Monday, January 12, 2009

Whole Wheat Fruity Breakfast Muffins – Lasang Pinoy Sundays

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I’ve been sluggish as of late. No kidding. My mind isn’t just functioning right, and I feel so slow that I even mix-up dates and times.

Last week, I had a conversation with my husband about stuff to do and I got confused for a while because I actually thought that the next day would be Thursday, when in fact, it was going to be Friday! I was 24 hours behind, imagine?! Tsk, tsk. My brain must have needed to re-charge so bad after all the frenzy during the holidays.

But not to worry, I’m getting better now. This past weekend, I took it all slow and chose not to think of those things that “needed” to be done. I gave myself a break, as my husband lovingly suggested.

As to holiday food left-overs, I don’t have any to speak of. For starters, I didn’t have a gathering in our house. We went to our friend’s family (like we always do every year) and so whatever we brought home from the party was gone. But, I do have lots of fruits. Remember my last post when I told you about our family's tradition of doing 12 (others do 13) different fruits for the New Year? (
check my post here). Yep, I still have most of the fruits in that basket and they’re getting ripe by the day. I don’t want to have to throw them away, especially considering that nowadays, every dollar in our pocket really counts.

So in order to use up my fruits, I came across this muffin recipe which I modified a bit to include more fruits in it. That’s how I ended up with this whole wheat fruity muffin. I actually just threw them all together, crossed my fingers and hope that it’ll come out ok.

And they did. Mind you, this muffin is whole wheat, so remember, the texture is not the same as the regular ones. But the muffins came out moist and fruity, of course. My hubby says, “they’re actually good”. :o)


I am sharing this recipe with Lasang Pinoy Sundays: Left Overs - weekly food photography meme, Filipino style.

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Whole Wheat Fruity Breakfast Muffins
1 cup organic wheat flour *
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
½ cup butter
½ cup raw sugar (turbinado)*
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 pc apple, diced
1 cup blueberries
1 cup cranberries
½ cup applesauce (unsweetened)
1-1/2 cups apple juice

* You may substitute with all purpose flour (APF) and granulated sugar, respectively. When using APF, lessen the apple juice by 1/4 cup.

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In medium bowl add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
3. In your stand mixer (or handheld) with paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugar until they’re fluffy. About 5-8 mins at medium speed.
4. In the meantime, in a separate bowl, mash the bananas, and add the rest of the fruit, as well as the apple sauce.
5. Add the flour slowly to the sugar-butter mixture. Make sure that your mixer is in LOW setting or you’ll end up wearing the flour. :o)
6. Then add the apple juice. Mix briefly, just until everything is incorporated.
7. Then gently fold in fruits using spatula.
8. Fill well-greased medium sized muffin cups up to 2/3 of filling.
9. Bake for 20-25 mins or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
10.Let cool before taking them out of the cups.

Suggestion: You may make a glaze for the muffins, such as lemon. But as for me, I prefer it without.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

A Basketful Of Blessings

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Here's one of the many traditions that we have at home growing up in the Philippines.

For as long as I can remember, my mother had always made it a point to have a fruit basket/tray for the New Year. This basket would contain the very select of fruits that she's able to find in the market. Soon after Christmas, she would start preparing this basket with a lot of TLC (tender loving care). Her goal is to have 12 different kinds of fruits which are to be ripe when the New Year comes along.


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These 12 fruits were to represent each month of the incoming year, reason why it is important for each fruit to be perfect and sweet. It is a wish for our family to have each month of the year be blessed -- and sweet. I call this my Mom's basketful of blessings.

I made one this year, in memory of my mother.

So with this basketful of blessings, Mr. J and I would like to wish you a very Happy , Jesus-blessed New Year. May 2009 indeed be a year of expansion, new levels and divine favors for you and your family!

Here's to more blogs, great food and wonderful friendships ahead of us!