Snow day!

A snowy day it is here in OKC! I am loving being snowed in with my wonderful husband and puppy. Having school canceled is always a bonus as well. Actually, its not just the schools that are closed, the whole city is pretty much shut down and the news have deemed it a "white-out" and asked people not to go out because all of the blowing snow can disorient you, causing you to get lost in the blizzard. No need to convince me~ I don't plan on going anywhere today! Except for an adventure into the backyard to introduce Peanut his his first real snow. The results were hilarious.

First, Peanut ventures out to the end of the porch to check out the snow.

Then, he used his own body to sled down the steps and into the deeper snow on the ground.

"I'm not quite sure what to think about this white stuff but its fun to eat!"

Back up the steps to come in and put my coat on!

All ready to go back out!

Snow puppy!!

I do feel bad that Peanut has to be inside with us all day though. Usually he loves to go in the back yard and run around during the day to burn off puppy energy. Today he is stuck inside and wants Mark to play with him, which he can't because he needs to use today as a study day. Guess he will have to settle for me chasing him around the house. It will be good for us because I am known to get pretty antsy sitting around too much myself.  

Plus, the more I move the more muffins I can eat! I made blueberry mini muffins for us this morning to drink with our coffee (Mark) and green tea (me). I based the recipe on the one in the Babycakes cookbook, with a few changes. I added some lemon zest and lemon juice to add a little sunny zing to the frigid day. So good! I like muffins that are not too sweet, usually bakery cupcakes are nothing more than cupcakes without frosting. For breakfast I like something that won't make my blood sugar hit the roof first thing in the morning. These slightly sweet healthy little muffins are a perfect way to start out a snow day or any day for that matter! 

whole wheat mini blueberry muffins

 2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 applesauce

2/3 cup agave nectar

2/3 almond milk (or whatever you have)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon juice

zest of one small lemon

2/3 blueberries

Preheat oven to 325. Spray or grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan.

In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl combine the coconut oil, applesauce, agave nectar, milk, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until batter is almost smooth. Gently, with a rubber spatula, fold in the blueberries. 

Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each to the top so that you end up with the fun little muffin tops after they have risen. Bake the muffins on the center rack. After 10 minutes rotate the pan 180 degrees and then bake for another 5 minutes. The finished muffins will bounce back slightly when pressed. 

Let muffins sit in the pan for about 10 minutes the move to a wire cooling rack. 

Speaking of good recipes, I tried a great one for seitan piccata on Friday night. Growing up, one of my brother and my favorite meals was the veal piccata that my mom made. Obviously, as I don't eat red meat anymore and Mark never ate veal growing up because of ethical reasons, we loved this meatless version of piccata! The recipe is from freakingdelicious.com, here is the link. She shows great step-by-step photos of the process.  http://freakindelicious.com/tangy-seitan-piccata/  I pared the wheat-meat with brown basmati rice and sauteed kale and spinach. Everything was topped with the delicious piccata sauce, I will for sure be making this again! We enjoyed some of the sauvignon blanc that I used in the sauce with dinner, but for the most part we just like red wine better! In fact I think I may just have to open a bottle for red to enjoy this snowy evening if find that we don't have school again tomorrow :) 

I doubled the recipe for the seitan and put it in the freezer for a future meal. This was my first time making seitan. To be honest I thought it would be really hard and there are so many methods to make it that I was a little confused with what the best way was. It turned out to be really easy though! I just simmered it, but next time I think I'll try the method  I have seen on a lot of blogs where you shape it into a sausage, wrap it in foil and steam or bake it. Hope everybody stays warm today and has fun in the kitchen, I know I will!