Chocolate Chip Orange Muffins

Recipe name: Chocolate Chip Orange Muffins
Source: no idea
Servings: 4
Cookbook date: November 27

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup oil
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, combine egg, milk, orange juice and oil. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.
Grease a muffin tin and bake for 14-18 minutes.

I love making homemade muffins, because often the recipes are so simple. I thought these had a terrific flavor, just perfect for a lazy morning anytime during the holiday season.
The muffins remind me a lot of an actual chocolate orange, a holiday treat I love. We got 9 muffins out of the batter. I will most definitely make these again next year!

Cranberry Scones

Recipe name: Cranberry Scones
Source: no idea
Servings: 4
Cookbook date: October 10

Ingredients

2/3 cup plain yogurt
1 large egg
3 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
8 tbsp cold, unsalted butter
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Directions

Heat oven to 375. Coat scone pan with cooking spray. Beat egg with yogurt and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter, cutting with a pastry blender until mixture looks granular. Lightly stir in cranberries and sugar. Stir in yogurt mixture with a fork until a soft dough forms. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 5 times. Separate dough into eight equal pieces and press into individual spaces of scone pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until medium brown. Let cool 20 minutes in pan. Remove from pan and cool completely.

Both Tiffany and I love scones so we were excited to try this recipe. Tiffany had the foresight to soak some dried cranberries to make them plum. She's so smart. Most of the recipes we reference require heavy cream and I was glad to see this absent from the recipe. Even better I was able to substitute low fat yogurt for butter milk. So I was feeling all healthy up to the point where it called for a whole stick of butter. But here is the great thing about it. I didn't feel bad about adding the butter because it didn't have the heavy cream. The scone turned out great and was very tasty. Its a keeper.

CrockPot Breakfast Risotto

Recipe name: CrockPot breakfast Risotto
Source: adapted from A Year of Crockpotting
Servings: 4-6
Cookbook date: September 27



--1/4 cup butter
--3 little apples
--1 1/2 t cinnamon
--1/8 t nutmeg
--1/8 t cloves
--1/4 t kosher salt
--1 1/2 cups arborio rice
--1/3 cup brown sugar
-- 2 cups of milk
-- 2 cups of apple juice


Turn your crock to high and add the butter so it can start melting. Wash and cut up your apples while it begins to melt.

Add the rice to the butter, and stir it around to coat it nicely. If the butter isn't completely melted, don't worry. Mine wasn't either, and it didn't seem to make a difference.

Add the apples, and spices. Stir in the juice/milk.

Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.


I was SOOOO excited to try this recipe from A Year of Crockpotting. It seemed like a perfect culinary introduction to fall weather, which we seem to be having at night now. It made the house smell incredible while it was cooking, too! When it was finally done at the 3 hour mark, and I lifted the lid to check it out, I'll admit that my heart sunk a little bit. It looked so mushy! I was afraid that I'd let it go too long and that now the texture would be too gross to eat. Thankfully, I was wrong! I will say that this is not the best meal to eat if you aren't in the mood for something akin to oatmeal, though it is definitley more firm than oatmeal. But the flavor is just awesome! I swear, it felt like a meal that just hugs you, if you can imagine that. I've had limited success with my CrockPot over the years, but this recipe is definitely a winner. I'll no doubt be adding this to my yearly cookbook!

Sweet Potato Muffins

Recipe name: Sweet potato Muffins
Source: no idea
Servings: 4
Cookbook date: August 23

12 oz sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup low fat yogurt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp raisins, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon

Microwave sweet potatoes until tender. Drain well and mash. Set aside to cool.
Sift flour, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl and mix to combine. Make a well in center of mixture. Add yogurt, eggs, vanilla, raisins and cinnamon. Mix until just combined. Fold sweet potato into mixture.
Spoon mixture into 12 muffin tins. Bake 35 minutes.

Tim here again. I'll be posting all this week. I don't have a lot to say about this one. The only substitute is that I replaced apple sauce for the yogurt. It turned out great. The muffins are great as leftovers and didn't dry out in the microwave when you reheated them. I think the chunks of sweet potatoes keeps them moist.

It isn't uncommon for Tiffany and I to have breakfast for lunch or dinner so we had these through out the week. If fact I'm not sure if we had them once in the morning.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Recipe name: Cottage Cheese Pancakes
Source: PBS Everyday Food
Servings:
Cookbook date: August 8

3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup low-fat (1%) cottage cheese

2/3 cup milk

2 large egg whites

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 teaspoons vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir in cottage cheese, milk, egg whites, and vanilla.
2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 2 teaspoons oil over medium. Working in batches, drop cottage cheese mixture by 1/4 cupfuls into pan (2 or 3 at a time).
3. Cook until bottoms are set and tops have small bubbles, about 1 minute. Turn pancakes and cook until just firm in the center, 1 to 3 minutes more. Repeat, using remaining 3 teaspoons oil for the other batches.

