Muffins Revealed

Today started out dull and dreary again but the sun was out in full force by lunch-WOOT! I prepped by breakfast last night to give myself some extra breathing room this morning…and to save on a dirty pot.

-1 cup water
-1/3 cup steel cut oats
-cinnamon, vanilla extract, salt
-2 tbsp dried fruit
-1/3 cup-ish stewed rhubarb (the last of the batch)
I’ve only got one serving of steel cut oats left. This is not acceptable so I must buy more this weekend! I’ve grown really fond of their chewiness!

My tummy felt a little off all morning. Almost like I was hungry so I ate my dates earlier than usual but it didn’t help the situation. Weird, but it sorted itself out later in the day so all’s good!In light of this I opted not to go to the gym. I’m really starting to learn that I need to listen to my body’s signals and not push it when I have no desire to workout. Besides, I knew that I had Pilate’s at 5 so all was not “lost”. Instead, I went over to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and then spent the last ½ hour at home chilling on my deck with my furry babies. All my potted plants are pretty water logged!

Seeing as I have no workout to talk about, why don’t we move on to the muffins that I made last night! Some of you were very close in guessing rhubarb….they’re actually strawberry rhubarb and they turned out fabulous! I basically worked off of this Hungry Girl recipe to come up with my version of pure bliss! Here ya go…

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

*1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
*1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)
*2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
*1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
*1/2 tsp. salt
*2 cups stewed rhubarb
*1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute
*1/4 cup agave nectar
*1 tsp. vanilla extract
*1/2 cup fresh strawberries, diced

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt
*In a medium bowl, mix together stewed rhubarb, egg substitute, and vanilla extract. Add this to the bowl with the dry ingredients, stir until just blended.
*Fold in the chopped strawberries
*Spoon batter into 12 cup muffin pan which has been lightly greased. Bake for about 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.

98 cal, 0.3g fat, 2.3fiber, 3.2protein

I’m pretty impressed with the way these turned out! I thought the rhubarb might make them soggy, but they cooked through perfectly! I enjoyed one as a snack last night while still warm and another around the noon hour today.
Please disregard my chipped nails!! Time to take the stuff off. Big pat on the back for this one….with the help of Hungry Girl, of course! :)

Lunch was awesome, too. When I cook a pot of pasta I always throw in 6 eggs to hard boil because the fam lurves them that way. There was a lonely egg leftover last night so I turned him into egg salad with a bit of honey mustard and a scoop of cottage cheese, S & P. This got spread on top of a toasted Ezekiel English muffin with a side of cold zucchini fries…..
Uber satisfying! Just before home time I enjoyed some (previously frozen) blackberries;
Normally I am not a fan of eating thawed fruit, but these held their shape and consistency just fine. They were a wee bit on the tart side, though. There was some nice juice leftover so you can expect to see that make an appearance at tomorrow's b-fast!

Look what was waiting for me on my front porch when I got home from work...
Bananas!!!! My MIL found these bags on the reduced rack for $0.49/ea. SCORE! You can be sure to see more banana bread in the near future. Oh, yeah!

I knew when I got home from work that I was gonna need some fuel to get me through Pilate’s class. While home at lunch I had the fore thought to whip up a batch of “tofudding” a la Marianne.
This set up perfectly by the time I got home and it was just as good as the one I made the other night. I had to drive across town right after class to make DS’s ball hockey game. I decided to make a pit stop at Subway for a 6” veggie to eat at the game as last week’s wrap didn’t hold me over very long and I did too much snacking before bedtime.
As good as this was, it was a little messy to eat while sitting in the bleachers! C’est la vie!

It's 9pm now and I'm going to head out and get the grocery shopping done. The store is open until 10pm and I'm hoping there won't be many people there this late. By the way....if anyone is having trouble viewing my blog or leaving a comment could you please email me at kristaskravings@gmail.com and let me know? There have been a few of you who have let me know about some issues over the past few months and I want to see if I can pinpoint the problem! THANKS!

Bye for now!!