Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients:
3 cups old fashioned oats
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar stevia
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped cashews
2 tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1tbsp vanilla extract

**coconut oil to grease muffin tins, or you can use cupcake liners.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix all wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Combine and mix thoroughly.

Recipe makes 12 muffins, scoop batter into a well greased tin using the 1/4 cup measuring cup. And bake for thirty minutes

Ridiculously easy Granola and it's low-fat too!

I found the inspiration for this recipe from this Bon a petit recipe.  However, I've made quite a few changes that reduce the fat and sugar content.  

www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/06/everyday_granola

Ingredients:

• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup coarsely chopped cashews
• 3 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

**original recipe calls for pecans, but I only had cashews on hand, and these are lower in fat anyway.  Also, recipe called for unsweetened coconut, which unless you want to make a special trip to Whole Foods or an Asian grocery it is per hard to find.  So I didn't add it, and you know what, coconut is about ten grams of ft per serving....so that also lowers the fat content as well.

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Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. Mix first 7 ingredients in large bowl. 
  
  
  Stir honey and oil in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture; toss. 
  
  
  Spread on prepared sheet. Bake until golden, stirring every 10 minutes, about 25-30 minutes. 
  
  
  Store in airtight container.
  
  

1 serving=1/4 cup (20 servings per batch). Nutrition info is below (I calculated it using spark people).

**Original recipe says to add 1cup of any dried fruit after the granola cools, I did not (this decreases the sugar content quite a bit.  However, if you go for the fruit I still think 1 cup is over kill. Try 1/3 cup of craisins, raisins or chopped dates instead.

Original recipe: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/06/everyday_granola#ixzz2ZobtGP00

Before placing granola in oven:

After taking granola out of oven:

This was after 25 mins stirring every ten minutes.

And now for the food porn...

Verdict...it is super tasty and crunchy.  You can eat it solo, sprinkle over yogurt, or make your own fancy breakfast cereal and mix it it with Cheerios or cornflakes.

1 serving=1/4 cup (20 servings per batch)

I

Peach and cream cheese stuffed waffles

Freshly made waffles with cream cheese and fresh peaches.  This would be even better had the cream cheese been sweetened with some honey.

Baked French Toast or is it Bread Pudding?

Ingredients:
8-10 slices of cubed white wheat bread or other dense bread
1/4 cup of white sugar (you can also replace half with Truvia or use brown sugar)
4 eggs
1 cup of milk
1 tbsp of vanilla
1 tbsp of cinnamon
1/2 tbsp of nutmeg
1/4 stick of butter

**serve with maple syrup and bacon :)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a small 9x9 baking dish and place the cubed bread in the dish. In a separate bowl whisk all of the wet ingredients and add the spices and sugar. Pour over the cubed bread evenly. Press down the bread into the pan so that it can soak in as much liquid as possible. Cut the rest of the butter into small chunks and distribute over the bread. Sprinkle with some extra cinnamon and sugar if you would like a crunchy topping.

Bake for 30 minutes, until no longer liquidy looking. Let cool for 10 minutes and you should be able to cut the slices out easily. Serve with maple syrup and bacon!