orange oatmeal muffins and healed tibia

things have been busy over here with x-mas right around the corner. littlefoodie jr. had his cast removed monday. 5 days early but neccessary...see, there was a little incident with poop and believe me, no body part was spared, especially every crevace of his bright orange cast...yay!
so with the cast off i am hoping littlefoodie will return to normal since i believe that the cast held some sort of evil and was posessing him. he is happy to be free and his treat for being a brave boy was a rockin pair of bright red ruby slippers..just like dorothy. we are very obsessed with the wizard of oz over here at the moment...i love my boy for his imagination and little obsessions!!!!


so these muffins were delicious. i used a lavender sugar that i made not too long ago in place of regular cane sugar. littlefoodie wasnt too fond of the caramelized orange slices on the bottom but once i removed them he was fine and scarfing them down. sunday morning i made a wonderful recipe posted on tartlette (on the side in my links...i cannot get links to show up in my posts at the moment) called coconut honey...i canned a bunch and gave away most and saved a couple for us. i used that coconut honey in the bottom of the muffin tins instead of regular honey...resulting in yumminess.

enjoy!

2 oranges, zested and set aside
1/4 cup honey or coconut honey
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cooked oatmeal
1 tbl baking powder
1 tsp of cardamom
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup pure cane sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup half and half or whole milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

400F.
zest oranges and reserve zest. remove outside, pith and all of oranges and slice about 1/4 in thick..enough to get 12 slices.

grease muffin pans. add about 1 tsp of honey to bottom of each muffin cup and lay an orange slice down.

mix flour, oatmeal, baking powder, spices and salt.

whisk together eggs, milk and butter. add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. pour into muffin tins and bake about 15 min. remove and eat!

spiced eggnog and cranberry muffins

things have been a bit slow in the kitchen of casa de littlefoodies. littlefoodie jr.s broken leg is kicking our butt...he is, to put it sweetly, ANNOYING. we know he is frustrated and all that but hey, what about the mama and the papa? good news is that monday is the 3rd week and that means he gets half of his cast off.
i have been explaining to him how its going to work and that its only half of the cast to which he replies "i no want half of my green sticker off...i want 2 parts of it off." somebody is going to be getting the smackdown come 1:45 monday afternoon and thats going to be me..(since littlefoodie daddy is being held captive and work and can't come.)
last week we visited gus fav grandparents and mommy got a little break time. but now we are back and ready to have 19237120 lbs and start our month of cooking!

these muffins are delicious. not low calorie though but so tasty anyway. if you're not a fan of eggnog go ahead and replace it with buttermilk only reduce it by 1/4 cup. the eggnog flavor is not too prominent just a subtle flavoring. little foodie loved them but camera battery is out so pics will come later!

enjoy!

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch of cloves and nutmeg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups eggnog
1 egg
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
wheat germ

preheat oven to 400F. grease muffin tins.

combine flour thru nutmeg.

combine wet ingredients and whisk to combine. add to dry and mix until moist. fold in cranberries. batter will be thick.

fill tins with batter and sprinkle tops with wheat germ.

bake 20 min.

fig and pecan coffee cake

recently i bought a bunch of dried figs. littlefoodie and i are absolutely in love with figs...all kinds, dried or fresh. we like them baked and stuffed with goat cheese, gorgonzola and wrapped in bacon. sweet, tart, savory....you name it we like our figs.
this coffee cake is wonderful. it maintains great moisture even though its packed with whole wheat and flaxseed and has just a moderate amount of sweetness.
next to a steaming dark roast and a little fruit salad we like of frozen wild blueberries and diced watermelon, it is a perfect breakfast.

enjoy!

fig and pecan coffee cake

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached ap flour
1 tsp cinnamon
generous pinch each of nutmeg, cloves, ginger and cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 cup natural brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup of full fat sour cream or whole milk plain yogurt
1 cup chopped mission figs
1/2 cup chopped pecans

350F. grease and flour a bundt pan. set aside.

mix flours, spices, salt, baking powder and flaxseed meal in bowl. set aside.

beat butter in mixer until creamed. add sugars. add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. add vanilla.

add flour mixture and sour cream/yogurt alternately...beginning and ending with wet ingredient.

stir in figs and pecans. the batter is pretty thick.

spoon batter into pan and bake for an hour.

cool for a couple minutes and invert onto pan. slice and eat all of it!