Blueberry Muffins

It's Monday.

sigh.

How did you arrive so quickly? I just closed down my computer for the weekend and got my work bag unpacked...and yet it's time to turn back on already?

We had such a nice weekend and yet it flew by so quickly. I can't believe that it's Monday yet again. By the time Sunday evening crept up on us, I realized that I didn't really do many of the things I had planned...like laundry and tidying and cleaning the bathroom. No one will really be affected by not having done these things...however, I hate starting off the week with a cluttered kitchen table, overflowing laundry bins and an unpacked overnight bag from the weekend. 

Luckily, I did find time to squeeze in some muffin-making.

{It's all about priorities, right?}

Today is my Secret Recipe Club reveal for Group C and I had Canela kitchen. With so many A-mazing recipes to choose from, I had a really tough time narrowing it down. Though I really {really} wanted to make her blueberry cobbler, I ended up going with a treat that I could make even healthier, and give it to Penelope to enjoy as well. And so I landed on the Healthy Blueberry Muffins. Made with whole wheat flour, these muffins are packed with blueberries, giving them a beautiful bluish hue. They puffed up so big and pretty, and my favorite part is that I could leave 6 out for the week and freeze the rest for a later date (or whenever we need a treat!). I made one adjustment, which was to make these oil-free and sub in applesauce in its stead. 

Oil free = woo to the hoo (!) for this WW gal. These clock in around 4Points+ per muffin.

Thanks to Gloria for this great recipe!

Blueberry Muffins

*Adapted from Canela kitchen

1 C all purpose flour

1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

3/4 C sugar

2 eggs

1/2 C water

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1/3 C applesauce

1 C blueberries (I used frozen)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, mix together the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, water and applesauce. Make a well in the flour and pour in the wet ingredients. With a wooden spoon, stir until just combined. Fold in the blueberries. Pour into a 12 cup muffin tin, lined with paper or foil liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and eat.

I hope this helps your case of the Mondays this morning!

What treat(s) are you looking forward to this week?

An InLinkz Link-up

Meal Plan Monday (and How I Prepped It All)

Hi friends! Happy Monday!

Did you have a good weekend?

This was actually one of my most restful weekends in a while. I am notorious for falling asleep on the couch on Friday nights, and this past week was no exception. After a late dinner of English muffin pizzas and an episode of Justified, I was toast. Penelope blessed us by sleeping until almost 8:00 the next morning and then we were up and out for the day. Shaun spent the day running errands while Penelope and I hit the mall with my mom.

After a breezy – and not quite so warm – Saturday, Shaun and I arrived home in the evening. We continued our Justified binge with a bottle of two buck Chuck and copious amounts of popcorn.

By Sunday, it was still pretty chilly ‘round these parts, but we were itching to get outside for a while! We bundled up and took a big lap around our neighborhood. Penelope loves being outside and though it was cold, our neighborhood was bumpin’ with remnants of the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

I also took some time to prep our food for the week ahead. I started with a meal plan that I had made last week, which also informed my order from Fresh Direct. By planning ahead, I was able to avoid the grocery store and have all of our groceries delivered on Sunday morning.

I broke it down by dinners, lunches, breakfasts and snacks. Since we are on a healthy eating kick lately, I also wanted to make sure that our kitchen was fully stocked with lots of healthy food for the week.

Here’s the plan:

Dinners:

Steaks & sweet potatoes

Unstuffed cabbage

Chicken enchiladas

Lunches:

Mustard chicken salad

Cold cuts

Breakfasts:

Egg cups

Oatmeal

Snacks:

Yogurt

Carrot chips & hummus

Fruit

Applesauce

Here’s the prep:

Make the unstuffed cabbage and refrigerate for early weeknight dinners.

This made a lot, so it should last us for at least 2 nights, or until we get tired of it.

Slow cook 5 chicken breasts in reduced sodium broth.

