Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Today I start my search for the perfect bran mufin

Why a healthy bran muffin?

I love bran muffins. What started me on bran muffins you ask? Well I think it was in the early 90's that either McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts had a bran muffin. They are my comfort food. They are heavy and filling and satisfying to me. I love to eat a heavy, filling muffin for breakfast. I also recently watched a PBS episode of Martha Stewart making these delicious bran muffins.This sparked my taste buds again, but of course, her recipe calls for eggs and buttermilk.

Does the muffin recipe that I'm looking for exist?

So today I start my search for the perfect bran muffin recipe. Does it exist? I don't know. It may not even be possible without it turning into a brick. These are the criteria that I would consider in the perfect muffin:
  • contains wheat or oat bran (I would prefer wheat as I have a huge bag of Bob's Red Mill Wheat Bran)
  • no white all purpose flour
  • no oil
  • vegan (no milk or egg)
  • no corn syrup
  • no white sugar
On top of that, it would be great if they were delicious, but that might be asking too much. LOL.

Sometimes searching on the internet for a recipe is like searching for a needle in the haystack. It's there, but you can't see it. If a recipe doesn't exist, I might have to be creative and take a couple recipes and experiment in the kitchen.

If you run across such a recipe in the future, can you share it with me? Thanks!

Frugal Tip #2 - Make your own Buns and Soft Pocket Bread

I love saving money!

I save a lot of money by making things at home instead of buying them already made. One example is bread. On the list of P.D. approved recipe ingredients is Amazon Ezekiel Bread made by Food for Life. If you click on that link you will find that one loaf of bread costs $17.50. Ok, so that's just a crazy price. I did however find Ezekiel bread in the frozen section of a Natural Food grocery market that is a 4 hours round trip for me. It was somewhere between $4-5 a loaf. But, I couldn't bring myself to pick up a loaf for that price.

What are my options?

I know some people don't bake or have a fear of baking. That's not the case for me. I bake regularly and have made homemade bread for the last few years for my family in the bread machine I received as a wedding gift from my mother-in-law. Homemade bread doesn't scare me, but making my own buns and pocket bread did. I found two recipes at Protective Diet, that use whole wheat flour, as options. I was very skeptical that this could work. I tried my first batch of pocket bread back in January and I was hooked. It was easy & tasted great!

How much does the recipe cost?

The basic ingredients for the Protective Diet Burger Buns and Soft Pocket Bread are exactly the same. I've calculated that my cost for the ingredients is $1.25. This doesn't take into account my time to make the buns/pockets are the cost of energy. The soft pocket bread makes either 8 regular ($.15)/each or 12 mini ($.10/each). The burger bun recipe yields 6 buns ($.20/each). Since these recipe are part of her premium recipes collection. You do have to have subscribe to the site see the recipes and the video.

How long do they take?

Burger Buns: Prep Time 20 minutes, Inactive Time: 60 minutes, Bake Time: 11 minutes
Soft Pocket Bread: Prep Time: 20 minutes, Cook Time: 10 minutes: Ready in: 1 hr and 30 minutes

How do I store them?

After my buns/soft bread is cooked, I put them in freezer bags and put in the freezer. When I need a pocket/bun I just remove the quantity I need. I either leave out to defrost or toast it up to eat.

What tools do I need?

  1. Baking Pan(s)
  2. Silicon Mat(s)/ parchment paper
  3. Measuring Spoons/Cups to measure ingredients
  4. Small and large bowl
  5. Fork for mixing
  6. Rolling pin
  7. Oven for baking

Why do these bread recipes appeal to me?

  • I think this is a great option since I know that the bread buns/pockets have healthy ingredients, no preservatives, only the ingredients that I am adding. 
  • I can make the bread buns/pockets up on the weekend and save them in the freezer for later use. 
  • They are easy for me to make. I don't find the skill level to be difficult with lots of steps and I don't dread making the buns.
  • I'm using ingredients that I always have on hand in my pantry. I always have whole wheat, white whole wheat, and whole wheat pastry flour stocked up.
  • If I went to the store to buy buns for $1.25, the quality would be very low. So I think I'm getting great tasting buns for a very nice price.

