Little Carrot Muffins Recipe

From Woman's Day | April 2, 2002

• Active Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour

Recipe Ingredients

• 13⁄4 cups all-purpose flour                                       
• 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
• 13⁄4 tsp baking powder
• 11⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 tsp nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
• 1⁄2 tsp baking soda
• 1⁄2 tsp salt
• 2 jars (4 oz each) baby food carrots
• 3⁄4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (see Tip)
• 1⁄4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Orange Icing
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 Tbsp 1% lowfat milk
• 1 tsp freshly grated orange peel
• 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract
• Carrot decoration: large orange and large green gumdrops or jellied fruit slices

Recipe Preparation

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 12-cup mini-muffin pan (each cup should have a scant 2 Tbsp capacity).2. In a large bowl, stir flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt until thoroughly combined.3. In a medium bowl, whisk carrots, orange juice, oil, egg and vanilla until well blended. Add all at once to flour mixture, then stir with a rubber spatula just until evenly moistened. Spoon half the batter into muffin cups. Leave remaining batter at room temperature.4. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes then remove from pan to rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter. 5. Icing and Carrot Decoration: Mix icing ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate. Cut orange gumdrops into 24 carrot shapes, each about 1 in. long. Cut green gumdrops into 24 little strips. Stick onto tops of carrots.6. Up to 1 day before serving: Spread 1⁄2 tsp icing on each muffin. (Icing may weep around edges. That’s normal.) Top with a carrot. Refrigerate covered until serving.TIP Grate the orange peel for the icing and wrap airtight before juicing the oranges for the muffins.Planning Tips: The muffins can be stored airtight at room temperature up to 2 days or frozen up to 2 months. The decorations and icing can be made up to 2 days ahead. Re­frigerate icing tightly covered; store decorations airtight at room temperature. Ice and decorate muffins up to 1 day before serving.

• Nutrition Facts
• Yield 24 carrot muffins
• Servings 12
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories 202
• Total Fat 5g
• Saturated Fat 1g
• Cholesterol 18mg
• Sodium 233mg
• Total Carbohydrates 36g
• Dietary Fiber 1g
• Protein 3g

Little Carrot Muffins Recipe

From Woman's Day | April 2, 2002

• Active Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour

Recipe Ingredients

• 13⁄4 cups all-purpose flour                                       
• 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
• 13⁄4 tsp baking powder
• 11⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 tsp nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
• 1⁄2 tsp baking soda
• 1⁄2 tsp salt
• 2 jars (4 oz each) baby food carrots
• 3⁄4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (see Tip)
• 1⁄4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Orange Icing
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 Tbsp 1% lowfat milk
• 1 tsp freshly grated orange peel
• 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract
• Carrot decoration: large orange and large green gumdrops or jellied fruit slices

Recipe Preparation

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 12-cup mini-muffin pan (each cup should have a scant 2 Tbsp capacity).2. In a large bowl, stir flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt until thoroughly combined.3. In a medium bowl, whisk carrots, orange juice, oil, egg and vanilla until well blended. Add all at once to flour mixture, then stir with a rubber spatula just until evenly moistened. Spoon half the batter into muffin cups. Leave remaining batter at room temperature.4. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes then remove from pan to rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter. 5. Icing and Carrot Decoration: Mix icing ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate. Cut orange gumdrops into 24 carrot shapes, each about 1 in. long. Cut green gumdrops into 24 little strips. Stick onto tops of carrots.6. Up to 1 day before serving: Spread 1⁄2 tsp icing on each muffin. (Icing may weep around edges. That’s normal.) Top with a carrot. Refrigerate covered until serving.TIP Grate the orange peel for the icing and wrap airtight before juicing the oranges for the muffins.Planning Tips: The muffins can be stored airtight at room temperature up to 2 days or frozen up to 2 months. The decorations and icing can be made up to 2 days ahead. Re­frigerate icing tightly covered; store decorations airtight at room temperature. Ice and decorate muffins up to 1 day before serving.