This is my favorite method for cooking chicken. I literally set it in the morning and forget it until the afternoon. After six hours on low, the chicken just fell apart into shreds. I mixed half of the shredded chicken with Greek yogurt and Dijon mustard for 4 servings of chicken salad and saved the rest for the enchiladas for later this week.

Make the egg cups.

I love these and they are perfect for the whole family, Penelope included. I prepped these and refrigerated them for the week ahead. I send these with Penelope to daycare, so I cut up a few for her and placed them in small Oxo Tot containers for the next few days for her.

Pack up whatever else I could.

After everything was cooked and set, I tried to pack up individual cups of yogurt and applesauce for Penelope for the week. I also packed cups of hummus and carrot chips so that we could grab them and go.

It took a bit of effort and some time on Sunday, but I know that I will be so happy when I hardly have to cook a thing this week after work! It also makes the mornings so much easier to pack up what I could in advance and then just throw everything into our respective lunch bags.

Here’s what my lunch bag looked like today:

Not too shabby, right? And tonight, I am so excited to have unstuffed cabbage waiting for us.

After prepping, I still had time to relax a little before bedtime. And do Sunday things like watch Cars with Penelope...

and chase her around the apartment, now that she's so mobile:

Big girl. Sniffle.

How was your weekend?

Did you do any food prep or meal planning for the week ahead?

Friday Things

Hi everyone! Happy Friday!

Is it me or are the weeks just flying by? I feel like it was just the middle of February, and here we are in the middle of March. Time is going by so fast that I’ve really been neglecting the blog and I hate that. I’ve tried to do a few Facebook posts on what we’ve been eating, but overall, I really need to give some of the simple updates that have been going on as of late!

 

My head is still spinning over True Detective. I’m ok with the ending even if I was a little disappointed. I felt as though the show set us up for so much more than was paid off (e.g., what up with his daughter? What about the other horsemen? Was that one guy really the mastermind of this whole thing? Him? Does MM clean up and cut that hair?!) Overall, we really loved watching this show. And while I got so into it, I won’t lie and say that the season ender left me anywhere near how I felt after Sons of Anarchy. Still not over that one.

 

In other TV news, I'm obsessing over The Walking Dead. I've long been a fan, but somehow this show manages to reinvent itself each season. And when I thought I couldn't love Daryl more...sigh. This week's ep really left me hanging and I'm afraid we won't find out what happened there for a few more episodes...if at all this season.

I once again got back on Weight Watchers this week. I’m down 1.5lbs and feeling good, albeit a bit nervous going into the weekend. Must maintain healthy eating!

In big Penelope news, she is walking! Not a ton, but she started out with a few steps about a month ago, and now she is full blown cruising. She really wants to RUN to where she wants to be, which leads to a lot of shaky legs and falling, but otherwise, she is well on her way. She still prefers crawling to get where she wants to go quickly, and almost uses walking as a show-off trick. Also, she loves dip.

I've been digging this Party Proof Matte lipstick in Peony that I received in one of my last Birchbox's (I cancelled my subscription) and I love it! So bold and has real staying power. Perfect for those mornings {ahem, every morning} when I have no time for makeup outside of a quick swipe of mascara and really easily ups the ante on the make-up situation so that it at least seems like I tried.

I'm also loving this fleece-lined flannel shirt that Shaun bought for me. Yes, it's a men's shirt, but I don't care. I love wearing it around the apartment when it's chilly, or even out for a walk around the neighborhood. So warm and cozy, but also looks cute when paired with tall boots and a knit hat!

I've been trying to prep our meals in advance for the week to make it easier on ourselves on busy weeknights. For next week, I have unstuffed cabbage and chicken enchiladas on the menu! What are some of your favorite make ahead meals?

And lastly, I'm loving all of the fun St. Patrick's Day stuff going on this week. So much fun green food for me to drool over. Dunkin' Donuts has really upped the ante with their line of mint Oreo donuts (11 Points+ for that bad boy) and Irish cream coffee (Yum.). Too bad I can't have any! Meanwhile, I'll be dreaming of these little frosted chocolate stout cakes:

Have a great weekend everyone!