Raspberry Muffins with a Lemon Sugar Glaze

Blueberry muffins with orange zest are one of my favorites, so when I saw this recipe from The Food Charlatan for Raspberry Muffins with a lemon glaze, I knew I would love them and I did!

I shared them at a women's brunch at my church recently and they loved them, too!

A couple of shortcuts I took...

I used frozen raspberries. They worked just fine. No need to rinse them or coat them in flour.

I didn't heat up a lemon glaze. I just mixed powdered sugar, milk and water until it was what I needed to brush on. I didn't measure at all.

Finally, I used clear sugar sprinkles instead of dipping them in sugar and lemon zest.

Enjoy!

Two Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

My friend Natalie and I were discussing getting our kids to eat fruits and vegetables recently and she mentioned giving them pumpkin via super easy muffins she likes to make. Knowing how much my daughter loves anything pumpkin, I knew these muffins would be a hit.

They are quick, easy, moist, flavorful and relatively healthy. No oil, eggs or butter!

Two Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

1 box spice cake mix
1 can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling with all the spices in there)

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix your ingredients together and place inside muffin cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes.

Note: I like a little crunch in my muffins, so I sprinkled sugar crystals on top. Totally optional.

Morning Glory Muffins

Abby loves to bake. My 4 year old knows where we keep all the baking supplies- she knows the difference between baking soda and baking powder, loves to open the salt spout and knows vegetable oil and olive oil are different. We have lots of fun baking with each other.

She wanted to bake together one afternoon and I dug around and had what we needed to make Morning Glory Muffins that I had seen on Big Mama's blog. We made them and ate them up! These are a great muffin for sneaking in some healthy stuff. They held up well and we have all packed them for breakfast this past week. Plus, I learned that Starbuck's sells these, too!

Morning Glory Muffins from The Big Mama Blog

Mix together:

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbs. cinnamon

2 tsp.baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Add:

1/2 cup coconut 

3/4 cup raisins

1 large apple peeled and grated

2 cup grated carrots

1/2 cup chopped nuts 

Stir to combine

In a separate bowl mix together:

3 large eggs

1 cup veg oil 

2 tsp. vanilla 

Mix dry ingredients into egg mixture.

Spoon into muffin cups and bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Our changes: We sprinkled additional cinnamon and coarse sugar on top to give a little extra flavor and crunch. I hate a soggy muffin- crunch is good :)

Dolls and Doughnuts Party Foods and Recipes

When we decided to do a Dolls and Doughnuts party, I was most excited about breakfast foods. I love breakfast and brunch, so I knew it would be fun and easy!

Of course, a 9:30 am party needs coffee, milk and orange juice. We also had cold water with orange slices floating and this yummy banana punch.

I wanted a variety of sweets and protein for everyone. I also think it is important that kids' parties have foods that kids will eat and love. All this went into the menu for the party.

I found this recipe for Bacon and Egg Muffins on Pinterest. These were wonderful and super easy. Mine ended up being pretty dry, but I think it was because I made them the night before. I would recommend cooking them the morning of.

Every toddler I know loves mini pancakes. So, I made 2 boxes of them on a big cookie sheet in the oven. When done, I put three of them on a toothpick with a blueberry. This made the presentation better and easier for people to grab them. Depending upon your party colors, you could add a mint leaf, a raspberry, green grape, lots of options!

The party's fruit cups were displayed in these little baking cups. The had my blue, red and pink so I couldn't resist them. I had blueberries, mandarin oranges, bananas, apples and raspberries in the little cups.

Finally, we picked up sausage and cheese kolaches and doughnut holes from the neighborhood shop the morning of the party. We had about 40 people and I ordered 10 dozen doughnut holes. They were gone! It may have something to do with them being in reach of the birthday girl!

The final item on our menu was Jan's Gourmet Potatoes. Jan is the mother of a friend of mine and I heard she is famous for these potatoes. They were really good, but they did not end up being as much of a hashbrown casserole as I had expected. They were more like twice baked potatoes and actually tasted just like the baked potato casserole from a local bar-b-que restaurant. 

 Jan's Gourmet Potatoes

8 medium potatoes, boiled with skins on

2 c grated cheddar cheese

10 T butter

1-2 cups sour cream or half and half

1 onion, diced

1 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Boil potatoes until done. Let cool, peel and grate.

Saute onions in butter then add 1 cup of the sour cream or half and half, salt and pepper. Mix into the potatoes and add grated cheese. Pour into casserole dish. Add more half and half if needed to make the mixture moist. I used 2 full cups of half and half. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. Indulge yourself and add a little more cheese on top during the last 5 minutes. 

This whole casserole can be made the night before and then baked. It would be great for Thanksgiving lunch.

Finally, we had birthday cake! I didn't want a traditional cake, so I did a giant rice krispies cake, found on Martha Stewart's website. You essentially make a big batch and then fill 2 8" round cake pans with the treat, saving a handful aside in tupperware. Once cooled, the cakes are removed from the pan and stacked on top of each other. The extra you saved can be used to fill in the holes from merging the two.

In keeping with the birthday theme, we added Trix on top with the number 3 and a border. It was an unexpected twist and fun for kids and grown ups alike.

To see more on the party, click here or here. 

Pepperoni Muffins

My camera thought the salad was the main attraction at dinner- it was wrong! I made my first random recipe from Pinterest for dinner recently and it was so good. Like, I'll take it to the next party good. And, I'll print out the recipe for my box good.

These pepperoni muffins are quicky, easy, and taste like pizza without being greasy!

Blueberry Peach Muffins with Granola

A group of ladies and I were responsible for breakfast for a PEO council meeting Saturday morning. I made one of my favorite muffins and have the recipe below to share with you.

There is no mix and dried blueberries in this recipe, so you can expect a big mess in the kitchen.

But these pretty muffins will impress your guests and be all worth it! Plus, they are pretty healthy with yogurt, egg whites and no oil.

And, how do you transport 3 dozen muffins? In your bundt pan upside-down of course!

recipe from Family Circle magazine

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 container (6 ounces) fruit-on-the-bottom peach yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 pint (1 cup) fresh blueberries ( I used frozen)
• 1/2 cup low-fat granola, lightly crushed (I don't both crushing it)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Coat a standard 12-indentation muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. On waxed paper, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1/4 cup water, the egg, egg white and melted butter. Stir the flour mixture into the yogurt mixture just until moistened. Gently fold in blueberries.

3. Divide batter evenly among the prepared muffin indentations, about a heaping 1/4 cup batter for each. Sprinkle crushed granola over all muffin tops (dividing evenly).

4. Bake muffins at 350°F for 20 minutes or until crowned and golden around the edges. Let muffins cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer muffins directly to rack; serve slightly warm, if desired.

Fresh Blueberry Muffins

I was recently given 2 quart sized baggies of fresh blueberries from a farm in East Texas. They are the sweetest blueberries in all the land.

Knowing they would go bad before my family could eat them all, I shared a baggie and used 2 cups to make this:

I literally just googled fresh blueberry muffins looking for a simple recipe where I had the majority of the ingredients. One quick run to the local Walgreens for eggs and butter, and muffins were made. Yummy!

My recipe had cinnamon and nutmeg with a sugar topping. Very good!