gingerbread blueberry muffin recipe and other tidings

Enough of you were curious about the blueberry gingerbread muffins that I decided to post the recipe, with my modifications, of course!  The recipe is from bakingbites.com, one of my favorite baking websites (original link posted below).

Gingerbread Blueberry Muffins
(adapted from a Cooking Light recipe)
2 cups all purpose flour (next time I will try some whole wheat as well)
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp allspice
2 large egg whites (I substituted one whole egg here)
1/2 cup sugar (I did 1/4 c sugar and 1/4 c splenda for baking)
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 cup buttermilk (I happened to have buttermilk, so I did 1 c buttermilk and no skim)
1/4 cup milk (skim is fine)
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin tin with paper liners (12 or 16, see times below).
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cloves and allspice.
In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar and egg whites until creamy. Beat in molasses, buttermilk, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk until just smooth, with no flour remaining. Stir in blueberries and divide into 12 or 16 muffin cups (if using 16, fill only 3/4 full).
If making 12 large muffins, bake for 17-21 minutes.
If making 16 medium muffins, bake for 15-19 minutes.
In either case, make sure a tester comes out clean before removing them from the oven.
Cool completely on a wire rack and store in an airtight container if not eating on the first day.
Makes 12 or 16 muffins.

Next time, I think I might try chocolate chips instead of blueberries to make it more of a dessert rather than a breakfast, but I think both would be good!  Also, I think I'd add whole wheat flour, maybe replacing 2/3c of the white flour with whole wheat.

Yum!  I gave most of them to B though as a surprise one morning so I wouldn't be stuck with all 16.  That would be disastrous!  His car had been in the shop the past 4 days so he was bumming rides off me over the weekend and then borrowed my car yesterday and today.  Luckily for both of us, I am close enough to work to be able to bike in and the weather has been cooperating as well! 

Last night, I biked to his house instead of mine after work (about 5-6 miles farther) we settled in to watch the 2-hour premiere of Heroes and heated up some leftover semi-healthy-but-not-super-healthy pizza.  I won't spill the beans for those of you who haven't seen it yet and plan to.  Oh, and I'll try to cover my eyes tomorrow, but I haven't seen the full episode of TBL from tonight, so no spoilers, please, if possible!  I don't think this is giving anything egregious away, so I will say that when the second person made a phone call home, I got quite emotional because that person's dad reminded me so much of my own.  I immediately stopped watching and called my dad...  and proceeded to book a flight home for Thanksgiving!!  With my rapid rewards, I was able to get the round trip for only $78.50 -- what a steal! 

Organic on a budget

Here are some tips for organic eating.  If you have to peel it, you can get it non-organic as most pesticides are sprayed, and though some are absorbed through the roots, it has less that say something that you eat the skin of. 

things with Skins: bananas and grapefruits
Things with skins that you eat: Peppers and apples. 

This will help.  The caveat is that if you eat it in large quantities, then organic is worth the extra cost.  I eat a lot of bananas, so I know that organic is better because of sheer volume.  ( I go through 15-30 a week)

Have a great one
Steve (SoF) 

recipe

sounds yummy....but I might try with soy flour.....I'm thinking I might have gluten issues...everytime I eat something with wheat..I blow up like a ballon....and don't lose...but when I completely abstain...I lose and my tummy feels better.  Enjoy your Thanksgiving trip.

and about where are your peeps.....yeah I don't know if the change in EP was too much for some....but I wasn't hearing from a bunch either....I've been shopping for new peeps!

Yum!

I can't wait to try the blueberry muffins.  I'm a sucker for a good muffin, but always terrified they won't bake properly.

The new season of Heroes won't start over here for ages!  The only thing we get in "real time" is American Idol, and even that airs on a Friday and Saturday.  Ah well!  That's why God invented the iTunes season pass . . .

Thank you!

I can't wait to try that recipe.  Thanks for posting.

That's great about your trip at Thanksgiving!

You are such a cute couple!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!  Good to see that you're doing well buddy!