Deliciously Healthy Muffins!

I am always looking for a quick yummy muffin that has lots of good things in it. My little guy loves muffins and it makes me happy to be able to say yes, especially when its loaded with goodness. Of course I usually throw a few chocolate chips in because then the big kids will eat them without complaining too! The inspiration for these came from this recipe at allrecipes.com . I was missing a few of her ingredients but loved the ideas so I tweaked it and made it my own. Adding pumpkin instead of squash, oats instead of oat bran, and wheat germ ( my favorite hidden additive!)

Here is my version:

  1/2 cup butter, softened

  1/2 cup brown sugar, or to taste
  2 large bananas, mashed
  1/2 cup pumpkin                 

  2 carrots, grated

  2 eggs, beaten
  1 cup all-purpose flour
  1/2 cup instant oats
  1/4 cup wheat germ
  1 teaspoon baking soda
  1 teaspoon cinnamon
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  1/2 cup mini chocolate chips/ raisins (stir these in by hand after all the other ingredients are combined.)

Directions:

1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 24 mini muffin cups or 12 standard muffin cups. ( I actually got about 19 standard muffins)
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in the mashed bananas, pumpkin, carrots, and eggs. In a seperate bowl stir together the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, wheat germ and salt until just combined. Then add to the creamed mixture, and mix thoroughly. Stir in Chocolate chips or raisins now, then spoon the batter equally into the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Store at room temperature for up to two days, or freeze.

 THESE ARE INCREDIBLELY MOIST!

I plan on trying this with zucchini instead of carrots this summer. Mmmm..can wait! Enjoy! 

Let's Share...our favorite fast recipe!

I recently taught a class for church discussing 30 minute meals and how to put something healthy together quickly. Now mind you my term "healthy" tends to mean, it is not deep fried and it includes most of the major food groups. I try to include as many nutrient dense foods with as little fat as possible but I would not call myself a health food expert...haha. My kids however are always complaining about my previous occupation as a high school food and nutrition teacher and how it is not fair, all their friends get to eat whatever they want...I insert my SMILE here and tell them sorry they are stuck with me!

Back to my class... I shared our favorite fast meal what we call Taquitos; it is basically a rolled taco baked in the oven. It's a quick meal that's a step up from Quesadillas without much more time.
The ingredients are all staples in my pantry so we can always count on them!

I blend the Rotel, draining the excess juice first ( my kids don't like chunks/ but I do ).
Mix with canned chicken (also drained) [I use 2 cans chicken per every 1 can rotel.]
Sprinkle some cheese into the mixture and stir.

I lay all my tortillas across the counter and put a spoonful of the chicken mixture onto each tortilla, I usually end up with 24 taquitos. I do it this way to speed up the process and to divide the mixture evenly as to get as many taquitos as possible. Then I roll them all up, place on 2 cookie sheets ( they get crispier if they don't touch), and bake at 375 degrees 15 minutes or until slightly golden.
I  usually serve it with mexican rice and mixed vegetables.
Mmm..Mmm, my kids come running for this meal.

NOW IT's YOUR turn....
Please share with me (us) your favorite quick and easy meal, if you can just post it in the comment section please do so! However, if it requires more detail or space then please email it to me at simply2inspire@gmail.com and I will post it for you!

In return I'm GIVING away this......MENU planner (loaded with our favorite eats.)

{I will randomly chose a winning entrant after we recieve 25 entries.}

Let's have fun and help each other out by sharing our easy & yummy favorites with each other!

60 seconds to pirate fun!

As I came in from running with the kids to school little man got off his bike and picked up the newspaper on our driveway and said to me " sword please!" in his sweet 2 yr old way he reminded me that joy can be found in the simplest of things. So we came inside and promptly made him a pirate sword and hat. It took me a minute to remember the steps so in case you have forgotten I'm sharing the basic steps below... Step 1: You need a full sheet of newspaper folded in half.


Step 2: Fold sides in to make a triangle.





Step 3: Grab the two folded in corners and one layer of newspaper and flip to the side creating a square.





Step 4: Take the bottom corners and fold upward leaving the other half to fold up on the other side of your hat.








Flip and repeat:


Now open your hat and enjoy... We like to wear them with the point forward, but do as you please!


Now roll up a pirate sword using another sheet of paper and your set.... Remember to roll from corner to corner its easier to tape closed!


Now let's have some fun!


Enjoy some simple fun today!