Miracle Muffins

Blaine has struggled with high cholestrol for a couple of years now, probably more but we didn't bother even having it checked until about 2007. His doctor saw his numbers and immediately prescribed him statin drugs. After doing some research on statins I was scared out of my ever loving mind (memory loss? Nerve damage?) and decided that we would try to get his levels under control ourselves for a few months before giving in to a lifetime of medication.

Part of our cholesterol lowering regime is to have 2-3 of these muffins every day for 8 weeks. Well, more realisticly probably for life. Though I don't struggle with high cholesterol, I still enjoy the muffins each day and so do my kids. It's like eating a nice bowl of oatmeal, but that actually tastes good and that you don't have to douse with sugar to swallow.

So if you are looking for a simple breakfast that is filling, nutritious and could potentially lower your cholesterol, this is it! There are lots of varitations to the muffins, but we just like them plain and simple!

Miracle Muffins

by: The 8- Week Cholesterol Cure

2 1/4 cups oat bran cereal (found in the bulk section of Whole Foods or Good Earth)
1/4 cup chopped nuts of your choice (choose pecans people)
1/4 cup raisins or dried fruit (we leave this out since raisins are vile)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup brown sugar, honey or molasses (brown sugar)
1 1/4 cup skim milk (now, here's a big tip! Use vanilla almond milk-- the muffins taste so much better and I think it even has fewer calories!!)
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons canola oil

Preheat the oven to 425dgs. In a large bowl combine the oat bran, nuts, raisins (ew), and baking powder. Stir in the sugar or other sweetening. Mix the milk, eggs, and oil together in a seperate bowl. Once you mix the dry and wet ingredients seperately combine and mix together. Line muffin pan with paper baking cups, and fill with batter. Bake 15-17 miutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick; it shoudl come out moist but not wet.

These store well in the freezer! Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Waffles

I don't really know Kayla, but we've been blogging friends for a good three years now. Through blog hopping I stumbled across her blog when she was wallowing in the depths of morning sickness. And I'm going to be honest here - if pregnancy makes you so sick that you plead for the sweet release of death then I immediately like you (unfortunately the opposite is kind of true, if you actually like being pregnant...it kind of makes me mad at you. Hey, I'm not perfect.) Anyway, I became a fan of her blog because she is just so darn funny and even now that she blogs mostly about fashion (something that I don't really care about, I know surprise surprise!), I still find her posts so fun, plus she's an amazing cook and I like to steal her recipes (when they aren't too hard :). So she posted this yummy recipe the other day, and since I have a newly acquired waffle maker (thanks to an addiction to these) I gave it a go. We loved these waffles! Oh and also Kayla designed LemonGlaze. Pretty amazing right? I'm telling you, her talent knows no bounds!

Whole Wheat Waffles

by: frecklesinapril.blogspot.com

1 1/2 cups white wheat flour (I used red wheat flour-- still really good!)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey (I used agave with good results!)
1 large egg
1 1/2 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup melted butter or coconut oil (mmm I used butter, but can only imagine how awesome coconut oil would be)
optional: 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately then mix together until just combined. Cook on waffle maker.

Blender Whole Wheat Pancakes

I promise this isn't going to be a breakfast only recipe blog. It just so happens that my oldest daughter is out of school this week, so instead of being productive we are lounging about in our pajamas, taking our dear sweet time at breakfast, and reading The Book Thief for hours on end. Well >> I << have been reading, she's been keeping busy doing other more adventurous/productive things (like selling all of her dress-ups on the corner, weird). It's been a great week. I didn't realize how busy life was when you have kids in school until I, well, had a kid in school. What a giant time suck kindergarten is!

Anyway, we l-o-o-o-v-e these pancakes. I mostly love them because they are an excellent way to use wheat without having a wheat grinder. The secret is, I actually do have a wheat grinder now, but I inherited it from Blaine's Grandma and I don't think she had used it for a lot of years before I got it, so it's in need of a good scrubbing, and who has the time for that (while reading such a good book, no less). I used to also love these pancakes because my kids would eat them without butter or syrup. Yeah, the cats out of the bag on that one and now, much like their father, they prefer their pancakes swimming in syrup. It was good while it lasted.

Blender Whole Wheat Pancakes

from family cookbook

1 cup whole wheat kernels
1 cup milk (or 1 cup water and 1/3 cup dry milk)
2 tablespoons of oil
2 eggs
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Put 1 cup whole wheat kernels and 1 cup milk in blender. Blend three minutes. Add eggs, oil, honey, and salt. Blend for thirty seconds. Add baking powder and pulse three times. Make pancakes immediately (not kidding or the batter will multiply and spill all over the place, it's pretty exciting).

