Weekly Recipe: Blueberry Muffins

Is this late, or is this early? You decide (since I missed last week and this is all you get for this week). We LOVE breakfast around here - and I am a firm believer in a good start in the mornings, especially since I have no control over what ds eats at school for lunch (sure I pack him a well balanced lunch, but he doesn't always eat the "brain food." These muffins are my favorite - I could eat them almost daily. I found the recipe years ago in an issue of Martha Stewart Living. Here it is:
Breakfast Muffins
10 TBSP butter, melted (1 1/4 sticks)
1 TBSP Baking Powder
1 3/4 Cups Flour
1 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
2/3 Cup Sugar
2/3 Cup Milk
1 Large Egg
1 1/4 Cup Blueberries (or other fruit) - frozen is fine!
Struesel (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 400. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon & salt in large bowl. In medium bowl combine butter, vanilla, sugar, milk and egg. Fold blueberries into flour mixture. Add butter mixture, and fold. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins. Press/sprinkle struesel on top of each. Bake until tops are golden, 15-17 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool a bit in pan, transfer to wire rack. Makes 12-18 muffins.

Struesel:
5 TBSP butter, melted
2/3 cup Flour
2/3 cup Powdered Sugar
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
pinch of Salt
Whisk together dry ingredients; add melted butter. Combine using your fingers until the mixture has a crumbly consistency. Drop the crumb mixture over muffin batter and press gently before placing in oven.

My personal tips: I always use at least 1/2 whole wheat flour (sometimes all). I don't usually make the struesel - I think they are good without, but it adds an extra bit of fun if you have the time for it. I also have a hard time with the big whole blueberries, so I chop them - just a little - with a knife. Tossing them with the flour first helps keep the batter from being completely purple. Oh, and these are good using strawberries or raspberries too :) I can' t think of anything else - Enjoy!!
P.S. I posted a tasty brownie recipe over at my blog - check it out!

Weekly Recipe: Salmon

My parents just got back from a week long trip at Whitaker Wellness Institute in California. They came back stressing the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Of course eating fish is a good thing - so we went healthy one night and had salmon. It was tasty, and simple. Here is what I did:

2 Salmon Filets (they were pretty big)
2 TBSP dijon mustard
3 TBSP Soy Sauce
6 TBSP Olive Oil

Mix the mustard, soy sauce, and olive oil together. Reserve about 1/4 cup of it, and pour the rest over the salmon in a shallow dish. Let it marinate for about 1 hour. Then, shape some foil (big enough for the salmon to fit on) with some edges. Spray it with a little oil, put it on the bbq grill and then put the salmon on it. Discard the leftover marinade from the salmon. Grill for about 10 minutes on each side. Put on a serving dish, and pour reserved marinade over the salmon and serve. My kids even devoured this one -- we didn't make enough, they both wanted more.