Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 07:26 AM
Welcome to Cooking With Kids! Every now and then, I like to show you easy recipes that you can make with your children. Also, last week, I promised you some recipes with fall vegetables. So, voila – Sweet Potato Muffins!
This recipe is from the current issue of Runner’s World Magazine.
My boss, Leslie, who has been running in a lot of races as of late, made these muffins and brought them in to the office. I must say – and Leslie won’t mind that I tell you this – Leslie doesn’t cook or bake much. So, she was pretty proud of her muffin creations and I was very impressed by them! They were so delicious, I just had to try to make them myself.
The contributing food writer, Mark Bittman, suggests that you enjoy these muffins as an energizing pre-run breakfast or post-run snack. They really are like a little meal. And they are so moist! Yum!
Sweet Potato Muffins
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (preferably pastry flour) (NuVal score of 91 for Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
3/4 cups sugar (NuVal score of 1)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp melted unsalted butter (NuVal score of 2)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (NuVal score of 16)
1 cup pureed or mashed cooked sweet potato (NuVal score of 96)
1 egg, beaten (NuVal score of 33)
1/2 cup buttermilk (NuVal score of 44 for Garelick Farms Lowfat Cultured Buttermilk)
Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups or add paper liners. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, and salt. In a bowl, whisk, butter, oil, sweet potato, egg and buttermilk.
Fold wet mixture into the dry; stir until just combined.
Fill muffin cups three-quarters full.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
So, as these muffins were baking and the delicious aroma of sweet potato was filling our kitchen, I realized that I had made a mistake. I did not put buttermilk in these muffins, as the recipe suggested. Nope! I grabbed the Land O’Lakes Fat Free Half N Half instead. Oops!
I must tell you that we had a lot going on while we were photographing this one! Sunday afternoon/evening becomes blogging/cookfest at our house and as you can probably tell by the state of my kitchen, we were in the middle of blogging two different recipes and making dinner. Oh – and watching the New England Patriots lose – all at the same time. My son keeps us informed of the score. It’s kind of a chaotic scene.
But the good news was that even though I had the wrong ingredient in my muffin mix, they came out great.
Truth be told, I’m usually not much of a muffin-eater, but I loved these! I’ve been eating them all week for breakfast and for snacks. My son took them to school for snacks (smeared with butter, but that’s OK). And we even had them alongside our lovely autumn dinner on Sunday evening.
I should start a new feature called, “You Must Try This!” That’s where this recipe would go. I am definitely making these muffins again. After all, I need to use that buttermilk that I bought!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking with Kids, Uncategorized
Tags: muffin recipes, Runner's World, running, sweet potato
Monday, August 29, 2011 at 07:03 AM
The hurricane ate my blogpost. Sounds like an excuse my 8-year-old might give to his new 3rd grade teacher regarding homework, doesn’t it? But it’s true. Irene left us without electricity. And I had only 16 minutes of life left on my laptop battery. So, sorry blog fans, but this will be a Monday without a food- or fitness-related post.
Funny, this is the first really big hurricane that my husband and I have faced together as homeowners. At least that we can remember. It seems that the others sort of fizzled out before they reached Massachusetts. We have been together a mighty long time (since Hurricane Bob in 1991). And we agreed that weathering that storm (when we were still in college) was a lot more fun – and a lot less stressful. Back then, we rode the storm out on campus and then drove around to survey all the damage. This time, we hoped that the trees coming down would not hit our house. We were very lucky.
Fast forward to this weekend, and we were riding out the storm with our two kids. We played “The Game of Life” in the brightest room in our house, drank bottled water, made some popcorn (hooray for a gas stove!). I’m sure our kids will remember Hurricane Irene. After dinner, we took a walk around the neighborhood to survey the damage. Everyone fared OK.
And now, we wait for the lights to come back on and life to get back to normal.
I hope everyone made out OK. ABBG will be back to its regular schedule tomorrow!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 07:04 AM
I’ll be back Tuesday!
Have a happy, healthy holiday!
Melissa
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Friday, April 22, 2011 at 07:15 AM
Last weekend, Palm Sunday weekend, I purchased the white eggs we would need for egg coloring for Easter. That’s when the whining began. “Mom, can we color the eggs today?” Pleeeeaaaassseeee.
