Deceptively Delicious Muffins
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup butternut squash, carrot or sweet potato puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg

Strudel topping:
2/3 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsps. soft tub margarine

Mix ingredients and spoon into 12 greased (or paper lined) muffin cups. Top with strudel topping and bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.

My notes: My mom had sent me this recipe in an email. She made these for my nieces when she was watching them while my sister was cruising the Caribbean for her 10th anniversary. I try to keep a bunch of healthy muffins frozen for quick breakfasts for Levi. The last batch I did had zucchini in them and he seemed to enjoy them. My mom said that the girls gobbled these up so I decided to try them out. I used some white wheat flour for half the flour and some prune-applesauce. Since I was gonna stick them in the freezer I left off the strudel topping...maybe that's where I went wrong. Apparently Levi wasn't a fan of these. He's repeatedly spit them out...even when I've slathered them in apple butter. I guess I'll be sticking to the zucchini ones in the future!

Big Beautiful Muffins
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups lowfat plain yogurt
2 large eggs
8 Tbsps. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Raw sugar

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously coat a 12-cup muffin tin with vegetable oil spray. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the yogurt, and eggs together in a medium bowl. Gently fold the yogurt-egg mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in the melted butter.
Use a large ice cream scoop or measuring cup to divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with raw sugar. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

For blueberry muffins: Fold in 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries that have been tossed in 1 Tbsp. flour into the finished batter. If using frozen blueberried, rinse them in a strainer until the water runs clear, then drain on paper towels and pat dry before stirring (unfloured) into the batter.

My notes: I got this recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (one of my favorites!). A lot of their muffin and bread recipes use yogurt which make them nice and moist without using a ton of butter or oil. I always have vanilla yogurt in the fridge so I used that and decreased the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup. I also used 1 cup of the white wheat flour...next time I might use 2 cups, sometimes it comes out too dense if you use too much of it. The recipe didn't call for the raw sugar on top, but I thought it was a good addition. It gave them a nice crunch on the top. The muffin cups are very full before baking and make pretty big nuffins (I guess that's how they got the name!). I'm gonna make this my "go-to" muffin recipe from now on!

Cut-out Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Heat oven to 375. In large bowl, beat sugar and butter on low speed or with spoon until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla extract and egg. Stir in flour and baking soda. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Dividen dough in half. Roll each half 1/4 inch on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired seasonal shapes with 2- to 2 1/2-inche coolie cutters. If cookies will not be frosted, sprinkle with sugar. On ungreased cookie sheet, pluace cutouts 2 inches apart. Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until edges are light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Royal Icing
3 Tbsp. meringue powder
4 cups powdered sugar
6 Tbsp. warm water

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes on low speed with heavy duty mixer). Place in pastry bag or speed on cookies with knife.

My notes: I made these cookies kind of by accident one Christmas. I had forgotten my regular cookie recipe when I went to NY one Christmas and wound up using the one on the back for the flour package and it turns out Seth liked it better! This past Christmas I asked a friend what icing recipe she used for her cookies. She told me that she uses meringue powder in her's...and it turns out it makes a big difference.