Banana Chocolate Chip Lactation Muffins

August 7, 2014 ~ Crystle ~ 8 Comments

Today I’m 35 weeks pregnant, and I feel like I’m ready to pop. Each sneeze is a terrifying experiment in abdominal fortitude, and each bend at the hips is a foray into a world of discomfort. At night when I’m so tired I think I could just expire, this baby boy goes into hyper mode and kicks and stretches my insides until I’m sure the only relief is immediate delivery.

My chiropractor has been working wonders on my SPD, keeping me strong enough to endure long days of endless chores and raucous childcare without relying on any oral pain management. I whine about this pregnancy, but it’s certainly been more comfortable than my pregnancy with Margot. I’m able to complete all the tasks that need to be done, and with the help of my Sakura Bloom baby sling from my friend Sarah, I’m able to take Margot’s don’t-put-me-down phase in stride.

Speaking of Margot, she’s entered this exhausting new phase of sleep regression. It’s no fun waking up to her hysterical cries several times a night, but I’m grateful to have such great cuddling time with her and her favorite teddy bear. It’s also good conditioning for what’s around the corner with a newborn. I’m tired now, but I know I’ll be about 20 times more exhausted in a months time.

While Margot napped today (she still sleeps for a good 2-3 hours in the early afternoon, hallelujah!) I got to work on lactation sweets to promote a reliable milk supply in my first few weeks postpartum.

I baked 4 dozen oatmeal chocolate chip lactation cookies, and a dozen of these banana chocolate chip muffins. I used the leftover batter to make a small loaf of muffin bread, bagged it all up, and stored it in the freezer for quick snacks after Woody arrives. I’m already stocking the freezer with baked goods and crock-pot meals so when all of new-baby help is gone, and I’m left to juggle two kids and a household alone, I’ll be able to ease into the transition a little easier.

Isaac is going to the field for two weeks just before Woody’s due date, so it’s even more important that I get all this nesting and food prep done before he leaves. He’s leaving again in October, and January for similar Army training duties. A few weeks here, a month there — I’d take that over a deployment or a hardship tour any day.

Back to these lactation muffins. The active ingredients in lactation promoting foods is brewers yeast and flax seed meal. They’re available at your local grocery store near the vitamins or bulk foods, or at your local GNC. I probably should have subbed in low-glycemic sugar substitutes like agave nectar for the sugar called for in this recipe, but Margot only naps for a few hours, and I had back to back batches of cookies and muffins to complete in a short amount of time. Experimenting with substitutions is a leisurely endeavor reserved for lazy Saturday afternoons, I’ll get to it eventually, though.

Moist and sweet, these banana chocolate chip lactation muffins will be a go-to treat around here while I’m breastfeeding. They’ve got a decent amount of fiber that’s punctuated by semi-sweet chocolate morsels, edging out that health-food aftertaste.

Banana Chocolate Chip Lactation Muffins

Author: Crystle

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 24

Lactation-promoting banana chocolate chip muffins.

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp Brewers Yeast
3 tbsp Flax Seed meal
1/2 cup oats
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or dark chocolate chips)
Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin pan with paper muffin cups.
In a large mixing bowl, mash ripe bananas. Mix in the softened butter until blended, then add the vanilla and egg. Mix until well incorporated.
In a separate, large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, Brewer’s Yeast and Flax Seed meal until blended.
Slowly add dry ingredients into banana mixture. Stir in oats, and chocolate chips and mix well.
Fill muffin cups with batter until 3/4 full. Bake 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center of muffin comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes, and enjoy!

Notes

Recipe adapted from My Little Poppyseed [br]Store these muffins in an airtight container in the freezer, and pull out muffins on an as-needed basis for longer shelf life. Pop a muffin into the microwave for a minute, and enjoy a ‘fresh’ muffin.

Raspberry Orange Muffins

March 31, 2014 ~ Crystle ~ Leave a comment

Raspberry Orange Muffins Recipe

Orange Zest The days have been getting longer and longer since the winter solstice back in December, when we saw only a few hours of daylight. Today we have roughly 15 hours of daylight, which will steadily increase until the summer solstice where the sun will only disappear for a couple of hours. These are wild extremes that we live, way up here.

With winter in the rear view mirror, the landscape has changed slightly each day that the temperatures has risen above freezing. South-facing rooftops have little to no snow remaining, main roads are as clear as they were before the snow fell, and the deep snow drifts that covered our yards all winter are now slowly receding; all signs of the coming Summer. The temperatures weren’t what bothered me most about our first Fairbanks winter — it was the lack of daylight. Now that the sun is shining brightly I feel compelled to wear sandals and skirts, and drink iced green tea, even though the temperatures still hover in the mid-thirties. The rest of the town is in the same mood. Pedestrians in shorts, kids on bikes, men scraping the last bits of ice from their driveways; these are all elements of the slushy spring break-up I’ve been hearing all about.

It’s wonderful.

Raspberry Orange Muffins Recipe

It’s a coincidence, too, just as I exit the first trimester of pregnancy that the sun should be shining so brightly. My food aversions are nearly all gone, and I’m back to eating healthier foods. The gloomy cloud of winter was prolonged by my first trimester, and now that the sun has broken through, things are looking up.

