hot mamas with christina - more muffins please

it's muffin making day!

my mouth is watering for an egg-free, basic recipe with add-in flavor options...

ya gotta love options.

one of the easiest things to do is find recipes online if i'm not wanting to go into one of my trusty cookbooks.  if i have a hankering to make something...or an ingredient i have NO idea what to do with...i search it online and wha-LA - a plethora of recipes appears before me.  it's magical.

i have to admit, i'm a mixer.  i tend to find two or three recipes i like, can't decide between them and so i combine them somehow.  i'm getting better at it & that's where my handy notebook comes in where i write my newly improved versions of recipes.  dora and i have that in common...  i have bombs and successes, the bombs are getting more sporadic - thank heavens.  my favorite part about my notebook?  the cover is getting a little dirty...pages are getting worn...oh lovie.

today's hot mama:

welcome back miss christina, a full-time working mom of two kiddos (kurt's giambotta) and i am hoping she becomes a regular guest poster here, hee hee!!!  i hope her muffin making inspires you to try hers, to go look in your cookbook or to search a recipe online & get your baking juices flowing this week.

go ahead and get some flour on your face.

i think it's pretty cute no matter who you are;)

***

Woke up on this Saturday morning and went to see what I could throw together for breakfast.  We love eggs in this house, we easily go through a dozen or more a week.  When I opened the fridge to find no eggs, OMG!!!  The kids were oatmealed out, we don't keep cereal in the house, what am I going to make?  I bought some blueberries last week with the intention of making muffins, yeah never got to them.  So since I was up at 6:45am with the kids why not bake??!!  I knew from past experience you can sub applesauce for eggs, so there was my solution for that!!  I followed this recipe from my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook and subbed out the egg.  Once you master the basic recipe you can sub in any fruit or add ins to customize them to what you have on hand.

Basic Muffin Ingredients:

2 cups flour ( I used 1 c regular flour, 1 c spelt flour...or sub in your gluten-free flour)

1/2 cup sugar (I used organic turbinado raw cane sugar)

3 teaspoons baking powder (alumium free of course!)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemons or 1 tablespoon oranges or 1 tablespoon pineapple juice

1 cup low-fat milk (you could use almond or rice milk - I just didn't have any on hand cuz I used it all for Lindsey's yummy coffee recipe!!)

2 eggs OR 1/2 cup applesauce (yeah, didn't have applesauce, so into the food processor went a peeled and seeded apple, out came applesauce! Problem solved.)

the yummy homemade applesauce in a pinch.

Variations:

1 c blueberries (this is what I did!)

1-2 bananas, handful of chopped walnuts

1/2 c raisins, 2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c diced apples, 2 tsp cinnamon

Like I have said before, I do not enjoy baking, too specific for me!!!  But I just mixed everything together with a fork, in a bowl.  I added the muffin tin liners to the tin, and added 1/4 cup to each one. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  

BAKING TIP: In the oven, do not stack the tins over each other, the air gets trapped, it is best to stagger them in the oven so the air can circulate better!

Done, so easy, and now I have some muffins for this upcoming week for breakfast on the go!!  Most importantly, I was not running to the grocery store at 7:00am for eggs on a cold Saturday morning!

***

definitely making me some of these muffins!

thanks christina!

happy hump day:)

xo



ps

do you have any store bought muffins in your house?  i dare ya to go look at the ingredients...Mmmmmm, sounds good, right?  now go get your apron on hot stuff.