Any mom (or Dad) knows – and anyone who has carefully watched the antics of Peppermint Patty and Marcie in It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown knows – there are two very distinct activities involved in the Egg Coloring: 1) the hard-boiling of the eggs and 2) the coloring of the eggs. So, early in the Easter Week, I got the boiling part complete. Thankfully, I’ve watched Easter Beagle many, many times, so I know how to avoid making Egg Soup. Still, this year, I really wanted to see if I could accomplish a perfect set of un-cracked, easy-to-peel eggs.
So, I turned to one of my favorite cookbooks
I received this cookbook from my mother-in-law’s friend, Mrs. Kloss, a restaurant-owner, as a bridal shower gift. She advised me that when in doubt, turn to this book. So, I do.
I looked up Eggs, and followed the instructions to a T.
I also consulted the back of the Paas egg coloring kit, which recommended a Stainless Steel pan. I have one, which I found at Homegoods, and I love it.
I was determined to boil these eggs without a single crack – and I had two dozen – so I boiled them one dozen at a time.
Closely following Mrs. Kloss’ cookbook…
So, I did just that. I heated the water to boiling and then turned off the gas burner. I covered the pan and set my timer for 18 minutes.
And then I carefully removed the eggs from the hot water using a slotted spoon and placed them in a bowl of cold water.
The Verdict
I did it!! For the first time – EVER – I managed to make hard-boiled eggs without cracking a single egg. Hallelujah! Why? Well, I used a nice roomy pan, a single layer of eggs, and minimal boiling. Also, these eggs peeled so easily. What a bonus! I’m so glad I finally figured out the secret.
I would love to tell you that my kids could peel and eat their own eggs. But no. They like to color the eggs, but they don’t love to eat hard-boiled eggs. So, my husband and I eat a whole lot of hard-boiled eggs in the days following Easter. Eggs score a 33 on the NuVal scale, in case you’re wondering. Eggs with added Omega-3, like Eggland’s Best, score a 44.
Whether you’re boiling eggs for Easter, or just to eat, I hope you have a Happy Weekend!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Monday, April 18, 2011 at 07:21 AM
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Stephan Savoia
Today marks the 115th running of the Boston Marathon. Amazing! Marathon Monday is part of our culture here in Massachusetts. Even growing up in Rhode Island, I remember my second grade teacher running the marathon. I remember watching it on television, trying to see if I would catch her on the telecast (uh, no).
I went to graduate school at Boston University – and lived right on Commonwealth Avenue. When the marathon went by, just steps from my apartment at Chestnut Hill Ave, before Cleveland Circle, I was up to my eyeballs in papers. I took a few moments to run down and watch the first woman run by, but then it was back up to my computer and my books and my papers. I remember having my windows open and listening to the cheering crowds all afternoon.
When we were engaged and newly married, my husband and I lived in Newton Highlands, right near Heartbreak Hill. Every year, we would walk over and cheer the runners on as they slogged up those tough hills. I always got tears in my eyes watching the wheelchair participants. I was always amazed to see the athleticism of the elite runners. We always knew people who were running. I worked for a big consulting firm with many Type A personalities. Several of my colleagues had qualified for Boston and we watched for them, an activity that always gives me motion sickness. All those bobbing heads.
Once we moved to the suburbs and we were new homeowners, we found that we couldn’t spare that Marathon Monday. We used that day to do Spring chores around the yard. I remember scraping paint off of shutters and listening to the marathon on the radio.
After having kids and really settling into suburban life, we saw more and more of our friends run the marathon. Our friend Pete, a Fit Friend at Forty, runs the marathon in 3 hours. Amazing! And many of our friends run for causes. Now I get teary when I see our friends Bridgett and Meghan run for their son Liam and the Mass General Hospital Team “Fighting Kids Cancer, One Step At a Time.” Now instead of watching bobbing heads on Heartbreak Hill, we follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Running a marathon is not on my own personal bucket list. I’m a five-mile-and-no-more kind of girl. I was born with very flat feet and post-forty, my knees are starting to sound like Rice Krispies. I’m not going to push it. But I love that for one day in Boston, we cheer on these amazing athletes who run for so many reasons. While I’ve never been in the Marathon, it has been part of the fabric of my life and so many others here in the Boston area. Good luck to everyone today!
By the way – while driving into work, I heard a radio personality comment that the oldest runner in this year’s marathon is 81 years old. She also mentioned that he did not start running competitively until he was 68 years old. So, if running Boston is on your Bucket List, have no fear. You are never too old.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tags: Boston Marathon, running