We’re heading to Anchorage this weekend for a Maternity photo session (a client’s, not mine), then off to Las Vegas and OKC for some shopping, eating, and family time. Later this month we find out if we’re having a boy or a girl, then it will practically be summer! Picnics, hikes, dog walks, cook outs — I’ve missed all these things while the snow has inundated our world.

We’re going to try to make the most of this summer, mosquitoes be damned.

These muffins are the perfect embodiment of my current mood and circumstance. They’re zesty, sweet and tart; their flavors swarm and whelm you, just like the warm spring after a long, tedious winter. I’ll keep this recipe on-call until the height of summer pulls me into another culinary direction.

Raspberry Orange Muffins

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Author: Crystle

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 12

Zesty, sweet and tart, these muffins shine brightly on the breakfast table.

Ingredients

2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cups greek vanilla yogurt or one six ounce container
1/3 canola oil
2-3 teaspoons grated orange zest, from about one orange
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 6oz box of fresh raspberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F.
Line a muffin tin with paper cups, or grease with baking spray.
Stir together dry ingredients in medium mixing bowl until no brown sugar clumps remain.
Combine egg, orange juice, greek vanilla yogurt, canola oil, and vanilla in large mixing bowl on low speed. Slowly add in the flour mixture until incorporated. Add raspberries and mix until the raspberries have broken up, do not over mix.
Divide batter evenly between muffin cups, filing each until 3/4 full.
Bake 20-22 minutes until golden brown and they pass the toothpick test (comes out clean).
Cool in pan for several minutes, serve warm or cooled completely.

Notes

Sub in all-purpose flour for the whole wheat pastry flour, if you prefer. [br]I threw in extra sugar for this recipe since the first batch ended up a little too acidic from the orange juice and zest. If you prefer to cut back, you can get by with 2/3 cup brown sugar instead.[br]Recipe adapted from Driscoll’s.

DIY Kodiak Flapjack Mix

July 28, 2013August 9, 2013 ~ Crystle ~ 7 Comments

The beginning of this story is set on the baking aisle of a chain grocery store. My search for a healthy pancake mix brought me there, and there I stood, comparing labels and looking over long lists of ingredients. When I picked up a box of Kodiak Flapjacks my search was over. Made from whole ingredients, and balanced to keep you from enduring the harsh crash that comes after indulging in an overly-sweet breakfast, these pancakes blew every competitor out of the water.

Fast forward to the second part of my journey where I’m at my fourth or fifth grocery store, searching high and low for the best price on Kodiak Flapjacks. Prices range from $6-$8 a box here around South Puget Sound. Our upcoming move to Alaska, and its promise of higher prices for everything, has me worried about the totals at the cash register on my weekly shopping trips. At each grocery store, I reactively pulled at my collar, which seemed to tighten every time I saw the price tag of my favorite pancakes. They’re definitely worth the price, but my small family needs to save money. That’s why we went with the Ninja instead of the Vitamix blender recently, and why I just can’t justify an $8 box of pancake mix. There had to be another way, I thought to myself. Then I found that other way.

Make my own pancake mix! Why didn’t I think of it sooner?!

I searched high and low, much like I did for a reasonably priced box of Kodiak Flapjack Mix, to find a recipe for pancake mix that was comparable to my beloved Kodiaks. After two rounds of pancakes from this batch of Pancake Mix, my husband and I are convinced this recipe fits the bill.

Whole Wheat & Oat Pancake Mix Recipe:

Ingredients:

MIX

4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 cups old-fashioned or rolled oats

3 tablespoons baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 cup vegetable oil

PANCAKES

1 cup homemade mix

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup greek vanilla yogurt (or plain, for a savory version of these pancakes)

1 large egg

Instructions:

MIX

1. Grind the oats in a food processor until they’re chopped finely, but don’t go as far as turning them into powder.

2. Put the flour, oats and all other dry ingredients into a mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on slow speed and very slowly drizzle the vegetable oil into the bowl while the mixer is running on low.

3. Store mix in an airtight container in fridge or freezer. This will keep indefinitely.

PANCAKES

1. Whisk one cup of pancake mix with 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of greek yogurt, and one large egg.

2. Allow batter mixture to sit for 20 minutes at room temperature, this allows the ground oats to soak up the excess liquid. The mixture may seem runny before this time has lapsed.

3. Using an ice cream scoop, or 1/4 cup measuring cup, spoon out the mixture onto a warm griddle (350F) or pan. I have an electric stove, and I find that pre-heating my enamel cast iron pan on medium helps tremendously.

4. When pancakes are bubbly around the edges, flip. Cook until golden brown.

Notes:

-Yields 5-8 pancakes per cup of mix.

-Adapted from King Arthur Flour – Homemade Whole Wheat Pancake Mix Recipe.

-The oats photographed are whole oats, they have not yet been processed. When yours have been through the food processor, they should be roughly 1/4 their original size. I hope that helps.

-Your pancake mix will end up crumbly with some smaller than pea-sized chunks.