Healthy Carrot and Raisin Cake Muffins

What’s that? Healthy? I know most my baked goodies aren’t considered healthy. But surprise! I am actually sharing a healthy recipe with you. Well, mostly healthy.  I used  all purpose flour since I did not have whole wheat flour in my pantry.  Be sure to fill your muffin tins to the top as these muffins do not rise very much. You can see how squat mine are. Oh well. It’s always good to learn something new.  This recipe yields 12 muffins.  (Or 16, if you didn’t fill your muffin tins all the way like I did. Oops.)

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 carrots shredded or grated
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (all purpose flour works too)
• 1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup raisins

FROSTING INGREDIENTS:

• 8 ounce cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.  Prepare muffin/cupcake tin by greasing with baking spray.
2. In a large bowl whisk eggs until light and fluffy.
3. Add the sour cream (or Greek yogurt) and whisk again until mixture is smooth.
4. Pour in the maple syrup, milk and vanilla extract. Beat the mixture again until smooth.
5. Add the shredded/grated carrots, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and raisins over the wet batter. Using a rubber spatula to fold the wet and dry ingredients together just until combined.
6. Portion the batter evenly into your prepared 12 cup muffin tin.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes until the muffins have risen and set.

FROSTING DIRECTIONS:

1. Beat the cream cheese in a small bowl until smooth.
2. Add the maple syrup, vanilla extract and lemon juice and beat again until the mixture is well combined.
3. Once the muffins have cooled add a dollop of frosting on top of muffins.
4. Optional: garnish with grated carrots.

Joann’s Egg Salad Sandwich

I know. Egg salad. Not much of a recipe. But I always like to put a little “extra love” into my recipes. So this is not just plain old chopped eggs and mayonnaise.  It is MY version of an egg salad sandwich. And there is no mustard in this recipe. Why? Well, because I just don’t like mustard. But feel free to substitute it for the caesar salad dressing if you prefer. This will be posting around Easter. So maybe you have some extra hard boiled eggs you need to use?

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, finely diced
• 1 spear kosher dill pickle, diced (one quarter of a whole kosher dill pickle)
• 1-2 tablespoons red onions, diced
• 1 cup chopped romaine lettuce
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon caesar salad dressing
• 1/2 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water.  Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 15 minutes.
2. While eggs are cooking, dice celery, pickle, onion and romaine lettuce. Add to a bowl.
3. After eggs have sat in the saucepan for 15 minutes, remove the eggs from the hot water. Let eggs cool. Then peel and chop eggs.
4. Add your chopped eggs into the bowl with prepared vegetables.
5. Then add mayonnaise, caesar salad dressing, salt, pepper and paprika.
6. Stir to combine. You may serve now or place bowl (covered) in your refrigerator  to chill before eating.
7. Use your favorite type of bread to make the sandwich and serve with fruit on the side. Enjoy!
8. Makes 4-6 sandwiches depending how much you like to stuff them. 🙂

Egg Cups

These were so much fun to make. If you have young children and want to introduce them to cooking I think these would be an ideal beginner’s dish. There are so many different variations you can make depending on what ingredients you like or what you have on hand. I made vegetarian ones and for my son I did a take on a Denver omelette using ham, cheese, bell pepper and green onion.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 eggs (will make 12 egg cups)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

FOR VEGETARIAN EGG CUPS:

• 1/2 small red onion, finely diced
• 1 Roma tomato, diced
• 2 large shiitake mushrooms, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 3/4 cup baby spinach, diced

FOR HAM AND CHEESE EGG CUPS:

• 1/2 cup diced ham
• 12 tablespoons shredded cheese, divided (I used cheddar and mozzarella mix)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 green onions, diced

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Meanwhile, generously spray muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. (For easier clean up, use baking cups instead of cooking spray.)
2. Break eggs into a large bowl or 4 cup measuring cup. Add milk, salt and pepper. Whisk until ingredients are combined.
3. Add equal amounts of your vegetables (or ham and cheese) into each cup of your muffin pan.
   

   
4. Pour in egg mixture into each cup about 3/4 of the way up for each.
   

   

    

5. Bake egg cups for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes up clean.
6. Let cool for a few minutes before taking egg cups out of pans.
7. Serve with your favorite condiments or none at all.

You can keep these in an air tight container for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave.