Healthy Chocolate Chip Muffins

Chocolate chocolate chip muffins are BIG winners in this house. Sometimes it's nice when things you want to eat aren't things that are terrible for you...

• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup Truvia baking blend
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 large egg whites (or 1 large egg)
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, plus a few more for sprinkling on top

You mix the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk to break up any clumps. Blend the wet and the dry but don't over mix. 

I used a greased 6 large muffin tin and Baked @ 400 for 15 min 

Amazingly Simple Nutella Cookies

If you've been anywhere near the Food and Drinks tab on Pinterest you've probably seen this recipe about a trillion times. It could not be easier and makes me feel slightly less bad about my eating habits than eating the Nutella off a spoon like I usually do.

I buy my Nutella and BJs so I had the industrial size jar in my cabinet, so I figured why not make a double batch (the fact that the first round out of the oven didn't even make it to the cooling rack confirmed this as an awesome idea).

2 cups Nutella
2 eggs
2 cups flour
*the original recipe calls for a half cup of sugar, or 1 full cup in this case. But as someone with a pretty wicked sweet tooth I can tell you it's totally unnecessary

Mix all the ingredients together. I rolled mine into about 1 inch balls and pressed them with a fork. I baked them at 325 for 7 minutes ( the original recipe calls for 350 for 5-6 min but my oven runs pretty hot).

These ended up so delicious with these fudge centers. Im sure if they ever had the chance to cool they'd be pretty yummy then too.

Coconut Rice Pudding

One of the many cravings I've been having lately is for the rice pudding my Grandma Frances used to make. Though I hesitate to call what she made pudding, it was more like sweet rice floating in a creamy soup. Now of course my grandma never really wrote down her recipes so I've got to come up with a version all my own. I had an open container of coconut milk, so that's where we started.

Coconut Rice Pudding
2 cups coconut milk
2 cups water
1 cup arborio rice
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tsp nutmeg

Combine the milk, water, and rice and bring to a boil in a covered saucepan. Reduce the heat and let the liquid cook down.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla, brown sugar, and nutmeg.

If you're like me (and I suspect Delia) you won't want to wait and will want to eat this while its still warm. It's very yummy this way, but its even more amazing once it has chilled in the fridge for an hour or two.

Improvisation Smoothie

The smoothie itself isn't exactly that innovative, but the fact that I was really craving bananas and my blender was incapacitated led to a little creative problem solving. Fortunately my trusty mini-prep food processor was beckoning from the shelf. It can't handle liquids all that well so I had to retool my original milk-heavy smoothie plan. But in the end its hitting the spot and giving baby Delia a nice protein boost for our closing shift at work.

2 very ripe bananas
2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt

As you'll notice from the picture the mini processor can't exactly handle chopping ice either, so I just threw a few cubes in to pulse it around and cool down the mixture.

Babies Are Not Fruit

Date Walnut Bread

When I told the boy I'd be going on a crazy baking spree he made two requests of me; Banana Nut Bread and Date Walnut Bread. One of his favorite childhood snacks was date bread with cream cheese. I don't think I've ever had date bread let alone made any. I looked at a couple of recipes and decided to make something up on my own. I'm pretty darn pleased with how it turned out, but we'll have to see what Jim thinks when he gets home.

8 oz Pitted Dates
2 navel oranges zested and juiced
2 tablespoons Bourbon
2 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon clove
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 325F.

Roughly chop the dates and place in sauce pan with orange juice and bourbon and bring to a simmer for five minutes, remove from heat.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add in eggs, orange zest, dates and vanilla. Mix together.

In a seperate bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.

Add dry ingredients to egg mixture. Slowly add in water to thin batter. Add in walnuts.

Place batter in two greased loaf pans. Cover with tinfoil and place in the oven for 30 min. Uncover and bake for 40 more minutes.

This makes two very large loafs.

A Small Introdction

I should start at the beginning and mention that I, in fact, am not Delia. I am, however, growing Delia in my belly. So not only am I in the kitchen with little Delia, I'm everywhere with her. She is now 5 months along and I'm at the point in pregnancy where one actually becomes a functioning human again. I thought now would be a good time to restart one of my passions; baking. While I've got her with me constantly I'll start learning all those recipes that remind me of my grandma and creating new family recipes of my own. If nothing else, this will serve as a place to keep recipe notes where I can't possibly lose them. And so it begins...