• Nutrition Facts
• Yield 24 carrot muffins
• Servings 12
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories 202
• Total Fat 5g
• Saturated Fat 1g
• Cholesterol 18mg
• Sodium 233mg
• Total Carbohydrates 36g
• Dietary Fiber 1g
• Protein 3g

Peach Medicine, Energetics and Smoothie Recipe

Of Peaches, Energetics & Smoothies

by Rosalee de la Foret

Let food be your medicine. –Hippocrates

It’s peach season here in Washington State, which means you’ll often find me standing over the sink with a peach in hand and the juices dripping down my arms and off my elbows. Oh the sweet taste of summer!
Peaches, like most foods, can be an important part of our medicine chest. These fruits have energetic properties that can be used therapeutically. Traditional practices of herbal medicine always used energetics to better understand how to use herbs as well as food.

Energetics? What does that mean?
Imagine that you are eating a really ripe peach. What sensations do you experience? Dryness? Warmth? Moistness? Coolness? Do you taste bitterness? Sweetness? Sourness? Spiciness?
These answers give us insight into how peach can be used to help us when we are not well and to restore balance to our body.
Now imagine you have a bad sunburn. How does it feel? Cool? Moist? Hot? Dry?
What do you imagine would make it feel better? Something that is hot and dry? Or something that is cooling and moistening?
These are the simple energetic principles that can be applied to herbal remedies whether for acute or chronic conditions. This fall, LearningHerbs.com will have a special program teaching about energetics in depth.
So back to peaches.
You’ll probably agree that when you eat a peach you experience moistness and coolness. We can then think of times when we experience relief by applying something moist and cool. Sunburns come to my mind as well as inflamed mucous membranes such as in the throat or inflamed intestines due to prolonged constipation.
Voila! We are now using our food as medicine!
But the benefits of peach don’t just stop there. In herbalism, almost the entire peach tree can be used in a variety of ways.
I first learned about using peach from New Mexican herbalist, Kiva Rose.

Peach is a traditional Appalachian and Southwestern remedy that has been gaining well-deserved attention from the herbal community in the last several years. This aromatic herb is both tasty and effective, and its calming and cooling properties give it a wide range of applicability. It has the ability to calm anxiety, heal wounds, soothe nausea and even moderate histamine reactions. The leaves, bark, flowers and even the fruit pits of this well known tree provide us an with an amazing array of healing actions that culminate in Peach being one of North America’s most important plant medicines.Kiva Rose, Herbalist

My favorite way to use peach as medicine is to tincture the peach twigs in brandy. This cooling and moistening remedy is perfect for hot, red inflamed problems. I use this extensively for insect bites, both internally and externally. I’ve seen it taking the swelling out of bee stings in minutes. Peach twig tincture is also a relaxing nervine that can be mildly calming as well.
Peach leaves can be dried and then used in a tea.
Peach pits are used in Chinese medicine for strengthening qi and moving blood. It is commonly used for fibroids. There are some cautions to using peach pits so it’s best to consult a trained herbalist before trying this on your own.
Peaches are also a great remedy for the heat of summer to help our bodies cool down. If you had more peaches than you knew what to do with, you could use them externally as a facial. Simply mash up the peach fruit, spread on the face, let dry, and then rinse.
If you’re like me and you love the taste of peaches, then you’ll enjoy this cooling summer smoothie

Peach Smoothie

For this recipe you’ll need...

• 4 large peaches
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon of minced ginger
• 1 pinch of cinnamon
• Sprig of mint or parsley

Add the following ingredients to the blender.
Peach fruit (cut out the pit!)

Coconut Milk (Organic and full fat is best)

Ginger

Blend well. If you want the mixture to be colder you can also add a few ice cubes.

Serve with a pinch of cinnamon and a sprig of mint or parsley.

All of us at LearningHerbs.com hope you are enjoying the bounty of these summer months.
-Rosalee