Sorry I don't have a picture, folks. They look like pancakes, though (trust me). We made no substitutes (shocking, I know!). When I took my first bite I thought that they weren't done in the middle. I was wrong, but the cottage cheese does throw you off for the first few bites.
Overall, I thought these were really tasty, and I'll make them again. I wouldn't call them "to die for" but they are a good switch from the standard pancake.

Easy Crepes

Recipe name: Easy Crepes
Source: unknown
Servings: 12
Cookbook date: June 16
Date prepared: June 16

1 cup cold water
1 cup cold milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour
4 Tbsp butter, melted

Put ingredients into a blender in order listed above. Whirl for 1 minute, thats what it says, whirl. Scrape down the sides with a spatula and whirl another minute. Refrigerate batter at least 2 hours. Heat griddle pan over med-high heat until very hot. Pour in roughly 1/4 cup of batter. Spread with a spoon or spatula. Turn when bottom is slightly browned. Cook 30 seconds on each side. Fill with chocolate, whipped cream or fresh fruit.

Tim here. I made one change to the recipe, I used whole wheat flour. We are trying to eat healthier here at the House of M and using whole grains has been part of that switch. It took a little time to adjust but now we are pretty much used to it. That being said there are still some things that are just much better with regular flour. I think these might fit into that family as well.

The recipe was super easy to and quick to make, if you don't consider the chilling time. Which I didn't, so I ended up putting it in the freezer for half and hour. I decided that a half hour of hard core chilling would be roughly equal to 2 hours in the fridge. All in all I think this recipe is a winner. Quick, check! Cheap, check! Tasty, check! You know how the first pancake is usually messed up, well apparently the same is true for crepes. One look at the crepe below from Tiffany and I knew it would be me eating it.

value: ****
time: ***
taste: ***

Huevos Rancheros

Recipe name: Huevos Rancheros
Source: no idea
Servings: 2
Cookbook date: June 10
Date prepared: June 9

4 eggs
1 tbsp olive oil
4 tortillas
1 cup monterey jack cheese
salsa, to taste.
scramble eggs. add some cheese. meanwhile, heat tortillas on skillet with a dab of oil. add egg mix to each tortilla, add more cheese. add a small amount of salsa. top with another tortilla.

What can I say about this dish? It is a culinary trifecta, in my opinion (cheap, fast, and good). You need to be in the mood to basically eat some jazzed up scrambled eggs for dinner, but if you are, you will find your perfect dish right here. The only drawback to making this dish on a weeknight is that you don't have any leftovers to take to work the next day.

value:****
time:****
taste:***

A twist on the sausage biscuit

Recipe name: Sausage biscuits
source: no idea
servings: 6-8
Cookbook date: April 8
Date prepared: May 13
1/2 lb pork breakfast sausage
1 1/2 cups baking mix
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet, break up sausage and cook over medium heat until thoroughly cooked. Drain on paper towels. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix baking mix, cheese and sausage until well distributed. In a separate small bowl, beat together egg, milk and salt and pepper. Add to baking mixture and blend until mix forms a ball. Shape into 24 balls, using about 1 tbsp of dough for each. place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until browned and cooked through. Serve immediately.
Well, as you can tell by the picture, these biscuits won't be winning any beauty contests. This is partially my fault, in hind-sight. I was much too hasty in scooping out and shaping the dough (ok, full confession...I didn't shape the dough at all!). This was a mistake and one that I will change for the future. Also, this recipe only yielded 12 biscuits, not 24 as promised.
Tim (the husband) didn't like the taste, and I only liked them ok. As it is, I feel that the sausage completely overwhelms the biscuit; more subtlety of flavor would be appreciated by yours truly. In an attempt to take the sausage taste down a notch, I dug around for something sweet to put on the biscuit. I tried honey first, with disappointing results. Then I found some pear preserves and was quite pleased with the taste!
I'm going to keep the recipe, but not without some significant recipe adjustments. Here's what I'll do next time: double all the ingredients except for the sausage and the cheese. Increase the cheese by 1/4 cup. Leave the sausage as is. These will go great with fried eggs and some fresh fruit.

expense: ****
time:***
taste:**