It’s okay if there are a couple lumps though. You don’t want your pancake batter over mixed. Then pour that batter into a bowl with some whipped up egg whites.

Oh yeah, this is the key to light and fluffy pancakes. Separate your egg white from the egg yolk and whip it up until light and airy. Then fold the batter into the egg whites so you have a light and airy batter!

Spoon about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter on to your cooking surface of choice. I prefer our electric griddle because it holds a constant, steady temperature ensuring I don’t under or overcook my pancakes.

Then just stack up your pretty green pancakes and top them with your favorite pancake toppings.

I prefer butter (and lots of it) and some maple syrup. Sure that sort of negates the “healthiness” of the spinach and whole wheat flour. But the way I see it, I would be dousing my pancakes in butter and syrup no matter what. So at least this way I am getting in a serving of veggies!

If the Chelsea Clinton green pancakes turned you off from adding spinach to your pancake batter, I hope I have helped sway you the other way. Because it’s always a good idea to trick your kids (or your husband…or yourself!) into eating more veggies.

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Homemade Whole Wheat Burger Buns

August 31, 2016

I can’t believe this is my first time attempting to make burger buns. Gosh, they couldn’t have been easier! Like pizza dough or tortillas, it is now one of those things I will think twice about before buying from the grocery store. Sure it takes a bit more time to make from scratch, but the investment pays significant dividends in taste (and quality).

What used to intimidate me about making breads at home was the yeast. Sometimes the yeast was good, sometimes it wasn’t and I wouldn’t really know until after I had put in all the work. Well let me share with you my tips for using yeast: 1) freeze your yeast so it keeps longer, 2) sugar your water so that the yeast has something to feed on, and 3) create more acidity which the yeast likes.

Sometimes it’s not always possible to do #3, like in pizza dough, for instance. But it’s really easy to do with burger buns. I actually mixed the yeast in a mixture of water, buttermilk, and sugar that I had warmed up in the microwave. Boy, let me tell you that yeast went crazy! It loved that sugary, acidic mixture! And it created some nice springy dough that formed the perfect buns and proofed pretty quickly.

This is helpful because that means I can make these burger buns in under an hour. Once I had mixed and kneaded the dough, I formed them into even balls. I then left the dough balls out on the counter to rise a bit while I went back to work in the kitchen getting the rest of dinner prepared.

I let these bad boys rise until they expanded to about the size of a standard burger bun, which took me about 20 minutes. They will puff up quite a bit in the oven, but they won’t get much wider (if that make sense) so make sure you like the size of them before baking.

And let me tell you, your kitchen will smell amazing while these bake. They should make a candle that smells like fresh baked bread. I would love for my house to smell like that every day.

Anyways….

Because of the egg wash on top, I knew they were ready when they turned nice and golden brown on top. I was totally tempted to cut right into one while it was warm, but I restrained myself. If I had done that, they might have still been a little moist in the center instead of nice and light and spongy. So it’s really important to let them cool completely.

But once they are cool, I cut them in half then toasted them a bit in the oven so they got even more crispy. I used these particular buns for some smokey sloppy joes, which I will be sharing soon. Of course they would be good with burgers of all kinds, chicken breast, and anything else you want to turn into a sandwich!

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Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

June 24, 2016

I know I have shared this flour tortilla recipe before, but I wanted to update it since the recipe and pictures didn’t quite survive the transition to my new blog design. But if I am being really honest, I am updating this recipe for myself. I reference this recipe A LOT, so the fact that I couldn’t easily search for it on the blog was not working for me.

We make these flour tortillas as often as we can because they just taste so much better (and are better for you) than the store bought ones which are probably weeks old and packed with preservatives. The tortillas that I make are taste so much like the ones I used to get from the number of the local Mexican food spots I frequented back home in San Diego.

Fresh, homemade tortillas can make just about anything taste good. and they are actually much easier to make than you might think. The recipe is essentially flour, water, oil, and salt. This time around I used coconut oil instead of my usual olive oil. While they were delicious, there was definitely a hint of coconut flavor. If that doesn’t appeal to you, stick with a milder flavored oil, like olive oil.

No fancy equipment is needed for mixing. I just dig right in with my hands to mix all the ingredients together and form into a ball. Once it’s in ball form, I wrap it in some plastic wrap then pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to set up.

After the dough has chilled for a bit, I divide it into evenly sized balls of dough. Mine were about 1.4 oz each, but you can make them as big or small as you want. I then press the dough balls in a tortilla press. A tortilla press is not necessary, but if you think you will be making tortillas on a regular basis, then I would recommend shelling out a couple bucks for one. If you don’t have one, just roll out the dough with a rolling pin. In fact, I like my tortillas pretty thin, so I roll them out even after I have pressed them.

Once I roll out a tortilla, I pass it off to my husband to cook. We have our system down pat! I roll, he cooks. Roll, cook, repeat. His cooking technique is 15 to 20 seconds per side. You will know when the first side is ready because bubbles will start to form. The second side will cook just as quickly!

We like to store the tortillas in a tortilla warmer as we take them off the skillet so they stay warm and don’t dry out. Once we are ready to eat, we just grab a warm tortilla and assemble.

There are few things better than a fresh, homemade tortilla. Which is why I like to spend a few extra minutes to make them if I am cutting some corners on the filling. For instance, my chicken taco recipe is so simple and requires very little time and effort on my part since I let the slow cooker to all the work. To make the chicken I put chicken breasts, a container of pico de gallo, and about 1 tbsp of taco seasoning in a slow cooker and let that cook all day. Then I just shred with two forks. Easy right? But it tastes like I slaved away for hours when it’s wrapped up in these tortillas!

