Saturday, March 6, 2010

oh, to be regular

okay, going to start my blog with a warning...
...blog warning...
material contained in this blog might be bathroom talk...and might cross the line from fun blog reading material, to wow, she just over shared!
...end of blog warning...


My body fully understands and accepts the concept of food in, waste out...and that it MUST happen on a regular basis for the system to work properly!
I'm just a regular girl...I've always been a regular girl (minus the few weeks after both my c-sections)...
that's just me...

Well, that was true for the first 32 years of life...
then I discovered that I'm anemic...like NO iron in my body!

easy fix, take iron pills...
iron pills that STOP a body from being regular...
like to a grinding HALT!

So I've been adding lots of extra fiber to my diet, cutting back on the dairy (that's two-fold, it stops the body from absorbing iron, and well it doesn't help with the whole regular thing either!), but we are a cheese loving family!, and Bran...Bran is my new bff...

that's where my new recipe comes in.  Refrigerator Bran Muffins, I remember my mom making these as a child (might not have been too young, but felt like years ago, and it's a warm fuzzy memory!).  I decided I was going to find that recipe, no matter how hard I had to search, yes, I know, just ask mom...didn't think of that...
So, first things first, I remember that I want to find and make this recipe while I'm at the grocery store, so I might as well go to the cereal aisle and pick up a box of Raisin Bran and then at least I'll have something that I'm sure is in the recipe...and guess what...the box had my recipe on the side...well, not MY recipe, but a version of one that I wanted to try...so of course I didn't follow their recipe but it gave me a guideline and I took it from there...
I love this recipe because you can bake up 2-3 every morning and just keep the batter in the fridge, it keeps for 2 weeks and makes 30 muffins so that's 12 days with 2 muffins and 2 day with 3...or bake up half the recipe one week and the other half the next...my son devoured these like candy (and he's already a regular boy...his new bff is the bathroom!)

Refrigerator Raisin Bran Muffins
2 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour milk*
1/2 cup oil**
2 eggs
3 cups Raisin Bran of your choice
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or white if that's all you have)
1 cup sugar (or 1/2 white and 1/2 brown)
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins (optional, for those raisin lovers)

In large bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, and eggs beat well.  Add remaining ingredients; stir until just moistened.
To bake now...Heat oven to 400.  Spoon batter into greased or paper-lined muffin pans, filling cups 1/2 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.
To refrigerate...Cover tightly and refrigerate for up to two weeks and bake when needed!
*to make sour milk, add 2 Tbs of lemon juice or vinegar to the measuring cup and then fill with milk to 2 1/2 cup line, let sit at room temp for 5 min
**to make these lower in fat, I want to try cutting the oil in half and substituting applesauce so 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 applesauce, just didn't have any at the time


Hope you have a regular sort of day!

1 comment:

Linda said...

I had forgotten all about refrigerator bran muffins! It makes me hungry for those bran muffins just reading your blog! I'll have to dig out my recipe and see how it compares to your new one. I always like to use buttermilk in things like this. My problem was when I bought a quart it would go bad before I could use it all up. Then I discovered buttermilk powder! I also discovered that not all stores carry it and some brands are in prepackaged amounts (makes 1 cup) which is unhandy cause I never want to use just 1 cup, it's either 3/4 c or 1 1/4 cup, etc. But some brands come in a box like powdered milk and you can pour out what you need, which is great. So, anyway, I now need to find some powdered buttermilk and make refrigerator bran muffins! I'm at a regular kind of age!