Raspberry Muffins

Last weekend we had some "surprise" overnight weekend guests....well a surprise to me, anyhow. My wonderful husband had planned a surprise birthday party for me. Two of the out of town guests, Brooke and Jamie, had arranged with Jeremy to stay overnight at our house after the party on Saturday night. Naturally I was SUPER excited...Brooke is one of my dearest friends, however I was also a bit stressed...if you know me, you know I like to have control and order in my life, and this would include having an as-close-to-possible immaculate home if I have guests ;). Ok, immaculate is probably a bit strong ;). CLEAN, at least ;).

Thankfully, things weren't TOO bad around here ;). Just my "hoarding room" aka, the office, was REALLY bad...and I needed to last-minute scramble to clean up my bathroom (the bathroom they'd be using) to make it at least somewhat clean and presentable! :)

Sunday morning I got up before the three of them had gotten up and searched my kitchen for something acceptable to make for breakfast. I happened upon some delicious organic raspberries (had been on sale at our local Meijer that week) in my fridge and paired them up with a recipe in Carol Fenster's 1000 Gluten Free Recipes (which had been a gift from my sister about two years ago and is still my favorite gluten-free cookbook...go grab one if you don't already own this treasure!!). I basically used the recipe/adapted it a bit (I tend to take liberty with all recipes and adapt them to make them my own. This is a "skill" I learned from my mother, the great Sally ;)).

The muffins received rave reviews from my guests and Jeremy. Jamie ate three. The rest of us had one :). I also made some cheesy scrambled eggs to go along with the muffins (I think Brooke and I were the only ones who ate the eggs, though :). We are biiiig cheese aficionados ;).)

Here's what I did:

(based off of Carol's Raspberry Muffins with Streusel Topping on page 29 of the cookbook)

LIQUID INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk (I used organic Horizon 2%, a staple in our home...but you may substitute with any kind of milk...rice, almond, etc.)

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract (make sure it's GF!)

(Carol also called for grated lemon zest, which I don't care for...so I omitted)

DRY INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups flour blend (I tried out my new GF Bisquick! Carol called for her Sorghum Blend)

1/4 cup sweet rice flour (Carol called for Expandex modified tapioca starch)

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (more than she called for)

1 teaspoon salt

1 6 ounce container fresh raspberries, gently washed and patted dry

3/4 cup Streusal Topping

(She has a recipe for this on page 566 of her cookbook...but I made up my own. I put 1/2 cup brown sugar in a bowl, along with 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, a large handful of crushed up corn Chex cereal, and 3 tablespoons of butter chopped up into little pieces. I mixed this all up with a fork)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with papers.

2. Beat eggs with an electric mixer on low speed until light yellow and frothy, about 30 seconds. Add milk, oil, vanilla...beat on low speed until the batter is smooth and slightly thickened.

3. In a different bowl, mix together all dry ingredients except raspberries. With mixer on low speed, gradually beat dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients until the batter is smooth and slightly thickened. Gently stir in the fresh raspberries.

4. Spoon batter into muffin cups and sprinkle some Streusal Topping on each muffin, gently pressing down the topping into the batter slightly.

4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the muffin tops are firm and the edges start to pull away from the pan.

5. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on wire rack or plate for approximately five more minutes...serve warm!

YUMMY! :)

Enjoy! :)

Breakfasts on-the-go

My favorite easy gluten-free grab-and-go breakfast items:

~A small bag of dry GF cereal; particularly CHEX...which now has many officially gluten-free options and is available at "normal" grocery stores: the rice, corn, honey-nut, chocolate, cinnamon, and strawberry varieties are ALL GF! My favorite is the cinnamon. I have tried them all, aside from chocolate and strawberry. I could eat the cinnamon all day, really! It is fantastic...sort of Cinnamon Toast Crunch-esq which brings me back to my childhood (that was, for some reason, the ONLY sugary cereal we were EVER allowed to have in our house). I LOVE it!

~Hard boiled eggs...these are so notable (and a wonderful HEALTHY option!) that I've blogged about them multiple times! Once a week or so I will prepare a bunch of hard-boiled eggs so that Jeremy and I both have an easy breakfast option for those rushed work-day mornings. We love 'em! I always buy organic eggs...not sure if it REALLY matters ;), but I figure if we eat the quantity of eggs that we do (one a day for each of us) they should definitely be the healthiest, most natural variety

~String cheese sticks....not necessarily the healthiest option (if you are in the dairy-is-bad camp), but still easy and delicious. Works for us in our house! :)

~Larabars...I've blogged about them before, too, but they are DEFINITELY notable. These are delicious...and, in the company's own words "simple. pure. delicious". These bars are made from minimal ingredients...for example, the "Peanut Butter Cookie" bar (which is the first one I tried!) is made from only peanuts, dates, and salt. YUM! My personal favorites are Peanut Butter Cookie and Key Lime Pie. Jeremy prefers Cherry Pie. YUMMY!

~Kind fruit and nut bars...my favorite varieties are Mango Macadamia, and Almond& Apricot...I will be visiting Naturally Yours here in Bloomington TODAY to stock up on more of these. These also make a great lunch...I've gotten in the somewhat bad habit of working through lunch and not eating much (I've been swamped at work!) and these are so easy to grab, delicious, and really do fill you up for a few hours

Weekends when I have a bit more time (when is THAT?!), I like to prepare smoothies (that's what we had this morning!) with a variety of frozen fruit and orange juice (That's it!) dumped in a blender and blended to frothy perfection....or scrambled eggs with feta and spinach...or GF pancakes...

Carol Fenster's Gluten Free Buttermilk Pancakes:
1 Cup Carol’s Sorghum Blend...this is the best GF flour blend I've found, recipe below...I keep a stash in my freezer at all times (well, except right now because I ran out! ;))
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp xanthan gum
½ cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Butter for frying
1. In a mixing bowl or large measuring cup, sift together the sorghum blend, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum.
2. Gradually whisk in the buttermilk, butter, egg, and vanilla until very smooth. Let the batter stand 5 minutes and then adjust the consistency, if needed.
3. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the butter over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Pour ¼ cup batter onto the skillet and cook until bubbles appear on top of the pancake, about 2-3 minutes. Turn and cook until browned on other side. Serve immediately.

I've made these when we have overnight out-of-town guests over (and double the recipe to serve 4)...I get rave reviews! I LOVE these pancakes!

And now, Carol Fenster's Sorghum Blend:
1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
1 1/2 cups potato starch or corn starch (I use potato)
1 cup tapioca flour
Mix it all together in a large container and keep on hand for all of your baking needs!

It works great in a variety of recipes! She has tips in her 1000 Gluten Free Recipes book for adapting the blend to be more suitable for specific baking/recipes, but honestly I typically just use it straight-up...