Let them eat cake....

8^th October 2012

If the cake is bad, what good is the frosting?

I had a lovely day yesterday, got mom out of the house, it might have only been a trip to the supermarket and home bargains but it was still out, even though my purse wasn’t glad she came – that lady can spend other people’s money like you wouldn’t believe!  We have enough junk food to last a normal family a month, but she’s smiling so who cares ;-)

We’d gone to get the ingredients to make some ‘wake up muffins’ I thought they’d be a better way for her to get something sweet and something easy to eat in the morning, I didn’t realise she’d stockpile on the junk too!  Hey ho, she’s only about half stone heavier than her healthy BMI and she has been there for 8 years in December, personally I believe it’s better to be half a stone overweight and stress free than stressing about losing half a stone!   Because stress can do so much more damage to your body, remember that whatever your weight, stressing about losing will not help in any way!  I read so many postings on facebook and see and talk to so many people that are stressing over it all and truly it isn’t healthy to be that way.  It’s better to lose nice and slowly and steady, I sat next to a new member on Saturday morning (she didn’t know I was a leader), lovely lady with her husband, it was their first weigh-in and she’d lost 3.5lb (wonderful) and she was telling me how she wanted to lose that every week.  I explained that’s not a healthy speed to lose it at but she was old school and I could tell she’d put the imaginary hands over her ears and inside her head was silently singing “la la la I’m not listening”, shame really because when you’re expectations for weight loss are that high, they end up in disappointment guaranteed, or unhealthy eating habits to get those results.  I found out my old Weight Watcher stuff yesterday when I was sorting through the filing cabinet in the shed and oh my word, I used to exercise a lot, I’m talking 2 hours a night, 6 days of the week and that was after a full day at the office!  When I look at the food I was eating it was nowhere near enough to fuel that amount of exercise, no wonder I lost so much weight back then!  No these day’s I’m happy with my 1/2lb or 1lb a week and I’m really happy to be half stone heavier than my healthy BMI for as long as it takes to lose it, as of Thursday I’m goal plus 8lb, that’s workable and I’m on the case.

Anyway these muffins (yes that photo is of my actual muffins), mmm nice, easy enough to make, not too sweet to be sickly but plenty tasty to want another one, we tried one warm and then one later cold and they were delicious, definitely will go on my future 'to cook' list, I may investigate other fruit based muffins and cake too.  The recipe is below for the Wake up Muffins.

Monday morning again, rolls round quickly doesn’t it, I’ve got a muffin for breakfast, nice, whatever you’re having enjoy and I’ll catch you tomorrow.

Here’s the recipe;

Wake up Muffins – 5pp

Tired all the time?

These banana, raspberry and nut muffins will help to keep you full of energy all day long
Makes 12 Lower fat, rich in energy-producing B vitamins.
5pp each

Prep 15 mins Total time 35 mins, plus cooling

Get ahead Make the day before; store in an airtight container. The muffins can also be frozen
50g unsalted peanuts or unblanched almonds, chopped
300ml natural yogurt
4 tbsp almond butter, or smooth peanut butter
1 large egg
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
75g light brown soft sugar
3 ripe bananas, peeled and finely chopped (about 375g unpeeled weight, 225g peeled weight)
1 x 150g pack raspberries

Preheat the oven to 200oC, fan 180oC, gas 6 and line the holes of a 12-hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and add a pinch of salt and the sugar. Stir in the chopped banana, raspberries and half the chopped nuts. Make a well in the centre of the mixture.

Mix together the yogurt, almond butter and egg in a small bowl until smooth. Pour into the well and gently but quickly mix everything together.

Divide the mixture among the muffin cases and sprinkle with the remaining nuts. Bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and golden. Serve warm or leave to cool on a wire rack.

170cals; 7g fat (2g sat fat); 6g protein; 2g fibre; 27g carbs; 13g total sugars; 0.5g salt