Notes: As a friend I am going to tell you to not double this recipe. Unless your blender jar is much bigger than mine. It's just not worth it. I one and a half the recipe all the time. I doubled it once. And it seems like it will fit in your blender, but it won't. Promise. Well, it will. Till you blend.

And another thing, have I mentioned how ridiculously cheap I am? Been married eight years and just barely got a griddle. Best $20 I ever spent. Now, another thing I am too cheap to buy? Maple flavoring. I know, right? Weird. So I make syrup with vanilla flavoring, and I quite like it. I also about half the sugar of a typical syrup recipe, that's not so great, but if you could see the vast amount of syrup my husband puts on pancakes...you would halve it too. The syrup recipe is coming...just as soon as my dad e-mails me back...which could take up to a year. Happy eating!

German Pancakes

I was introduced to German pancakes way too late in life. And even after I was first introduced it took me a while to like them. I'm not big in to things that are eggy (especially things like meringue, but even things like creme brulee *gasp*!). But it turns out that if you eat the crispy, poofy, delicious edge of a German pancake and top it with the rapidly deteriorating fresh strawberries and lemon glaze, the egginess is a non issue. I love making these for breakfast (or lunch, or dinner) because they are simple, delicious, and a major crowd pleaser in this house. Just the kids and I can devour a whole pan of them in five minutes flat. Not sure whether that is something to be proud of or disgusted by. Either way, if you need a quick and tasty meal, these are your ticket.

Plus how could having a dish that comes out of the oven looking like this...

not make you ridiculously happy? Plus then add a few of these. Oh baby....

German Pancakes

An interesting conglomeration between a recipe found on allrecipes.com and in the most current rendition of our extended family cookbook

6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (half stick) of butter
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of vanilla

Preheat oven to 450dgs. While preheating put the butter in a 9x13 pan in the oven so it will melt (don't let it burn though, trust me). In the mean time, whip the six eggs until thick and lemony in color (abt three minutes). Add the flour, milk, salt, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon and mix together. Dump in the buttered pan and cook for about 15 minutes.

Gather the kids around when you pull it out of the oven to impress them with your awesomeness! Serve quickly by topping with your desired toppings. In my case fresh strawberries and lemon glaze.

I was trying to take one of those cool "look at how awesome drizzling glaze can be" pictures but my six-year-old was in charge of the drizzling and my two and three-year-olds kept sticking their finger in the drizzle stream. See, taking pictures of the process is just too complicated for me : )

Lemon Glaze

a Kristi original

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix together, keep adding lemon juice or sugar until desired consistency is reached. See above picture.

P.S. I have absolutely no idea if those measurements are accurate. I'd say you would want it to be the consistency of, say, rubber cement. Gross.

Liege Waffles

For the inaugural recipe of LemonGlaze, I'm choosing the best waffle I've ever made or eaten. A few months ago during a time of extreme duress, my husband and I took a much needed weekend getaway to downtown Salt Lake City. Having lived near Salt Lake City for nearly my entire life (minor detours taken to Portland OR, Rochester MN, and Austin TX), I figured there wasn't much to see or do here that I haven't already seen and done dozens of times. I was dead wrong.

On the first morning of our trip we visited Bruges Waffles, and my life has never been the same. I dream of the sweet, crisp, savory morsels nearly every night. We enjoyed our waffle so much that we went back to Bruges for dinner, passing up PF Changs, Olive Garden, and about a dozen other of our favorite restaurants.

I finally gathered my courage, borrowed a Belgian Waffle maker, scouted out pearl sugar (hint: IKEA), and attempted what I thought was the impossible - recreating the Liege Waffle from Bruges. My friends, I was successful!

Liege Waffles

From: www.food.com

1 package yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1 cup (two sticks) butter, softened
1 cup pearl sugar

Mix yeast, water, sugar and salt, and let develop for 15 minutes. Place flour into a large bowl. Make a well, pour in yeast mixture, begin to knead. You might start to panic at this point, and at several points during the kneading process. I am here to tell you, it's going to turn out fine. It really will, I wanted to give up but I am so very glad I pressed onward. Continue to knead while adding eggs, one at a time. Continue kneading while adding the butter, 2 tablespoons each addition, mixing well.

Let dough rest until doubled in size (approximately 1 hour). Gently mix in pearl sugar. Let rest for 15 minutes. Separate dough into balls of 3 tablespoons dough mixture. When your Belgian Waffle Iron is hot and ready, place dough ball in iron. Cook 3-5 minutes until waffles are lightly brown on top (this only took three minutes in my waffle iron). Serve warm with Creme Fraiche and Belgian Chocolate. Or, if you are like me and you didn't realize that Creme Fraiche has to sit for nearly an entire day, serve with fresh whipped cream and melted chocolate chips. Still nearly as divine.

Also, I'm doing you a favor and NOT posting the calorie count on these waffles. I promise they are worth it, and very much so.