Cranberry Orange Bran Muffins

My husband visited some of our dear friends for the weekend recently and returned home raving about the delicious bran muffins they had for breakfast one morning. I asked my friend for the recipe because if something is THAT good, I have to try it! These are moist and not too sweet, and the addition of slightly tart dried cranberries and the brightness of orange zest make them irresistible!

Ingredients:

1 cup white flour

1/4 cup wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tb. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 cups All Bran Original Cereal (the twigs!!)

1 1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup dried cranberries

a healthy pinch of fresh orange zest

Instructions:

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cranberries in a small bowl. Set aside. Mix All Bran, milk, and oil in another bowl and let stand for about 5 minutes, or until cereal has absorbed most of the liquid. Stir together the dry and wet ingredients until well incorporated and add the pinch of orange zest. Stir until combined. Spoon batter into sprayed muffin tins and bake for about 20-30 minutes at 400 degrees.

The original recipe called for baking for 20 minutes. My muffins weren't done until about 30 minutes, so you'll have to take into consideration that oven temperatures vary.

Thanks to Kellie May for sharing the basic recipe with me! I hope you'll enjoy the additions ~

Yield: 12 muffins

Southwestern Potato Corn Chowder

So, my family are huge fans of southwestern style food. My husband and I spent some time in New Mexico and came to appreciate the versatility of chiles. We've always enjoyed corn chowder, but one day I thought to include some green chiles....WOW! That added a new dimension to an old favorite. Today I spent some time actually writing the recipe down as I made it. (Unfortunately, I rarely do that. Then when something actually turns out, I can't remember how to replicate it!)

Ingredients:

1/2 yellow onion, diced

3 medium-large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 can yellow sweet corn (I used the creamed variety, but regular will do just as well)

4 cups cauliflower

1 4-oz. can green chiles

1/2 tsp. granulated garlic

1 tsp. cumin

2 1/2 scant tsp. salt

pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a medium stockpot, cook cauliflower. Peel potatoes and cube, then cook in a large soup pot with just enough water to cover (about 3 cups). Spray a small saute pan with cooking spray and saute onion. When cauliflower is tender, place in a blender with sauteed onions and about 1 1/2 cups of water. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add cauliflower mixture to potatoes in pot, then pour in drained corn and green chiles. Add seasonings and combine well. Simmer soup for about 20 minutes until it begins to thicken slightly. Serve hot!

You can adjust the seasonings to taste.

Enjoy! :0)

Breakfast Millet

I'm not sure if you are like me, but when the weather gets cold, I crave hot cereal. There's only so much you can eat oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits, etc. I remembered having millet for breakfast once a long time ago and decided to try to recreate it. Millet has an interesting texture when it's cooked, but I like it....and believe it or not, my four-year-old liked it too! "Ummmm, this is so good, Mommy! It smells good AND it tastes good." Those words are like music to my ears.

I made this super easy by using my rice cooker. The proportions are for using a rice cooker, so I'm not sure how it would turn out if made any other way.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup millet

Scant 2 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in rice cooker. Use white rice setting or if you don't have specific settings, just cook as you normally would for white rice. Super easy, huh? You could add chopped nuts, dates, coconut, or any other topping and it would still be delicious.

Serves: 3 generous portions.

Awesome Find

To all my vegan friends who can't indulge in soy: An awesome find! I've been on a special elimination diet for the past week to determine what could be causing my newborn son to have some digestion issues - No soy, no dairy whatsoever. My husband and daughter went on a date and brought me back something special: Purely Decadent Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert made with Coconut Milk. The only flavor that doesn't contain soy or dairy is the Cherry Amaretto, which is fine with me! It is absolutely delicious. I just had to share. Now, off to....Well, I'll let you guess! :0)

Aunt Carol's Orange Rolls

My husband's Aunt Carol is a phenomenal cook. She put together a cookbook of family recipes and gave one to each of her nieces and nephews. I just happened to be lucky enough to marry into the family and the cookbook was transferred into my willing hands.

I've asked her permission to post her recipe for orange rolls, and she was happy to oblige. I've made only a couple of changes to make it vegan, and I hope you'll enjoy the results.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cup flour

1 pkg. active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp. loose active yeast if you don't have a package)

1 1/4 cup plain soy milk

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup margarine

1 tsp. salt

1 Tb. ground flax seed, mixed thoroughly with 3 Tbs. water

4 tsp. grated orange peel

1/2 cup sugar

4 Tb. melted margarine

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 T. margarine

1 T. orange juice (plus a little more if needed to make right consistency)

Instructions:

In mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour with package of yeast. Heat milk, sugar, margarine and salt in saucepan until warm, 115 - 120 degrees, stirring constantly to melt margarine. Add to flour and yeast, along with the flax seed mixture and beat on low speed of electric mixer for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes, scraping bowl. Beat 3 minutes more at high speed.

By hand, stir in rest of flour (it may not all combine), shape dough into a ball and place in lightly greased bowl. Cover and let rise until double, 1 1/2 hours. Punch down, cover and let rest another 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 2 parts. On a lightly floured space, roll 1/2 of dough into a 16 x 8 in. rectangle. Brush with 2 tablespoons of melted margarine and sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp. orange peel. Roll up jellyroll style and seal edges. Cut into 1-in. slices. Place, cut side up, in a greased 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Repeat with remaining dough.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 45 minutes. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or slightly more, until golden brown. Combine glaze ingredients. Remove rolls from pan and glaze while still warm.

*I glazed half of the recipe and left the other half unglazed for my husband, who doesn't necessarily care for the super sweet glaze on rolls. You could also add some dried cranberries to the inside of the rolls. That would add some special pizzazz, although it's really not necessary.

This may take a bit of time, but the results are definitely worth it!

Peach Berry Cobbler

There is a great little market not far from where I live that has fantastic deals on produce every Wednesday. This last week I was able to find peaches for about $.49 per lb. Of course, I had to buy at least a pound or two. Now that I had my acquisition, what would I do with it? I looked to find a great recipe for peach cobbler. I found this one for Peach-Blueberry...Tell me, how can you go wrong with that combination? I took it to potluck and it was scarfed up pretty quickly. I had to make another one for our family to enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup soy milk

1/4 cup margarine, softened

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tbs. cornstarch

1/2 cup cold water

3 cups fresh peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced

1 cup fresh blueberries (frozen work well, too)

1 Tbs. margarine

1 Tbs. lemon juice

2 Tbs. white sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl. stir together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and baking powder. Mix in milk and 1/4 cup margarine until smooth.

In a medium saucepan, stir together the brown sugar, cornstarch and water. Mix until smooth. Mix in peaches and blueberries. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Mix in 1 Tbs. margarine and 1 Tbs. lemon juice. Continue cooking until the butter melts. Pour into an 8x8 baking dish. Evenly spoon batter over hot fruit.

As a final garnish, mix together 2 Tbs. sugar and cinnamon in a small container. Sprinkle over the batter as much as desired. (I only used half of the mixture.) Place the baking dish into the preheated oven. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the crust comes out clean.

Yield: About 9 servings

Original Recipe was submitted to allrecipes.com by Amy Posont. I've tweaked it to make it vegan.

Curried Red Lentils

I happened upon these delightful split red lentils a few years ago, and developed one of our favorite recipes. One thing I appreciate about the red lentil is that it cooks so quickly. The stew was done before my brown rice could finish cooking!

Ingredients:

1 celery rib, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 small onion, diced

1 C. red lentils

2 C. vegetable broth (I made mine with 4 Tbs. vegetarian chicken broth and 2 cups water)

1 C. water

1/2 can lite coconut milk

1 Tb. curry powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. granulated garlic

pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a medium saucepan, saute celery, carrots and onion. When they are softened, add red lentils. Cook for a few minutes before adding broth and water. Bring to a boil and add seasonings and coconut milk. Cook on medium-high heat until the soup begins to thicken slightly, then turn down and simmer until the lentils look slightly smooth and creamy. Stir occasionally to keep from sticking.

This stew is great served over brown rice. We even eat it over whole wheat toast sometimes!