Cloudy and Lazy Sunday Morning

I have been in a serious cooking mood all weekend. So this morning I decided to dig out an old recipe to see how I could make it better now that my cooking skills have greatly evolved and my tastes had changed.

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins:
Back a few years ago I needed whole wheat flour for something, but then had a ton left over. In search of what to do with whole wheat flour, I ran across a recipe for Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins on Cooks.com.

It's definitely a recipe you can play with. Taking a tip from a pumpkin break recipe my mom makes, I used fresh OJ instead of milk. For the other ingredients I used natural applesauce without any sugar added, unsalted butter (because it was less Weight Watchers (WW) points than the oil), probably 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 2 1/2 Tbs sugar. I played with the points on WW before settling on the sugar amount, and it's a little less than half of the optional amount.

The OJ gave them a unique flavor that in my opinion just didn't work with the other warm flavors, so I think I will try the milk next time. They are not out of this world or anything, but was a nice change from my bowl of oatmeal I eat every day.

It's definitely not enough for a breakfast, but at 3 WW points these make a great snack. I did one of these, a hard boiled egg, and a new flavor of Greek Yogurt and was very satisfied all for 8 points. It was a nice brunch.

Chobani Greek Yogurt: My new love!

I recently picked up 3 brands of fat-free Greek Yogurt to see what I thought of it, and to find a brand I liked. I figured I would start with fat-free before I feel in love with a full-fat or reduced-fat version. I got Fage Blueberry acai, Chobani Peach, and Yoplait Strawberry. The Chobani Peach was so good that I bought more in the Black Chery, Vanilla, Lemon, and the 2% low-fat Pineapple flavors. The next one on my list was this vanilla one (3 points).

Normally I like the "fruit at the bottoms" ones for some extra natural sweetener, but I decided to give this Vanilla one a try. It was a bit too tangy for my tastes, so I took a tip from my brother and added some honey. I just happened to have some fresh honey from a former co-worker and his wife. Great stuff! Just a small drizzle sweetened the yogurt just enough.

I don't think I will be buying this particular flavor again until I get a little more used to the extra tang in Greek Yogurt. I never did like just plain American Yogurt before, but the Greek Yogurt is so much more complex I think I might really get into it.

This weekend definitely focused on food for me and I very much enjoyed it. I hope now that life is not so hectic right now and we are finally settling down into a routine that weekends will once again be used for food creation time!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!