Green smoothie muffins...

This recipe for Green Smoothie Muffins is definitely a keeper in our house! They not only have tons of spinach, bananas and strawberries but our whole family loved them! The recipe also makes a ton, it made a whole dozen regular size muffins plus one and a half pans of mini muffins!!! I froze some of them and they've been just as good defrosted as they were fresh.

Whole wheat zucchini, carrot, apple chai seed muffins...

So we're a bit muffin obsessed at our house. First because I love to bake, secondly muffins make such a nice easy snack for our toddler, and third they're an awesome way to get extra fruits and veggies in our diet. This recipe for zucchini carrot apple muffins is our new favorite. I did make several small changes to the original recipe as discussed below. I love carrot cake and these honestly remind me a bit of that with the texture and raisins but they are healthy...win-win!

As you can see from this picture the batter is really thick, but don't worry it bakes up great!

Delicious muffins....these are awesome for adults and kids alike! Even my friend who doesn't really care for veggies said she loved them!

Tip from Rebecca's kitchen: The food processor is your friend with this recipe! Since all those veggies and fruits need to be shredded I used the food processor as it would have taken a really long time to shred them all by hand. I decided to make these whole wheat as we're trying to change to whole wheat with as much as we can in our house. For every 1 cup of all purpose flour in the recipe I substituted 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and it worked well. I also added 1 Tablespoon of Chai seeds to to the batter, and we love raisins, so included about a cup of those. I did not include the coconut that the original recipe called for and used pink lady apples since that's what we had at home. The recipe baked 24 regular size muffins and we just froze the extras! I did follow her recommendations for baking them at 400 degrees for the first 10 minutes and then turning the oven down to 350 for the remainder; it took an additional 8-10 minutes from there for ours to be cooked.

Oatmeal Banana Chai & Toddler Muffins...

We love muffins at our house and our son, Ian, especially loves them. They make a great snack for him when we're on the go or after nap, and since he's an active toddler these are a great healthy snack he can eat while moving about. Multitasking already! These are two of his current favorites.

So I first came across these Oatmeal Banana Muffins on Pinterest and thought they looked awesome since we love oatmeal and bananas! I decided to add my own little spin on them by including Chai seeds, I add in a Tablespoon thus making them Oatmeal Banana Chai Muffins:) They've been a favorite of Ian's for a couple of months now and are so easy to throw together!

The ingredients I used to whip these up...

Finished product...

I got those reusable Wilton silicone muffin cups several years ago at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and they have held up awesome! I love them and we use them on a very regular basis The worst part is they're hand wash only, but they're totally worth it to me, and the muffins pop out of them easily. I'd highly recommend picking some up next time you see them out shopping; we haven't used paper muffins liners in years.

Also, I have Pinterest to thank for these delicious Toddler Muffins which, trust me, adults like just as much as kids. They've got bananas, carrots, oat bran, & squash. I also of course add some Chai seeds to give them another health boost.

Tip from Rebecca's kitchen: You can use either the baby food squash that the recipe calls for or I've also cooked a butternut squash then used some of that and froze the rest for the next time I wanted to make these muffins.
Also, both of these muffins freeze great! Whenever I make a batch of muffins for Ian, I always leave out just a couple for the next day or so and then freeze the rest taking out one at a time the night before or morning of when we'll need them so they can defrost on the counter and then be ready for later in the day. Put them in the microwave for 10 seconds or so after defrosting and it's like they just came out of the oven!

Hope you or the little ones in your life enjoy these muffins!

Valentine's treats...

Although we're a couple of weeks past Valentine's I thought it would be fun to start my first post off with some sweet treats that we enjoyed this year! The great thing about all of these is that they can be enjoyed all throughout the year, we definitely aren't limiting any of them to just Valentines at our house!

First up I made these Strawberry Shortcake Muffins from Dashing Dish for my son and his friends for our playgroup Valentine's party. The only change I made to the recipe was that I added 1 Tbsp of chai seeds to the batter. Since a friend turned me on to the amazing health benefits of chai seeds I've started adding them to most of the breads, muffins and baked goods I cook. And of course to make them a bit more festive I baked them in a heart shaped pan & then wrapped them up in some cute bags for Ian to give as Valentines.

The ingredients that brought these delicious little muffins together...

Finished product...

These are delicious muffins full of fresh strawberries; they're great for kids or adults, and we've already made them again since we liked them so much!

I decided the moms in playgroup needed a little something sweeter, and because I'm obsessed with all things salted caramel (especially baked goods) I decided it was a perfect opportunity to try these Salted Caramel Pumpkin Muffins from My Blessed Life that I've been eyeing since coming across the recipe on Pinterest. They are oh so delicious with the salted caramel glaze...YUM! I didn't have dried cranberries so made mine without but I'm sure they'd be delicious with as well. I also used brown sugar instead of raw sugar for the muffin batter, but otherwise followed it just as she recommended with fabulous results!

If you like pumpkin with a bit of salted caramel goodness you've got to give these a try! As you can see from the pics below I should have given the muffins a little bit more time to cool before adding the glaze, but they were still delicious!

Whipped up another batch a week later for a different get together; you can see in this pic how they look with the glaze after give a bit more time to cool...

And last but certainly not least, I decided to make a special dessert for my husband for Valentine's... and if I'm perfectly honest also for me & my sweet tooth! Now that we have a little one it's more difficult to make it out to dinner, especially on Valentine's Day, so I decided to bring something special to us to enjoy, and oh my goodness were these ever special!!! These Mini-Mocha Cheesecakes from Lindsay at Sugar Mama were incredible, and needless to say my husband's new favorite desert! They definitely delivered that special something sweet! I garnished ours with homemade whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon and it added such an awesome extra bit of flavor...if you like chocolate and mocha flavors you absolutely must try these!!!

From my kitchen to yours, enjoy!