I hope you might consider making your own bread products at home to save money each month. I haven't found an actual loaf of bread recipe that meets my standards: whole wheat flour, vegan (no dairy, honey), no oil. etc, but I'm always on the search. If I find one, I'll be sure to post.

If you are new to Protective Diet, you have to create a login to see her yummy recipes. She has two types of recipes on the site: free and premium. I invite you to create a free login on the Protective Diet site to try her free healthy recipes. I'm confident that you will love them like me plus save money buy eating at home. Click on the Getting Started Video. Protective Diet Education may qualify as a Health Savings Account expense.You may need a pre-existing diagnosis by a physician such as: obesity, hypertension, diabetes etc.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

I have brown rice, so what should I have for supper?

The nice thing about a Protective Diet Premium membership is that you can search recipes by ingredients. For example, tonight I  had a lot of brown rice made up ahead. I wanted to use for supper, so I searched for brown rice on the PD website to see what I could make.

I found that I had the ingredients for Roasted Squash Curry. This is actually a free recipe on the site so anyone can create a login and get the recipe. She has an option to use pumpkin puree, so I actually used that instead of squash.

It was a delicious, tasty and healthy rice dish. It makes a lot, so I will have leftovers for a couple days. Bonus!

If you are new to Protective Diet, you have to create a login to see her yummy recipes. She has two types of recipes on the site: free and premium. I invite you to create a free login on the Protective Diet site to try her free healthy recipes. I'm confident that you will love them like me.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Blueberry Muffins

My kids love blueberry muffins. So finding a healthy blueberry muffin that the kids like is a bonus.

This weekend I tried Protective Diet (PD) Blueberry Breakfast muffins. The recipe calls for fresh blueberries, but I was able to make it just fine with frozen berries. I used a regular muffin pan with silicon muffin liners. The recipe was real quick to whip up & cook. I've been adding these as a snack for my kids this week.

This is a free recipe at Protective Diet and I think everyone should try it. It's a tasty muffin that is oil free, egg free and sugar free. It's heart healthy




If you are new to Protective Diet, you have to create a login to see her yummy recipes. She has two types of recipes on the site: free and premium. I invite you to create a free login on the Protective Diet site to try her free healthy recipes. I'm confident that you will love them like me.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Protective Diet Journey

Since my November post, I've done lots of reading and researching. I've found that I really like Protective diet recipes. So I've decided to blog about these exciting new recipes as I try them.

I've been subscribing to Protective Diet for about a month. I first started with a free login to review her recipes. I tried some and I really liked the taste of her recipes and her helpful videos. About two weeks ago, I signed up for a premium subscription. I love that she is your coach thru this journey to be healthy. She spends many hours each week making recipes for the group that are healthy and tasty. I've been getting a newsletter each week with at least one new recipe. There is a PD Interactive support group meeting online each Tuesday night and a coaching hour each Saturday morning.

Today, I made Baked Apples for breakfast. I added these warm yummy apples to rolled oats, cinnamon, and soy milk. It was a wonderful warm breakfast for this cold Michigan morning. These apples are so tasty, I'm going to make them every week.

For lunch, I had beans and brown rice with some fruit on the side.

For dinner, I was in the mood for pasta, so I tried Guiltless Baked Mac n Cheese. It sure is a wonderful recipe. The kids weren't super excited about it, but that could have been because of the parsley and onions. I love that once you follow the list of PD items to stock in your pantry. you can make lots of PD friendly meals just with only a couple fresh ingredients each week. I had greens on the side of my mac n cheese to make it a complete meal. I had leftovers, so I already have my lunch packed for tomorrow.

Until next time,


Click here for other Protective Diet recipes.