Day 22: Lemon-Raspberry Muffins and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Today we ate leftover pizza for dinner- Taylor's idea. How could I resist the idea of not having to cook dinner when I had so many other things to do. Instead I made these yummy lemon-raspberry muffins and hummus. I found the original recipe on a site called EatingWell, but after reading all the comments, I decided to make a few changes. I wasn't completely pleased with how they turned out. They didn't rise normally like muffins are supposed to. Maybe this is because I substituted lemon yogurt for the oil to replace fat? I don't know food science so I might not ever find out. I will keep experimenting with the recipe until perfection. So if you decide to make it, you may want to use the original.

Lemon-Raspberry Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 1 jar lemon yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup white whole-wheat flour, or whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (not thawed) raspberries
• 2 Tablespoons ground Flaxseed

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 large (1/2-cup) muffin cups with cooking spray or line with paper liners.
2. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest from the lemons in long strips. Combine the zest and sugar in a food processor; pulse until the zest is very finely chopped into the sugar. Add buttermilk, oil, juice of 1 lemon, egg and vanilla and pulse until blended.
3. Combine whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, flax, and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture and fold until almost blended. Gently fold in raspberries. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.
4. Bake the muffins until the edges and tops are golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm.

Makes 18-20 muffins

I got the hummus recipe from Allrecipes.com. I have made hummus a few times now and have been very pleased with the results. I found the Tahini Paste in a Mediterranean Market Store but sometimes it can be found in your local grocery store. I have always bought cans of garbanzo beans, and cans of all beans for that matter, but today I decided to try something new...I bought dried beans, soaked, and cooked them. Here's what I found- you get about 3x more for the price of 1 can...with not too much extra work. I also roasted a fresh red pepper myself, but only had 1/2 a pepper which is why the dip isn't so red in the picture.

Spiced Sweet Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, juice set aside
• 1 (4 ounce) jar roasted red peppers
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
• 6 cloves garlic (original recipe called for 1 clove...I Love Garlic)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used regular pepper)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. In an electric blender or food processor, puree the chickpeas, red peppers, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, cumin, cayenne, and salt. Process until the mixture is fairly smooth, and slightly fluffy. When the mixture starts to stick, add some of the juice from can of garbanzo beans. Make sure to scrape the mixture off the sides of the food processor or blender in between pulses. Transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (The hummus can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. Return to room temperature before serving.)
2. Sprinkle the hummus with the chopped parsley before serving.

I'm very excited about lunch tomorrow. I'm thinking a whole wheat pita or tortilla with hummus, basil, spinach leaves, and a few other veggies and maybe a little bit of cheese! 

::Tip of the Day #1::  If you don't have buttermilk, you can mix 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice into 1 C. Milk

::Tip of the Day #2:: Buy dry beans, rather than canned, and cook yourself. This doesn't save on time, but really saves money!