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!

Broccoli-Mushroom Custard GF

This versatile one-dish meal is delicious, also easy to make ahead, or in quantity for planned-overs. I made the broccoli-mushroom version for supper for our 51st wedding anniversary: we wanted to spend time on a nice long walk, not sitting in a restaurant.

This recipe features a custard that surrounds both veggies and rice. The cheese adds richness, and if you choose the feta-cheese option, it also provides the salt.

Here's the recipe. It's helpful if you have some leftover cooked rice. I always make extra rice, 6 cups at a time in my rice cooker. The cooked rice keeps for several days in the fridge, or forever in the freezer. If you don't have leftover rice, cook some up right away!

This recipe makes about 6 servings.

Ingredients. All measures are approximate. This is a very flexible recipe! (see below for variations)

1 1/2 pounds broccoli
1 pound brown mushrooms
1 T butter
3 cups cooked rice. I think white is nicer in this recipe. I use short-grain.
1 cup feta cheese crumbles
3 extra large eggs or equivalent
1 cup whipping cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk
Whole nutmeg (optional)

1. Pre-cook the broccoli by steaming it briefly in the microwave. Chop into bite-size pieces.
2. Coarsely chop the mushrooms, then saute in the butter until beginning to brown all over.
3. Heat the rice until soft in a 9x13 glass baking dish in the microwave, about 2 minutes.
4. Toss the broccoli, mushrooms, and rice together in the baking dish.
5. Sprinkle the feta cheese over the mixture. Use more if you'd like.
6. Beat the eggs well, then add the cream and milk and beat again. Pour over the contents of the baking dish.
7. Grate nutmeg over the top (optional)

Bake at 350 for nearly an hour. Check after 50 minutes to see if it's cooked to the center.

Variations:

• Use other vegetables. Sauteed greens, strips of pre-steamed carrots, sauteed onion, whole cloves of garlic, strips of sauteed pepper (red bell would be particularly nice, or if you want some zip, sauteed chilis).
• Use parmesan instead of feta. You'll probably want to sprinkle salt on the rice while warming it unless you use feta.
• Add meat, such as roasted chicken or pork; or add canned salmon. Increase the milk by 1/2 cup.
• Sprinkle the top with crumbs (no longer GF) or ground pecans or ground hazelnuts.
• Add 1/2 cup pumpkin or winter squash, cooked and pureed, to the custard before pouring it over the rice and vegetables. 
• For added piquancy, use sour cream instead of whipping cream. 
• Make in individual casseroles, adjusting cooking time. 
• Serve on a bed of sauteed greens. Or serve with a green salad, or fruit salad. 

Opinion: Irksome yogurt!

I always check labels! But the other day I grabbed some yogurt and didn't look. I think it's a brand I used to use that met my standards of no thickeners, no sweeteners, just milk. 

I know why this happened. My usual brand, Nancy's, had been on sale for a couple of months, but now it was back to the regular price of $5.29 a half gallon. I had been paying a dollar less. So when I saw something nearby on sale, I grabbed it. It was whole milk plain yogurt, and only $4 for 2 quart tubs. Good price.

I use yogurt in my breakfast smoothie every morning. The first day it seemed a little foamy and pasty. The second too. And I didn't like a certain discomfort in gave me after I drank it. So I checked the label. It had as its second ingredient cornstarch! 

I had succumbed to the temptation to go with price over quality, not intentionally but carelessly. 

And what I got wasn't yogurt. True yogurt doesn't need thickeners, which is what the cornstarch is. As is the tapioca in other brands, or the gelatin. 

If the right bacteria are present for the right amount of time, milk will turn into thick yogurt and no other thickener is needed.

Nicely, bacteria also convert sugar into acid, lactose into lactic acid in the case of yogurt. You can read about it here.

So you have helpful bacteria, the kind that coexist inside of us and help us convert food to nutrients, working to ferment milk and convert its difficult-to-digest sugar lactose into lactic acid, which thickens the milk, separating the liquid part from the protein part, whey and curds, through fermentation. 

The result is more digestible milk with less sugar.

Along comes the food industry. In the name of something I can't imagine, it 'improves' on the process and instead gives us a milk product so inadequately fermented that it has to add cornstarch and then to make up for lost sugars, adds sweeteners.

Most yogurts come with added sweeteners, but the label PLAIN helps us avoid those. Nothing on the label helps us avoid the adulterants. For that we need to turn the tub over and squint at the list of ingredients. If it has more than milk and bacteria in it, it's not yogurt. Or not all yogurt.

I confess to being overly influenced by price, even though I realize that good food always costs more than bad. (Fresh spinach costs far more per pound than cookies, even if it's not organic spinach.) So in this frugal mindset, I resent paying for cornstarch when I think I'm paying for a milk product.

Corn is in everything. The government subsidizes corn and we have a glut of it. Cows eat corn to make milk (though they shouldn't - it makes them sick). But it's cheaper to skip the cow and just add corn to milk products. 

I don't want to pay for yogurt that has been 'extended' by cornstarch. Or thickened by it. I don't like the texture - pasty, foamy - and I don't like the idea of it. 

There are only one or two yogurts out there now that are made from whole milk and yogurt-making bacteria and nothing else. Good luck finding them at an affordable price!