Low calorie=crap.

Well, that's probably a little too harsh of a title. But this didn't exactly turn out the way I had envisioned.

It was supposed to be a chocolate sponge cake that has like 50 calories per slice. I've never made a sponge cake, so maybe that's to blame... but it turned out to be more like a rubber pancake than a spongy cake.

It kinda looks pretty though doesn't it? The cool whip (I can't say whip without over pronouncing the "h" ever since I saw that episode of family guy) and strawberries tasted good! There's a low cal dessert recipe for ya!

Yeah, no more low cal sponge cakes for me...

White Chocolate Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

When the people speak... I listen. And this time the people requested something with oatmeal. And so I scoured countless cookbooks for the perfect oatmeal cookie recipe.This is what I found.

Okay, so it actually came out about like this...
My mom: "Why no oatmeal cookies? I love oatmeal in cookies."
Me: "Oh yeah, I like oatmeal in cookies, too."
Then I went on recipezaar, found the recipe in like 2 seconds and whipped them up.

My alterations:I made them even MORE healthier by splitting the cup of flour into 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all purpose flour. They came out delicious! But watch them, because I only had to cook them for about 5-6 minutes (smallish cookie scoop). Also make sure you flatten them out before you bake them, because they do not spread. I used white chocolate squares instead of chips. Next time, I might try the chips.

They are very homey tasting, and I think that's because of the cinnamon flavor in them. Usually, I'm not a big fan of fruit with chocolate, but this combination of cranberry with white chocolate is absolutely perfect! But I'm sure you could substitute any dried fruit.

They are delicious though! I'm going to use this same basic recipe but do some experimenting try to make some good energy bars.

Blueberry Muffins - Healthy ones.

So, I’d love to be able to say that I can make cookies everyday and eat them everyday and that I’m healthy as a horse (are horses even really that healthy? where did that phrase come from?). But, the truth is… May, June, and July are my gluttonous months. These are the three months that I give into my sugar cravings and my fatty carb cravings whenever I they strike. These are the three non-marathon training months.

Starting at the end of this month… the blog will be filled with healthy, whole grain, flax-seed filled, antioxidant rich, protein packed recipes… there will still probably be plenty of sweet recipes, too… but, hopefully there will be lots of healthy ones mixed in.

Back to the post at hand… last night, I noticed some blueberries that were fastly approaching toss-out condition. And I remembered a recipe that I printed from recipezaar awhile back for supposedly excellent low-fat blueberry muffins.

I pulled the recipe out, realized I had all the ingredients and whipped these up from start to done in about 35 minutes.

I tweaked the recipe, so I’ll post the recipe I made and you can find the original recipe here.

Next time, I will add more sugar (or something to sweeten it more) and maybe some nuts. They come out very mild in flavor, but have a great, muffin texture. Also, I think I'll cook mine till the toothpick comes out completely clean. This time it was still a little tacky and I thought it would be fine, but I'd like the texture to be a little drier. Overall... a recipe worth tweaking and trying again.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour (I used king arthurs whole wheat organic)
1 tsp baking soda
1 ¼ cup buttermilk
2 egg whites
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup splenda
½ cup flax seed
1 cup blueberries
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.

Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

Sift together flour and baking soda.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg whites, oil, sugar, flax seed, and vanilla until creamy, then stir in the blueberries.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and fold together with a rubber spatula until the batter is moist.

The batter is thick, scoop batter into 12 cups and bake for about 20 minutes, checking with a toothpick till it comes out clean. If you want smooth-topped muffins, be sure to smooth out the tops before you put them in the oven as they don’t spread.

Martha Stewart would call these "rustic."