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Chocolate Chip Whole Wheat Muffins

November 2, 2015

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a muffin recipe, hasn’t it? I was all about muffins back in the day. It is definitely one of my favorite breakfast food items to make because you get so much bang for your buck. Make one easy batter, fill it with what you want, and you end up with a dozen delicious muffins. Whenever I have to bring a breakfast food for a large group, I make muffins.

Which is exactly how these came about! For Sunday School this past week, I volunteered to bring breakfast. I wanted something crowd-pleasing, but also a bit healthy. So I balanced the chocolate chips with whole wheat and bran flour in the muffin. Life is all about balance, right?

I started with my basic muffin batter. I replaced some of the all purpose flour with whole wheat, and added in a touch of bran. Just a touch, because bran flour can throw off the texture of these whole wheat muffins. But for some extra crunch on top, I mixed together a little strussel topping with bran flour, sugar, and butter. I crumbled that on top and let it bake until golden brown.

These definitely have a bit of a bran, whole wheat flavor. But the chocolate chips add enough sweetness to make you forget you are eating something mildly healthy. If you don’t like the flavor of whole wheat, just reduce the amount by half and replace with AP flour. It will be diluted enough that you will barely taste it, but still get some of the benefit of the whole wheat.

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National Pancake Day

September 26, 2014

I think children are like pancakes. You sort of ruin the first one, and you get better at it the second time around.
– Kelly Ripa

Happy National Pancake Day! I wanted to share some of my favorite pancake recipes with y’all since they are definitely my favorite breakfast food. I will be celebrating the day after National Pancake Day with a nice tall stack of my own.

Chocolate Hazelnut Pancakes

Peach Ricotta Pancakes

Sugar Free, Gluten Free Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

Protein Power Pancakes

Gingerbread Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes

And even though this is National Pancake Day, there is no sense in discriminating against international pancakes.

Dutch Baby (Pancake) with Berry Compote

Whole Wheat Crepes

What is your favorite type of pancake?

Spinach Tortillas

May 5, 2014

When I become I mother, I swear, I am going to be the best at sneaking vegetables into my kids food. I feel like I have mastered the art of “vegetable filler”. I will stick carrots and spinach in meatloaf or meatballs. I have even snuck (sneaked?) both into brownies before. Well, these tortillas are no different. Except that the spinach in these is very evident. But I feel like you could easily come up with a story about why these tortillas are green that doesn’t involve spinach. If Dr. Seuss can do it, so can I.In truth, these tortillas are just as easy as normal tortillas. I just blended up the spinach with the water and oil, then added it to the flour mixture.

I was prepared to add more flour or water if necessary in case the spinach changed the consistency of the dough. Fortunately that was not the case. The dough should be slightly tacky. Since you will be rolling them out in flour (most likely), you don’t want them to be too dry or they will crack when you try to flatten them out.

And I like that you can see some pieces of spinach in the tortillas along with their vibrant green color. It really makes you feel like you being more healthy than you actually are.This recipe makes 16 “taco” size tortillas (about 6″ diameter) or 10-12 larger tortillas (about 8″ diameter). I just flatten out the dough ball into a disk then cut into equal size wedges before forming them into smaller balls. It doesn’t have to be an exact science, but if you are worried about them being the same size, you could use a kitchen scale to make sure they are all about 1-1.5 oz.

We recently invested in a tortilla press, which I find to be somewhat helpful. But because I like my tortillas to be pretty thin, I end up rolling out the pressed tortillas anyways. Before I had the tortilla press, I would just flatten the ball with my hand, then roll them out until almost paper thin (1/16th to 1/8th inch).

I prefer cooking the tortillas on a cast iron skillet because the heat is disbursed pretty evenly. According to Alton Brown, the skillet should be about 400 degrees. You only need to cook them for about 25-30 seconds per side. Any longer, and they will dry out and become to rigid. So work quickly and keep the tortillas warm in a tortilla warmer or in the oven.

If you don’t need 16 tortillas, you can always halve the recipe. Or what I do, is make the whole recipe, roll out all 12-16 tortillas, then only cook what I need. Whatever I don’t use, I freeze, placing a piece of parchment paper between each uncooked tortilla. They will keep for a while in the freezer, but I would recommend using them within the month.

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Whole Wheat Crepes

August 29, 2013

For some reason, crepes have always intimidated me. To me, they were the high maintenance and delicate sibling of the pancake. Maybe it’s because they are French. The French are high maintenance and delicate, right?

(Sorry if you are French and I offended you. If it makes you feel better, Americans are fat jerks.)

As usual though, I have to try to make crepes a little bit healthier. I did find one recipe that was SUPER healthy. Like it used bananas and oats and agave. I am not going that far. I just used whole wheat flour, egg whites, and almond milk. It definitely made them a bit lighter, but not taste like grainy bananas. Unless you like grainy bananas.

What I found in making crepes, is that you really want your batter to be pretty thin. If it is the consistency of pancake batter, then it needs to be thined out. Other than that, its really not that easy to mess up crepes.

It also helped me to watch a couple YouTube videos. Seeing other people make them helped my confidence and lessened the intimidation. I also didn’t try to be fancy and flip them like a pro. I used my fingers and flipped them over. There was no one around to judge my lack of flair and none of my crepes ended up on the floor.

The amazing thing about crepes is that they can be filled with anything. I love crepes filled with Neutella and strawberries. These crepes are filled with vanilla Greek yogurt, strawberries, and bananas then topped with blueberries. If B were around when I made these, I would have filled his with eggs, bacon, and cheese…like a little crepe breakfast burrito.

And if you are wondering, the plate featured above can easily serve 2 people. But I ate all four because I am a fat jerk.

What is your favorite crepe filling??

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