Muffins & Moving

We're (finally) (completely) (almost) moved. I know that's confusing. We still have a few things at our house in Minnesota. The bulk is now in storage and the rest is at the condo we are renting. Nothing is ever easy. The semi and trailer got stuck trying to make a sharp turn by the storage garages. We ended up unloading the stuff that was supposed to go to the condo and bringing it over one load at a time. For all we know the poor guy may still be stuck up to his axles.

I've been dying to make cranberry muffins for awhile. I finally got around to it this afternoon. They're absolutely scrumptious! They taste just as good as I thought they would. I was even able to tweak the recipe to get them down to 4 Weight Watchers points! The recipe is from The Cranberry Homemakers Cookbook that I picked up awhile ago at the Cranberry Gift Shop in Boulder Junction, WI.

The only changes I made were that I used a no calorie sugar substitute in place of regular sugar, canola oil, and egg substitute instead of regular eggs. When I do add salt to anything, I always use Morton Lite Salt. It's half the sodium of table salt, so that's 290 mg instead of 590 mg per serving. I did make a small goof with the first batch, however. I forgot to add the topping, so I just added it after they came out of the oven. They turned out fine.

Orange Cranberry Muffins

1 cup quick oats
1 cup orange juice
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs (beaten)
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (sliced)

Topping:
1/2 cup walnuts (finely chopped)
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400. Grease 2 muffin pans or line pans with cupcake liners. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oatmeal and orange juice; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar; mix well. To the oatmeal mixture, add the vegetable oil and beaten eggs. In the center of the dry ingredients, make a well and add the oatmeal mixture. Stir only until all ingredients are moistened. Gently fold in the cranberries.

Spoon the batter into muffin tins, filling about 3/4 - full. Prepare topping and sprinkle over the top. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 2 dozen standard-size muffins.