Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting
Simple. Tasty. Fast. Isn’t that what we want in all of our recipes? This muffin recipe is all of that and healthy too!
See? I told you this Whole Wheat Quick Mix has been a life saver!
Quick Mix Honey Cinnamon Muffins
2 cups Quick Mix
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup honey
½ cup milk
1 egg
Mix all ingredients until just combined. (Do not over-stir.) Scoop batter into 9 paper lined muffin cups. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.
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This Fruit Pizza is so yummy – you’ll feel like you are eating something naughty. But in fact, because it is made with whole wheat, honey, and fruit, I believe you could serve it for breakfast. Since figuring out this recipe, I may have done that a time or two at our house. ;)
You will love how easy this is to make!
Fruit Pizza Crust
1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Quick Mix
1/2 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
Mix ingredients together. Press (or pour) dough into an 8×8 inch baking dish. Bake in a 350° oven for 10-15 minutes or until it is slightly golden. Allow crust to cool.
Cream Cheese Layer
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 Tablespoons real maple syrup
Mix well and spread over cooled crust. Top with fresh fruit. (Berries, bananas, and kiwi work best.)
Serves 4-6. I typically double this recipe for my family and spread the crust into my large baking stone.
I’d love to know – have you made the Whole Wheat Quick Mix yet?! More sneak peeks into our upcoming Oh, For Real book still to come!
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I’ve had several emails and comments since I posted both the Whole Wheat Quick Mix recipe and the Tropical Traditions buy one get one free (with free shipping) coconut oil deal. Many are wondering: Can you use coconut oil instead of palm shortening in the quick mix?
Yes, you sure can!
While I really, really love Palm Shortening and do prefer it in this recipe, Coconut Oil does work just as well and is just as healthy if not moreso. Plus, the Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil that is on sale at Tropical Traditions right now is flavorless, making it perfect for a recipe like Quick Mix.
So…if you haven’t taken advantage of the BOGO coconut oil with free shipping at Tropical Traditions, I say “go for it!” Then make yourself some Whole Wheat Quick Mix so that you’ll be all set for the recipes I’m sharing here and in my upcoming book!
Tropical Traditions has their Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil (flavorless) on sale again for $12.50 for two 16 ounce jars. Plus, they are offering free shipping (code 25213) with a minimum $16 order.
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Now that I always keep a large batch (often a double batch) of the Whole Wheat Quick Mix on hand, I have been so grateful for the time it saves me in meal preparation. And let’s be real (since, after all, the upcoming book this recipe is featured in is called Oh, For Real): I really like that having this mix on hand saves my brain energy. Who really wants to think about the process of making pancakes when there are so many other things to think about?
These pancakes require three little ingredients. I can make these in my sleep…which, without a doubt, is something that I have done.
Whole Wheat Quick Mix Pancakes
2 cups Whole Wheat Quick Mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs
Whisk ingredients together thoroughly. Cook them in a well greased skillet, turning after they are bubbly. Makes about 12 three inch pancakes.
Ever made pancakes in your sleep? :)
P.S. These pancakes taste best when made on a cast iron griddle. I have this Lodge 20-Inch Cast Iron Griddle and love it so much! I can make pancakes three times as fast because it covers two burners. Check it out here (affiliate link).
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I have to say thank you for giving my younger two boys a bit of educational entertainment this evening. I called them in to help me count the “votes” to determine which Whole Wheat Quick Mix recipe I would share with you first. They made a list of the options, and then made tally marks as I called out “cookies”, “fruit pizza”, “pancakes”, etc.
You know boys. Everything is a competition. As we went through each of your comments, the excitement grew. Who knew that counting recipe votes would be so much fun? At one point early on, Malachi shouted, “Muffins are in the lead!!” And so it went.
Ah, it’s the simple things in life that are the most fun, right?
