Pumpkin Muffins

October 30, 2009 DeanaLeave a comment

A friend of mine posted this recipe last year. I tried it out on my family and we have a new fall favorite. The recipe says it makes 15 regular size muffins and I can get about 36 mini muffins out of this batch.

Enjoy.

Per Teresa.

Recipe from a calendar of B&Bs; this is from The Melville House, Newport, RI. Everyone LOVES these muffins; they are delicious! I can’t count how many times I’ve made these. Also, I’ve clarified a couple of the directions here, but these are super-easy!

1 2/3 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. baking soda
1/4 baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 c. canned pumpkin
2 large eggs
1/2 c. butter or margarine, melted
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line fourteen or fifteen muffin-pan cups with paper liners, or grease the cups.

Combine dry ingredients: flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, bakiing soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients: pumpkin, eggs, and butter until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour over flour mixture and stir just until ingredients are moistened. Spoon batter into paper liners, filling about 3/4 full. Bake 20-25* minutes or until puffed and springy to the touch. Remove muffins from pan. Serve warm. Makes 14 or 15 muffins.

FGP Say’s I’m Not a Wheenie!

July 3, 2009July 15, 2009 Deana1 Comment

On July 11, Runner’s World starts its free Tulsa Run training groups every Saturday morning. Runs start with stretching at 6:45 a.m. at Veterans Park, 21st Street and Boulder Avenue. There will be beginner and advanced 15k race training groups, and a 5k race training group. – Carrie Aspinwall

I am not a wheenie… did you see that? There are training groups for the Tulsa Run, including a training group for the 5K race. I love it. So, I can now proudly say (Because Carrie put it in print) that I am TRAINING for the 5K – life is so good.

So, who might you ask, is Carrie Aspinwall? Carrie is the Fitness Guinea Pig for the Tulsa World and she is training for the Tulsa Run. Carrie is also the women who turned me away from boot camp (Yikes!) and on to Zumba, a real live exercise/dance like class thing. If Carrie says it’s fun, we try it. Carrie knows healthy living.

I have three favorite Columinists with the Tulsa World. Carrie, Natalie Mikles and Jason Ashley Wright. Between them they cover everything this girl wants to know about Fitness, Food, and Fashion. Call me shallow, but hey, I like what I like. Which might explain why I know so little about politics. Either way.

I wasn’t always overweight, but I have always had issues with food. The smallest I’ve ever been is a size six and that was 20 years ago. I tend average around a size 10-12, which is an acceptable size for me. Right now, I average about 40ish pounds over that ideal and I need to get back in shape. I love working out. Seven years ago I studied Tia Chi and helped teach Shaolin Kungfu to kids at the YMCA. I could even do a really cool back kick back then. My father in law thought that was hilarious and warned my husband that life as he officially knew it was forever changed.

I also enjoyed walking until I blew out my ACL playing church softball five years ago. Oddly enough I loved Re-hab. I had my own personal fitness trainer for two hours, twice a week and enjoyed every minute of it. Then my knee healed, and I was released and afraid to do anything else.

Since then I have been on many diets trying to lose 10-15 lbs and wound up gaining 40. In the past five years I’ve Weight Watched, Metifasted, Atkinsed, Acaiberried, green tea-ed till-I-peed-green my sorry self all the way to LA Weightloss and South Beach, only to diet my way up to what I weigh now. I’m thinking I’ve done every diet out there from A-Z. That plus now when people comment on my “new” look, I tend to hoover brownies in response. Not cool.

So, I’m counting my calories – or at least trying to and I’m in training again. Yeah it’s for a 5k, a lousy 3.10 mile race. But so what. It’s a start. I didn’t start of doing spinning back kicks and wielding swords – or doing a perfect horse stance for five minutes when I did martial arts, I had to build up. Okay, actually I had to stop ducking when SiFu kicked in my direction – but the point is, I started somewhere.

This is my somewhere.

Father’s Day Dinner

June 21, 2009June 22, 2009 DeanaLeave a comment

I’ll be honest. I have not cooked for a few months now. Life has been hectic and I’ve simply taken the cheaters route of filling the fridge up with wraps and various simple to create sundries and have told my family to “have at it.” And then we went to The Cove. Wow, was I ever inspired by Randy’s cooking. He stepped us through every process and the whole living foods he used to create his dishes were timeless. I loved every minute of it. So, having been inspired by some of the best food I’ve ever eaten at the Cove, I decided to cook my own Italian Dinner for Father’s Day. Granted, I don’t have a pasta turner thingie like he had, (yet) the results were still spectacular.

2009 405 We started off with a simple salad made of roasted pine nuts, chopped red and green peppers, red lettuce, celery, fresh basil, fresh mint, shredded carrots, and grape tomatoes.

2009 404 Our main course is my own creation – Manicotti stuffed with diced chicken, spinach, italian parsley, dried oregano and Feta cheese. I place the stuffed shells on a bed of diced tomatoes and cover it with alfredo sauce and parm cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and 15 minutes.