Morning Glory Muffins (aka Better than Bran Muffins)

This is another recipe from my old friend, Heidi Huser. These muffins are as delicious today as they were 20 years ago. Lots of fiber from carrots, apples, and whole wheat flour. Enjoy!

Morning Glory Muffins

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (WW pastry flour works well)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger

2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 raw apple, diced or grated

Combine sugar, oil, egss, and vanilla in a large bowl; set aside. In another bowl, sift together remaining dry ingredients. Add to liquid ingredients and stir. Gently fold in carrots, raisins, and raw apple. Spoon into greased muffin tins about 2/3 full. (Cupcake papers make clean-up a breeze!)

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

These are so good, I've been asked to make another batch today!

Bran Muffin Purgatory

A few weeks ago, I decided I would be good to my gut and make a batch of bran muffins. The plan was to eat bran muffins for breakfast instead of my beloved scones.

So I found a recipe and made enough bran muffins to feed an army. All that roughage takes up space in the mixing bowl as well as your colon. For the recipe I used, my biggest mixing bowl was nearly not big enough.

They tasted just ok. Perfectly nutritious and good for me ... There was just no JOY in eating those things. I missed the blueberry scones--some things are just grandfathered in.

The best way to describe what it felt like eating those bran muffins would be The Loaf.


Illinois Prison Nutraloaf

This American Life did a show on behavior modification (Sorry--I can't find it to link). One of the stories was about The Loaf given to prisoners who exhibit bad behavior. They get nothing but The Loaf to eat until their attitude improves. Slate.com did a story on The Loaf --to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Perfectly nutritious and good-for-you, just not very appealing. Just the threat of eating The Loaf is enough to bring some prisoners into line.

No more bran muffins for me. I'll get my fiber from carrot cake and pumpkin pie!

Nostalgia for Sesame St.

On a recent work / school holiday, Oliver and I were eating our breakfasts at the dining room table.

I said, "We could watch Sesame St. today."

Oliver said, "Sesame St. makes me feel nostalgic."

I asked him if he knew what "nostalgic" meant. He gave me a good definition. He did know ... It makes me feel nostalgic, too. Sesame St. started when I was a kid in the 1970s.

And then we watched Sesame St. for old time's sake.

Beauty Visits

This is a photo from the Wikimedia Commons. The description on its description page there is shown below. Commons is a freely licensed media file repository. You can help.

This morning, we had a little visitor "working" the morning glories outside the window where I have my morning tea. Lovely!

It was the first time I've seen hummingbirds here. So I put out the glass hummingbird feeder for them. It's getting cooler, so I suspect they are gearing up for their fall migration.