Cranberry Spice Muffins

For a festive breakfast while my step-daughter was visiting, I customized a basic muffin recipe with flavors of the season.  Served alongside cheesy scrambled eggs and thick-cut bacon, they were a great way to start the day!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 2 teaspoons apple pie spice

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Spritz a 12-cup muffin pan with non-stick buttery spray.
• Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and apple pie spice in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center.
• In a small bowl, beat egg with a fork.
• Stir in milk and oil.
• Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture.
• Stir until moistened but do not beat.  Batter will be lumpy.
• Fold in dried cranberries.
• Pour into muffin cups.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Eggnog Pie

This rich pie is a wonderful addition to the holiday dessert table.

Ingredients

• 1 tube refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough.
• 1 cup eggnog
• 3 cups white chocolate chips
• 1 container Cool Whip
• Reddi-Wip and dark chocolate chips for garnish

Directions

• Spritz a torte pan with non-stick buttery spray.
• Press cookie dough into pan evenly and bake according to package instructions.  Let cool completely.
• In a saucepan over medium heat, melt white chocolate chips into eggnog, blending thoroughly.
• Let mixture cool slightly.
• Fold in Cool Whip until fully incorporated.
• Pour mixture into cooled cookie crust.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve.
• Top with Reddi-Wip rosettes and chocolate chips immediately before serving.

Funky Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

Chocolate-dipped pretzels are yummy and easy to make.  I wanted to kick things up a notch by giving them some funky flavors.  So, for a Christmas party, I created Whiskey Praline Pretzels, White Chocolate Chili Mango Pretzels and Chocolate-covered Sunflower Seed Pretzels.  They were all really good, and it was fun to watch people try out the unexpected combinations.

Ingredients

• Pretzel rods
• Light chocolate candy melts
• Dark chocolate candy melts
• White chocolate candy melts
• Dried chili mangoes, chopped into small pieces
• Chocolate-covered sunflower seeds
• Jack Daniels pralines, broken into small pieces

Directions

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Melt candy melts according to package instructions.
• Dip pretzel rods into melted chocolate, tapping off excess back into the bowl.
• Drop mango pieces or pralines or sunflower seeds onto pretzels.
• Drizzle with alternate flavor of candy melt if desired.
• Place in freezer for 10 minutes or until hardened.

You can also make candy bark by blending candy melts and toppings in a thin sheet, freezing it and then breaking it up into chunks. The Whiskey Praline Chocolate Bark, pictured above, was especially tasty!

Cream of Rice with Mixed Fruit, Goat Cheese & Toasted Pine Nuts

I am a huge fan of Amy's frozen foods.  They are super healthy convenience foods.  I especially enjoy their breakfast cereal bowls: the cream of rice and the multi grain bowl.  I got thinking these bowls would be a great base for a savory side dish.  This dish isn't quite as savory as I thought it'd be; it'd still be a great choice for the morning meal.  But, it's a good start - and I think it'd be fantastic with a Quorn cutlet for dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 package Amy's Organic Cream of Rice Bowl
• 1/8 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/8 cup dried mixed fruit, unsweetened, chopped
• 1 ounce of goat cheese, crumbled

Directions:

• Warm cream of rice bowl in microwave according to package instructions.
• Mix in dried fruit, goat cheese and toasted pine nuts until well blended.
• Top with crumbled goat cheese and few pine nuts before serving.

Makes 1 serving

Nutrition Stats: Calories 395, Fat 17.5g, Fiber 6g, Protein 8.5g

Spicy Salmon & Corn Flatbread Pizza

I had an odd craving for salmon salad, but I wanted something hot.  So I decided to turn the salad into a pizza topping and see what happened.  It was good... and surprisingly spicy because of the salsa.  I had no idea how much kick that salsa had!  I don't normally like spicy stuff, but this was tasty.  The cheese wedges gave the topping a nice creaminess, and the flatbread was pleasingly crisp because I kept it in the oven while it was preheating.

The only thing I'd do differently next time is to use shredded mozzarella, rather than the string cheese I had in the house.  The string cheese didn't melt as well as I'd hoped, so shredded is the way to go.

Ingredients:

• 1 Flatout Healthy Grain Flatbread
• 1 packet Chicken of the Sea Pink Salmon
• 2 Laughing Cow Light French Onion spreadable cheese wedges
• 6 tablespoons World Table Sweet Corn Salsa
• 1 Frigo Light String Cheese 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• While oven is preheating, spritz a pizza pan with non-stick olive oil spray.
• Place flatbread on pizza pan and spritz with olive oil spray.
• Place pan with flatbread in the oven as it preheats.
• While the oven is preheating, use a fork to mix together cheese wedges and salsa, blending well.
• Mix in salmon and blend thoroughly.
• When the oven is done preheating, remove the pan with the flatbread and flip the flatbread over.
• Evenly distribute salmon mixture on the flatbread.
• Pull string cheese into strings and criss-cross on top of the salmon mixture.
• Bake for 15 minutes.

Makes 1 serving.

Nutrition Stats: 345 calories, 34g protein, 10g fat, 11g fiber

Double Chocolate Cookies

It's been unusually cold here in Vegas, and I've been craving something chocolaty that's warm from the oven.  I  had a scant 1/4 cup of flour remaining in the house and didn't feel like braving the chill to get more.  So, I turned to the always-handy Internet and found a flourless cookie recipe that would make use of the cocoa and unsweetened chocolate I had on hand.

This super simple recipe uses only 5 ingredients and whips up in minutes.  As a bonus, these cookies are gluten- and dairy-free.

These are quirky treats, crispy on the outside and fudgy on the inside.  Despite being made with a full box of confectioners sugar, they are not overly sweet.  In fact, they would be delicious with a small scoop of premium vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound confectioners (powdered) sugar (approximately 3 3/4 cups)
• 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 5 large egg whites

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, cocoa and salt.
• Stir in chopped chocolate.
• Stir in egg whites until just blended.  Be sure not to overmix.
• Drop by tablespoon-fulls on parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving room between cookies.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until the cookie tops are dry and crackled.

Makes about 16 large cookies.

This recipe is adapted from the Bitten Word's Flourless Double-Chocolate Cookies recipe.