Malachi and Elias are excited to share that Very Vanilla Cookies won the vote, with Fruit Pizza and Pancakes trailing in very close behind. They personally each wanted to vote for Fruit Pizza. I think they thought I was going to drop everything and immediately make the recipe that won the vote. Sorry boys. Cute as you are, your vote doesn’t count this time. Besides, I don’t have any fresh strawberries on hand. ;)
So here you go – a very easy and delicious cookie recipe that you can stir together in no time using your Whole Wheat Quick Mix. If you happen to have homemade vanilla extract to use in this recipe, yay! But even if you don’t, I bet you’ll still be able to choke these down. :)
Very Vanilla Cookies
3 cups Whole Wheat Quick Mix
1 1/4 cup sucanat
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients together. Scoop 1 ½ teaspoons of dough onto a cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart. Bake in a 375° oven for 12-15 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
More of our new Oh, For Real recipes coming soon – in particular, recipes that use this Whole Wheat Quick Mix.
I’m curious (and this has nothing to do with cookies, books, or quick mixes): Is it snowing where you are? We’re getting several inches right now. Fun!
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Have a recipe you’d like me to try and make over?
Submit your recipes on this Real Food Recipe Makeover Submission Page.
Looking for a special treat for Valentine’s Day? How about a Red Velvet Cake? Without the red. While the red food coloring is pretty, it doesn’t add anything to the cake (except for freakish fake color that I don’t really want in my gut).
This cake experiment became a treat that is super moist and delicious, with a mild chocolate flavor. And hey, if you squint and look through pretend red colored glasses, the light brown color of this cake really does have a reddish tint. It’s true. Can you see it?
Red(less) Velvet Cake
1 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
4 Tablespoons water
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I recommend using flour made from hard or soft white wheat)
1/2 cup organic cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups sucanat, made into “powdered sugar”
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream Cheese Frosting
Place butter, water, and cocoa powder in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat until butter is melted and ingredients are well combined. In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and powdered sucanat. Pour in butter mixture, and the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat the ingredients together until smooth.
Pour batter into two well-buttered 9 inch round cake pans. Bake in a 375° oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake these cakes or they will become dry. Allow cakes to cool for a few minutes, then carefully turn them out onto two separate plates. Allow them to cool completely.
Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting, beginning with a layer in the middle of the cakes, then on the top and around the sides.
See how pretty?
See the red?
Okay, fine. It really is red(less). But it is crazy delicous. :)
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I am very excited that so many of you are taking part in our You Can Do This! The First Five Steps To a Real Food Kitchen eCourse!
As an added bonus – for those of you who are participating in the course and for those who aren’t – each Monday for the next few weeks, I plan to share a Bonus Tip to encourage you along in your Real Food Journey. Remember though, these are just bonus tips. If you take the eCourse, you’ll get loads more information, guidance, downloads, recipes, and worksheets – all for just $5! (Click here to purchase if you are interested.)
Today’s tip is to get your kids involved in the kitchen with you. This will help them learn how to cook, and learn how to make healthy choices.
Just by helping me in the kitchen, my kids have learned how to adapt a recipe to use healthier ingredients. Case in point…
Elias got a new cookbook in his stocking – and all of the recipes are for yummy desserts, his favorite! Simply by looking through the recipes, he can figure out how to make dishes and desserts using healthier ingredients. He’s only 11.
This it not because I’ve spent countless hours drilling my kids on how to cook and how to adapt recipes. It’s because they learn simply by being in the kitchen with me, and because truly, adapting a recipe to make it healthier is not really very difficult! (Read more about how to do this here.)
Elias and Malachi (age 8) chose a Mint Chocolate Bar recipe and got to work, with very little help from me. They used sucanat in place of sugar, whole wheat flour in place of white flour, and real butter in place of vegetable oil. These are all one-to-one substitutions. See? not hard at all!
Their special treat turned out delicious. And I love knowing that I’m preparing my kids for a healthy future. (Because yes, they do know how to cook more than just desserts.) :)
Interested in learning more about our
You Can Do This! The First Five Steps To a Real Food Kitchen eCourse?
