Valentine's Muffin

Growing up my Mom and I would always make a special treat on Valentine's Day, French Breakfast Puffs. These muffins are rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar. The original recipe is amazingly delicious but I wanted to try and revamp it into something that I could feel a little better about feeding my little ones who need lots of protein, fiber, and nutrients. 

I went about recreating this recipe to include these things and I have to say I was pretty impressed with the results. Next time I will have to try a few other things that I did not get around to in my spur of the moment experimenting today. 

For now I will give you the recipe and other ideas I have for adding nutrition. I think for fun I am going to start out by giving you the original recipe which is from a cookbook that my Grandma put together years and years ago.


French Breakfast Puffs Original Recipe:      


1/3 c shortening (we always use butter)         
1/2 c sugar                                                      
1 egg                                                               
1 1/2 c flour                                                    
1 1/2 tsp baking powder                                 
1/2 tsp salt                                                       
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c milk


After Baking: 
6 tbsp melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

(see mixing/baking directions below)


In my experimenting I wanted to use what I had on hand since I decided spur of the moment to do this. I decided to add replace some of the flour for flax seed and coconut flour which both have additional fiber, protein, and healthy fats essential for brain health.
French Breakfast Puffs New Recipe:

1/3 c butter 
1/2 c sugar (this could possibly done with agave, honey,  maple syrup, applesauce)
1 egg
a little less than 1/2 c ground flax seed
a little less than 1/2 c coconut flour
a little more than 1/2 c whole wheat flour (you want a total of 
1 1/2 c when you combine the flax, coconut, and whole wheat)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 c milk

After Baking:
6 tbsp melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Method:


        Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups. Mix the first three ingredients (melted butter works best for mixing). Sift the next five ingredients. Alternate adding the milk and dry ingredients to the egg/sugar/butter mix. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 minutes. Melt the butter in a bowl that one muffin would easily roll in (from the after baking ingredients). Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl large enough to roll a muffin in. After taking the muffins out of the oven roll take them out of the pan and immediately roll in the butter and then the sugar mixture. Eat them up! 


One hint: Try and always use fresh baking powder it is amazing what a difference this makes in getting them to fluff up!

Things to try: 

-Add in pureed sweet squash, sweet potato, or apple sauce to sweeten instead of sugar. 

-Add in almond flour for part of the flour. 

-Use coconut flour to replace all of the flour, reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup and add in an additional 4 eggs.

-You could dye these red for Valentine's Day but I don't really like using food coloring if I don't have to...maybe beet juice:)


I have to say that I was surprised at how amazing my new version turned out. They were delicious and my kids sure did not know that there was anything different about the ones we made and the original version.

Winter Flowers

I don't know about you but I am ready for spring. I am ready to see the new leaves come out on the trees, have a sunny and slightly warm day, I am ready to plant some seeds with the kids and start watching them grow and I want to see plants sprouting and turning into flowers. Well I can't make any of those things happen, but I can get the kids to make me a bouquet of "flowers" for my table to add a little color and a big smile to my face every time I see them.

Today's craft is simple and yields very fun results. I encourage you to add or take away any elements from this that you would like.

What you need:
An empty egg carton with the individual egg places torn apart from each other (see the picture)
Glue
Paint
Paint brushes
Pipecleaners
Any odd and end craft decorations you have we used:
        Beads
        Buttons
        Small pieces of tissue paper
        Glitter and glitter glue
        Little fuzzy colorful balls
        Small pieces of cut up yarn

What you do:
First you make a hole in the bottom of the egg carton cup

Second you put the pipecleaner through the hold about 1/4 of the way down the length of the pipecleaner leaving enough room to secure it.

Either fold the pipe-cleaner so that it will reach back around to the "stem" and twist to secure or fold it in the center of the flower to crimp it and secure it. We also tried making a spiral by wrapping it around a finger.

Now you get to start the fun part of decorating the flower. There is no right or wrong to this part just let the kids go for it. This is a great activity to help with fine motor skills and to discuss colors, shapes, sizes, and textures. You could check out a book about plants and flowers and talk about the parts of a flower and compare it to the flowers that your child makes learning science. All of these things will help to increase vocabulary as well as increasing awareness about many concepts. I love how a simple activity can be so developmentally rich.

This craft would be perfect for the upcoming Valentine's Day working as a very cute Valentine to someone who lives near. It also would be good for engaging in a discussion about Earth day and recycling (reusing the egg carton). Mayday would be another great day to give these out, hanging them from the doors of loved ones.