Fiber-packed berry morning scuffins

I moved to VT not too long ago from Boston and one of the things I miss most is the Trader Joes. I was so spoiled. I could have premium dried mushrooms, artichoke and portabella mushroom stuffed raviolis, organic polenta, dark chocolate brownies, even in-season fiddleheads if I wanted. There was so much variety and such good quality for the price. I love the cranberry-apple muffins, or the pomegranate muffins which are packed with wheat germ which means they are high in fiber, low in fat, and sugar. Two of those muffins with some cottage cheese and jam and I would be well satiated and have plenty of energy to start my day. I miss those muffins and tried to recreate them here.

Mind you, I'm not sure I would serve these to company as berry muffins, because they are more like savory biscuits or scones, and so I have instead decided to call them scuffins. These are the type of baked good that I can feel good about having everyday and are much better for me than store bought muffins or scones. The next time I make these scuffins, I might add some orange or lemon zest and perhaps reduce the recipe to just a 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, because I like the grainy consistency of the Trader Joes muffins. (If you like your muffins moist, however, I would stick to this recipe as is). As an added bonus wheat germ contains many essential vitamins and minerals. It is not only very high in fiber, but also high in iron, magnesium, selenium, thiamin, vitamin B6, vitamin E, and zinc. It's a great and tasty way to start to a full day. You can also freeze individually wrapped muffins and pop them in the microwave. LIke most baked goods, I suspect they will keep for about 3 months.

Fiber-packed berry morning scuffins (makes 12)
2 cups wheat germ
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup blueberry juice (cranberry, apple, white grape juice would be find here - this is your natural sweetener)
3/4 berries (I used frozen mixed berries, but fresh or frozen can be used)
2 cups water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Stir ingredients in a bowl and distribute evenly in 12 muffin cups. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

I recommend serving with butter, jam and/or honey to sweeten to your discretion as you would a scone or biscuit.

If you are interested in the nutritionals, I've posted them here from the recipe analysis tool at calorie-count.com. Please don't hold me to it, as I'm not sure how reliable this website is, but it seems to be a fairly good estimate.

Nutritionals per serving (12): 117 calories, 2.2 g fat, 1mg sodium, 19.1 g carbohydrates, 3.5 g dietary fiber, 2.6g sugar, 6.6g protein

Poached Chicken with Strawberries, Goat Cheese and Savory Blueberry Vinagrette

Recently, I've been reviewing food products for wellfed.net. I first had some chocolate covered sunflower seeds and almonds from a company called Translucent Chocolates. Tasty but it didn't really challenge my culinary creativity. This week I got a batch of TrueBlue Blueberry Juice.

The first thing I did with it was make a mixer of course. What else do you do with blueberry juice? It was great with raspberry vodka and a splash of lime juice over ice. My boyfriend, Will, also tried it with some mango rum, and he seemed quite content with that mixture as well, 9though this was admittedly after a glass of wine with dinner and his own raspberry vodka blueberry juice cocktail). Our questionable drinking habits aside, this food blog is about maintaining a healthy balance, and so perhaps to balance out last night's indulgences, perhaps to do a full, proper,and sober product review, or perhaps not to let my gym time go completely in vain, I decided to try the Savory Blueberry Vinagrette recipe from the TrueBlueberry juice website.

They have many recipes posted and essentially you can substitute blueberry juice for anywhere that you would use cranberry juice or even pomegranate juice. It boasts more antioxidants per serving than cranberry juice and also claims to have 25% less calories than the leading cranberry juices. This is not even considering the TrueBlue Lite Blueberry Juice, which I would love to try. I'll post more on the health benefits of blueberry juice at a later date, but for the time being I'll let you know that the savory blueberry vinagrette was just that - savory. Perhaps not as much tangy blueberry flavor as I would have liked, but it was the perfect compliment to our poached chicken strawberry and goat cheese salad, and of course, a slightly sweet and spicy Cabernet.



Poached Chicken Strawberry and Goat Cheese Salad with Savory Blueberry Vinagrette

Salad:
Mixed Salad Greens
chicken breast, poached and shredded *
Sliced strawberries
Goat Cheese crumbles,
Walnuts, chopped and toasted *


Savory Blueberry Vinagrette from TrueBlue Blueberry Juice

1/2 cup TrueBlue Blueberry Cocktail 1/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 2 tsp dijon mustard 1/2 tsp dried basil (I didn't have this so I added some dried oregano and parsley to taste) ground pepper to taste Whisk ingredients together and let sit for a few minutes to let flavors blend. Shake well before serving. Makes 1 3/4 cups.

* It's very easy to poach chicken breasts and it is a healthy way to cook chicken and retain its juices. Place the chicken breasts in a skillet or saucepan and add enough water to cover; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer gently until cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board to cool. Shred into bite-size strips with two forks.

* Toasting walnuts brings out their strong flavor and you can use less them of them as a result. You'll find a little goes a long way. I highly recommend not skipping this step. To toast walnuts, place them in a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir frequently and remove from heat once the nuts turn a slight brown hue, about 3-4 minutes, and you can begin to smell their aroma. To crush, place in a small plastic bag to avoid a mess and pound with a flat object.

First Bite

The purpose of this blog is to inspire myself and others towards a healthy and tasty lifestyle and to have fun while doing it. Nimble Nosh is a food blog. I'm a believer that we eat to live, but it can't be denied that, well sometimes, we live to eat as well. I will include lots of recipes that have a healthy focus from my experiments in the kitchen, but will also strive to maintain that a wholesome approach is about balance, so no food should really be off limits. I hope to feature articles and musings on nutrition, cooking tips, new product finds, book reviews, and anything relevant in health and wellness news. What are some of the ways to indulge and still eat well? What does a moderate athlete's diet look like? How do you achieve a balance between being full and being stuffed? How do you eat healthy when you have 15 minutes to spare? These are some of the questions that I continually find myself asking again and again, and invariably find a myriad of answers. Most importantly, I'm hoping to get ideas from the wide wide world out there on healthy eating and living if there is anyone reading... ;)

For right now though, a little about myself. I'm 25 years old and recently moved to Vermont. I work in publishing, but have an eye to towards food writing, at least as a hobby of mine. Of course, I also have an interest in fitness and nutrition. You can check out some of my articles on wellfed.net, specifically under the fitfare.net and sugarsavvy.net links. My byline is sburnett.