We’d love to have you join us!
And don’t forget to take advantage of our
Buy a $10 Gift Certificate for $5 deal.
With it, you can get the eCourse, bonus recipe cards, and another eBook
– all for five bucks!
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Welcome to our Third Annual Christmas Brunch. I decided that I had to begin with this Orange Cranberry Scone recipe. Wow, they are yummy!
My favorite ingredient is the orange juice because of the amazing flavor it gives this treat. But my actual favorite ingredient is the dried cranberries, because no matter how you use those, they are delicious. It is a fact that my real favorite ingredient in these scones is the butter, because I think we all know how much I love butter. Plus butter is what makes these scones so yummy and “pastry like”.
This takes me back to the orange juice (which is my favorite scone ingredient, in case you were not aware) – because this is the ingredient you use to make the delicious glaze that you drizzle over the top once the scones are baked.
By the way – did you know that scones are very, very easy to make? They are especially simple if you have a food processor and let that machine “cut in your butter” for you. I’m all for working hard, but remember how I’m not a butter cutter inner?
Orange Cranberry Scones
2 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour from hard white wheat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
3 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons orange juice concentrate
1/4 cup milk
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt, and dried cranberries. Cut in butter until mixture resembles crumbs. (I use my food processor for this, and to mix the remaining ingredients.) Add egg, honey, orange juice concentrate, and milk. Stir until a nice ball of dough forms.
Form dough into a ball on a floured surface. Roll dough into a circle about 8 inches in diameter. Place on a cookie sheet or baking stone. Cut circle into 8 equal pieces.
Bake in a 400° oven for 12-18 minutes or until scones are golden brown. While the scones are baking, mix up the glaze.
Orange Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar (I use organic unbleached or homemade)
4 Tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Drizzle glaze over the scones right after you remove them from the oven.
Which do you suppose will be your favorite ingredient in these Orange Cranberry Scones? :)
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In preparation for a Christmas Cookie Exchange with several of my friends tonight, I made our favorites – Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts. The cookies have cream cheese in them and the frosting is made with cream cheese. Let’s just say these cookies are soft, rich, and I have to work hard to keep myself out of them.
Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts
1/2 cup melted butter
4 ounces softened cream cheese
1 cup sugar (sucanat works, as does brown sugar)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat flour)
Stir together melted butter, softened cream cheese, and sugar. Add egg, baking powder, and vanilla. Stir in flour until well combined. (Use a little less or a little more flour as needed.) Place dough in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
Once dough is chilled, roll on a well floured surface and cut out into desired shapes. Bake in a 350° oven for 10-15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. (I prefer mine just barely done so that they stay soft!) Allow cookies to cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 1/2 cups unbleached organic powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whip butter and cream cheese with beaters until fluffy. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until mixed thoroughly.
Makes about 30 cookies.
My (poor, deprived, starving) boys were not very happy with me when I told them that most of the cookies were going to the Christmas Cookie Exchange. Not to worry, I told them. They could have all the broken cookies. Considering the fact that I am not a perfectionist, I’d say they made out just fine with a lovely assortment of broken stars, branchless trees, and torn stockings.
If you’d like a printout of the Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts recipe, you can download it here. I needed to print off the recipe anyway for the cookie exchange, so thought I’d share it with you too!
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I love muffins. Most people love muffins. Putting ingredients for muffins into a jar = happiness. :)
One of my favorite muffin recipes is Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins. If you layer the dry ingredients into a quart sized jar, the result is fun and enticing.
The ingredients in your jar will include:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sucanat or brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup chocolate chips
Include instructions for mixing and baking:
Add 1/4 cup melted coconut oil or butter, 2/3 cup milk, and 1 egg. (Add a little extra milk if your dough is too stiff or dry.) Mix well and scoop mixture into 12 paper lined muffin tins. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes.
Want a fun tag to use for your gift? Download Your Free Gifts In A Jar Tags Here!
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