Mug Muffins! Fast, filling, low-glycemic, GF, and a whole healthy meal!

Muffins don't have a great reputation among those who would be healthy. They're usually full of both fat and sugar. They surely don't make a real meal.

This recipe provides all the nutrition of a meal. The main ingredient Shaklee Life Energizing Shake, makes it a complete meal. Here we use milk and/or egg, and fruit - just like a smoothie.

Here's Mug Muffin recipe! It's high in protein, low in sugar (none added), filling, fast, and delicious. And flexible when it comes to ingredients. It's a satisfying meal ready in less than 10 minutes.

I've included the basic Fruity Mug Muffin, and the Cocoa or Cocoa-PB Mug Muffin variation.

Fruity Mug Muffin

You'll need:
a small banana, or half a large one, speckled if possible
an egg
a few tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce, or milk or cream
2 scoops Shaklee Life Energizing Shake, vanilla (or strawberry might work)
a handful of frozen or fresh blueberries, or other berries (optional)

In a large mug, smoosh the banana until it's mostly smooth, beat in the egg, and stir in the applesauce (about 2 T - you want a damp mix, not soupy but not stiff).

Gently stir in the scoops of Energizing Shake one at a time, until it's smooth.

Add a handful of frozen or fresh berries and stir in lightly.

Put the mug in the microwave. In mine it takes 4-5 minutes to cook when I'm using frozen berries, 3-4 minutes otherwise. It may rise over the top of the mug but that's ok. It's done when the top loses its shine and looks cooked.

Take it out, let it cool a few moments or until it's room temperature, and eat it. You can dump it out, but I eat it out of the mug with a fork (so I don't compress it by digging at it with a spoon).

Variation: Cocoa (PB) Mug Muffin

You'll need
a small banana, as above
an egg
1 T smooth or chunky PB, optional
a few tablespoons of milk (or cream)
2 scoops Shaklee Life Energizing Shake, chocolate or Cafe Latte
1 T plain unsweetened cocoa (not chocolate drink mix)

Use the same method, stirring in the peanut butter before adding the egg. Then add the milk and follow the rest of the directions. Omit the berries. You could add some chocolate chips at the end for a triple-chocolate treat.

Put the mug in the microwave as before, but check after 3 minutes to see if the top looks cooked. Let it cool....

The cocoa makes this recipe almost brownie-like.

Today I made my lunch mug muffin with ripe raspberries in place of the applesauce. We have a lot in the garden just now. It's not quite as sweet as when I use applesauce, but it was full of flavor. Notice the pink color in the mug!

Recipes: Rhubarb dessert creation

I'm gluten-free of necessity, so the usual rhubarb treatments are out. Here's what I came up with for the 2 stalks we just harvested, the first of the season. We're eating it now and it's just GREAT!

2 stalks of rhubarb, trimmed of green parts and chopped into 1-inch chunks
2 T sugar, or more to taste
1 large banana, peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Cook the rhubarb in about 1/3 cup of water for about 7-10 minutes or until just barely soft. Stir in the sugar and taste the rhubarb. It should be tart but not too tart. Leave it in the covered pot until it cools.

Stir in the banana and refrigerate until you serve the dessert.

Whip the cream till very stiff, and serve on the rhubarb-banana mix, or stir the cream into the rhubarb mix before serving. Serves 2.

Earthy veggies

It's a wonder there's any dirt left in California, where our store-bought veggies come from. All the grit and dirt that is lodged in celery, chard, leeks, spinach and other greens when they arrive in my kitchen, multiplied by all those in this store and other stores, might amount to several inches of good soil.

I don't know where it goes - whether into sewer settling tanks or my plumbing traps. I just know my veggies need to be free of it or we're going to have a miserably crunchy experience at dinner tonight, and I'm going to fear for my teeth.

Which is where H2 comes in. This is the old veteran workhorse cleaner Basic H in a slightly modified form. It still works on veggies to release the grit.

Here's what I do: fill the sink or a large bowl with cold water, measure in exactly 1 drop of H2, and then add the veggies (either in batches or all together, depending on quantity). I remove them immediately and rinse them. A satisfying layer of dirt is usually visible on the bottom of the container.

For many-dimensioned veggies with deep crevices like celery and leeks, separating the stalks before washing them only makes sense.

When I first started doing this, decades upon decades ago (in 1971), I did an experiment. I took a bag of triple-washed spinach and shook it into a large bowl of cold water, shook it around a bit, and looked in the bottom. No grit - of course not, since this was already-washed spinach.

Then I added a drop of Basic H, shook the spinach in the water some more, lifted it out - and was delighted to see a layer of silt in the bowl.

That's when I took up the practice of washing all the produce that comes into the house in Basic H, whether it seems dirty or not. Cold water, rinse quickly, dry, and refrigerate. It works for fruits too - what you can't see (pesticides?) can hurt you.

A warning about H2: it is as concentrated as it can be. There's no water in it. ONE DROP is all you need. I don't want to strip the vitamins out of the produce, so one drop, cold water, a quick rinse, and done!

Another comment: H2 is not a veggie wash, it is a cleaner. You can use it to clean everything, but again, be frugal - a small amount goes a long way. The literature that comes with it will explain that. It's not toxic, not dangerous, just undiluted.

To order Basic H2, visit this Shaklee website.

What is 'unsugared'?

I've been looking for a word that means 'no added sugar' when that's what I mean.

If I say 'sugar-free' it might mean I used an artificial sweetener, which I would never do. If I say 'unsweetened' it seems to imply that the recipe is lacking something, that it's austerely unsweet. If I say 'fruit-sweetened', it's overly specific and limiting.

So I'm using 'unsugared'. That means not adding sugar but being happy about the sugar that comes with the ingredients. Many fruits are good ways to add sweetness without adding sugar.

Of course not everything needs to be sweet. But some things just do, if there's a way to make them that is unsugared.

Why not add sugar? Because sugar a broken food, refined and concentrated and hence in my simple-minded way of looking at it, unbalanced.

What about honey? That depends....