Apple Cinnamon Muffins

The cinnamon flavor in these muffins is very subtle. If you're a big fan of cinnamon, I'd recommend doubling the amount of cinnamon, or using even more than that.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup apple juice
1 egg
1 cup (about 1 large) apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced

Preheat oven to 400*F. Grease or line a muffin tin with baking cups.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk together the vegetable oil, apple juice, and egg. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture; fold until dry ingredients are just moistened but batter is still lumpy. Gently stir in apple chunks. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake for 18 - 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into one or two of the muffins comes out clean.

Blitz bread

I found this recipe here and they got it from another blog. I made it tonight and really liked it. It's actually a lot like garlic pull aparts, but I had much better luck with it. Also a plus for me? No dairy. It's harder than you might think to find recipes without milk of some incarnation. Anyway, this bread was ridiculously easy to make and really tasty.

1 1/2 cups warm water
3 T. olive oil (plus extra for drizzling)
1 1/4 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1 T. yeast
3 tsp. italian seasoning

Lightly grease a 9x13 pan and drizzle 1 to 2 T. olive oil in the bottom. Combine all of the ingredients together and beat at high speed for 60 seconds. {I used my Bosch and I actually put the yeast into the warm water with a bit of sugar to let the yeast get going before adding it to everything else.} {The original recipe also says you can add 1 cup crumbled feta cheese to the batter here, but I didn't try that.} Scoop the very sticky batter into the 9x13 pan, cover and let rise for an hour. Preheat the oven to 375*. Poke the dough all over with your index finger and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle more italian seasoning over the top. Bake the bread 35-40 minutes and enjoy!

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

I found this one in the diabetic-friendly section of a magazine recently. They're really, really good. For those of you who care, each muffin has 167 calories, 6 g fat, 1 g fiber, and 4 g protein.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup fresh or frozen (do not thaw) blueberries

Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and nutmeg. In another bowl, beat egg and butter together; add yogurt and blend thoroughly. Stir into dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in blueberries.

Fill paper muffin cups 3/4 full with batter. Bake at 400*F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Orange Cranberry Bread

Melissa gave me this recipe as a gift in about 3rd grade. It had a cover the shape of a loaf of bread and she had colored in cranberries all over it. It was so cute and the recipe so good! I love it toasted for breakfast!

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 t. grated fresh orange peel
1 1/2 Craisins or 2 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (very tart!)
3/4 cup orange juice

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut butter into mixture. Add remaining ingredients. Mix just until moist. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Great for gift giving at Thanksgiving or Christmas!

Banana Bread

This is a Martha Stewart recipe and one of my favs.

1 3/4 c. flour
2/3 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 c. mashed bananas (about 3 small bananas)
1/3 c. butter, softened
2 T milk
2 eggs
1/2 c. nuts (optional)

Combine all dry ingredients. Stir in butter, milk and eggs. Add banana and mix until just blended. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes.

I use the mini loaf pans when I make this (they make great sized give-aways). This will fill about 3 mini loaf pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes.