Happy 1st Birthday!

I can hardly believe today is the one-year anniversary/first birthday of The Well-Fed Newlyweds. Thank you to all of you who have been with me since the beginning, joined us along the way, and told your friends to check us out, too. It’s been a great ride so far, and I can’t wait to see what we cook up in the coming year.

(Clearly this is an out-of-season, not exactly recent picture, but it's all I had!!)

In case you haven’t been with us since the beginning – and let’s be honest, at the beginning most of my readers were related to me – I wanted to share with you some of our favorite recipes from the past year. These are recipes that we’ve loved enough to make more than once (something that doesn’t happen too often), recipes that changed our thinking about certain foods, and recipes that got rave reviews from our family and friends. I hope you enjoy them as much I we have.

Pumpkin Ginger Nut Muffins

If you follow (“Like”) The Well-Fed Newlyweds on Facebook, then you know we’ve ushered in pumpkin season in a major way. I’ve already made a few things, and I’ve got a long list of pumpkin recipes waiting to be tried, running the gamut from sweet to savory, soups to snacks. When it comes to pumpkins, I just can’t resist. The little ones are cute. The big ones are just begging to be carved into jack-o-lanterns (like my accidentally one-fanged bat). And the stuff in the can? It’s too convenient, and too seasonal, to resist.

It’s the canned stuff (or homemade purée) that you’re going to need to make these pumpkin ginger nut muffins. If you don’t already have some hanging out in your pantry, head to the store asap, because these muffins are the perfect fall treat. Pumpkin flavored with just the right amount of spice, these muffins are great for breakfast, make excellent, portable snacks, and are perfect for dessert with a cup of tea. We found these little babies to be pretty irresistible, and I had to keep reminding Stan not to eat them all before I had a chance to take some pictures. I’m pretty certain we’ll be eating these muffins until the end of pumpkin season... and if we freeze them, maybe longer.

Raspberry-Topped Lemon Muffins

Summertime, to me, is fresh fruit heaven. Are you with me on this one? Peaches, cherries, and oh, the berries. (Please note: I am purposely not mentioning the crown jewel of summer produce – tomatoes – until they come into season here. Once that happens, look out. I’ve been stockpiling tomato recipes all year long, just waiting for farm-fresh tomatoes that taste like the sun rather than those mealy wintertime imposters.) But I digress. Back to the berries. So juicy and sweet it’s merely an added bonus that they are incredibly good for you.

Now you already know I’ve been indulging in blueberries for awhile, but really, I am an equal-opportunity berry eater. You’ll understand, then, why I got so excited when I went grocery shopping this week and raspberries were on sale. Large containers of plump, ripe, jumbo-sized raspberries. I might have swooned. Hopefully not. These raspberries were just begging to be eaten straight from the container.

And while I did eat many just like that (after washing, of course), I could not resist sacrificing some of the berries for a baking project. After tasting the muffins, I can hardly call it a sacrifice anymore. Imagine, if you will, tender, just-sweet-enough, cake-like lemon muffins. Take those muffins and add fresh raspberries baked right into the muffin tops. If your imagination is working well you should end up with muffins that are juicy, sweet, and just a little tangy. They are summertime condensed in muffin form.

They are also utterly delicious – and forgiving. I accidentally forgot to set my timer while baking these muffins. While they were in the oven, I went to take a shower, figuring I’d hear the timer when the muffins were ready. Oops. Fortunately I only over-baked them by a minute or two, and they were still quite moist. The tops were just a tad darker than I would have liked (as you can see in the pictures). The fact that the muffins survived my mental slip made me like them even more. Try them out, and I promise you’ll like them too.

Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffins

I know, I know. I posted about blueberry muffins not too long ago, and I told you they were perhaps the ultimate blueberry muffin incarnation. I stand by that assertion. Today’s muffins don’t aspire to be the absolute tastiest blueberry muffins you’ve ever had – they try to be the healthiest (while still remaining tasty). And healthy food is a good thing, right? Especially during a holiday weekend when almost everything we eat veers into the less than healthy camp.

Upon reflection, it seems I’ve been on a bit of a healthy baked goods kick lately. Or really, and oatmeal-in-my-baked-goods-kick, if we’re going to get right down to it. First there was the low-fat oatmeal banana bread. That was good. Then more recently there were the peanut butter banana oatmeal muffins. Those were really good. Both of those are recipes I will make again.

I’m a little more on the fence with today’s muffins. In theory, oatmeal blueberry applesauce muffins sound both healthy and delicious. And they were. But there was something about them I just didn’t love. While the fresh blueberries popped with juicy flavor and the muffin tops got nicely crunchy, I found the muffins to be overly sweet and too oat-y. I debated even posting this recipe, but Stan really liked the muffins. He even declared them “perfect”. While I’m sure he was exaggerating just a bit, he doesn’t hesitate to (nicely) tell me when he doesn’t like something. So I have to believe he really liked these muffins.

If you’re looking for a healthier alternative to the standard blueberry muffin, these are certainly worth trying. And if you do try them, let me know what you think. Are you with me on the sweetness or, like Stan, did you love them? Also, if you have a favorite healthy muffin recipe you’d like to share, please do. I love getting new ideas. In the meantime, I wish you all a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Peanut butter and banana. Oh how I love thee. You are one of my oldest and most favorite flavor combinations. I have loved you ever since Mom made me peanut butter banana toast for breakfast. And you know that was a sacrifice for her, since for reasons I can’t fathom, she doesn’t like peanut butter.

While I will always adore you on toast, my beloved peanut butter and banana, I am always looking for fun new ways to enjoy you. Take today’s muffins, for instance. Moist, chewy, and redolent with peanut butter banana-y goodness. Filling from the oatmeal and healthy to boot. (No added butter or oil!) These muffins are a delicious and certain to be frequently enjoyed addition to my peanut butter and banana-loving repertoire.

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry muffins are, to me, a quintessential breakfast food. I started making blueberry muffins at a pretty young age. At the time I used Bisquick, which I must admit, I used for many of my baking endeavors. (Honestly, it wasn’t until I got much older that I discovered waffles I liked better than those made with Bisquick. And if I’m being really honest, I still love Bisquick pancakes, even if I almost never eat them.)

As I’ve gotten older and into more complicated baking, I’ve experimented with many different recipes for blueberry muffins. Some used butter, other used vegetable oil. Some used fresh blueberries, others frozen. Pretty much all of them were tasty, but I’ve never quite found “the one” – at least not with regards to a blueberry muffin recipe.

This morning, in honor of a friend who is visiting from out of town, I tried another recipe for blueberry muffins. This recipe called for a little butter and a lot of sour cream. I’m of the opinion that sour cream makes just about anything taste better – especially baked goods – so I was intrigued from the get-go. I also liked that you could use either fresh or frozen berries for these muffins. I always have frozen blueberries on hand, so I was good to go.

These muffins had a few more steps than many of the recipes I’ve tried in the past, but they were all very simple. The batter came together quickly and easily. And while I’ve never been tempted to try raw muffin batter before, I was today. Deeeelicous. Seriously, if you’re not afraid of a little raw egg, lick the bowl or spatula when you’re done. I won’t tell. The batter was a good indication of how the muffins themselves would taste – light and fluffy in texture with a rich flavor from the sour cream. Chock full of blueberries, these muffins are a good contender to be “the one”.