Really Yummy.

Apologies for losing momentum on our blog. Sigh, we are human and easily distracted by Christmas goings-on, facebook and tv. Honesty is the best policy.

For our first entry of 2010, please enjoy this amazing recipe! I have never baked with pumpkin before, and LOVED these!


For any Weight Watchers out there, I cut the sugar down to 1.5 cups after reading the reviews and did not do the streusle topping, which works out to 12 large muffins at 7 WW points each. I want to keep working with this recipe to see how to get the points down and will keep you posted. Ha.


Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins - All Recipes:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups peeled, cored and chopped apple

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 18 muffin cups or use paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, pumpkin and oil. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring just to moisten. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping evenly over muffin batter.
Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean."

Here's the link incase you want to check out the reviews:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Apple-Streusel-Muffins/Detail.aspx?prop31=1

What's for Christmas Breakfast?

I wanted to share this recipe with you... one of my family favs! We'd also love to hear what your favorite Christmas Morning Recipes are! Please share them in the comments!

OVERNIGHT FRENCH TOAST

Day old French bread in 1 inch slices
5-7 eggs
3/4 cup milk
brown sugar
1/4lb melted butter
cinnamon

Spray a 9x13 pan with Pam. Sprinkle brown sugar on bottom of the pan. It should be 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with cinnamon (I use a lot). Pour melted butter over this mixture. In separate bowl, beat eggs and milk. Dip bread in. Allow bread to absorb egg mixture (I count to 20). Place in pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 375'. Turn bread bieces over (VERY IMPORTANT). Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.

ENJOY! I'm also experimenting with a layer of creamchees and fruit in the middle... I'll let you know when I have a real recipe!
D.

Green Christmas

{photo source: Tree Hugger}

One of my least favourite things about Christmas is all packaging. Aside from the usual injuries getting through all those plastic toy holders and twist ties the bags of garbage and recycling sends my guilt-o-meter spinning quickly.

Here are a few ideas to keep the packaging down and your Christmas a little greener.

1. Re-usable bags. If you are crafty and can sew just a straight line you can make them yourself and if not, purchase them. {a couple of Canadian sources are Love a Tree & Etsy }

2. Use the wrap as part of the gift. For example, is anyone on your list getting a Snuggie this year? Wrap that bad boy around another gift (may I suggest a new telephone that the lucky recipient can talk for hours on, while wrapped up warm in their new Snuggie?) Other items you can use for wrapping would be scarves (they are ALL the rage this year, no?), towels and leftover fabric.

Check out this video tutorial:

Furoshiki Japanese Wrapping

3. Instead of bows and ribbon what about bringing nature in?

{photo source: Country Living}

We challenge you to use one of these ideas for your Christmas wrapping this year! If you have any other green wrapping ideas, please leave a comment and share with us!

Try This at Home

If you don't stop to think about all the germs on the utensils and the potential for contamination, I love a good salad bar.

Kinda lame, I know. But there's something about having choices and control and the ability to make my salad my own that makes me happy.

Setting up a simple "salad bar" at home is really easy and gives everyone a bit of a choice. With all the great pre-washed greens out there all you need to do is add the extras. If you have some cooked chicken or bacon on hand, the salad bar can be your whole meal. A couple of salad dressing choices are nice to offer... balsamic is always a good go-to when in doubt.

Green Ideas:

Spinach, Spring Mix, Romaine

Protein ideas:

Pre-Cooked Chicken*, Bacon, chopped ham, tuna, salmon

Cheeses:

Feta, Goat, Shredded Cheddar or Parm

Extras:

Sliced Grapes, Strawberries, Craisins, Dried Currents, mixed seeds & nuts, Pomegranates

*Last time I brushed balsamic salad dressing onto 4 breasts and oven roasted them. This gave me plenty of chicken meat for salads for a day or two.

Simplifying the Gift Front

We're all for spending less and keeping it simple around the tree. A few years ago we heard of someone who uses this system for gift giving with each of her kids:

Something to Wear.
Something to Play.
Something to Read.

Three gifts.

Pretty genius.

Check out this link for some prize winnning reads for kids.

Airplane Essentials

Having just stepped off a plane for a short trip to Edmonton, (more on that later), I wanted to post a couple of ideas for the next time you're traveling by plane.

A few things to keep in a medium sized ziplock:

- Your own earphones
- sanitizer & chapstick inside a smaller ziplock
- granola bars
- oatmeal cereal packages and a plastic spoon, (because you can always find a cup of hot water if you get really stuck and starving in an airport.)
- a pen for filling out immigration forms

Anyone have any other ideas? Post 'em in the comments!

Happy Travels!

T minus 44 days...

Christmas is coming! Hard to believe it's here again already.

For all of you crafty types, check out this cute handmade Christmas planner





found at Miller's Ink