Tag: fall

Apple Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins

Breakfast, Snacks
Lizzie Homemaker's Healthy Apple Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins
These muffins work well for breakfast, lunch, or snack time. Healthy comfort food that you can grab and go.

Apples and cinnamon are both kid favourites in my house.  Lately my 6-year-old hasn’t been eating her veggies at lunch – and it drives me crazy.  So, I decided I needed to load some veg into her after-school snack.

These muffins are packed with sweet potato, chunks of apple and fragrant cinnamon – and they’re whole grain, too.  An ideal treat to devour on a cold winter’s afternoon.

Healthy Apple Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins

  • Servings: 12
  • Difficulty: easy
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These whole-grain muffins are delicious - and they're loaded with veg and fibre. Perfect for the lunch box or after-school snack.

Ingredients

DRY

  • 3/4 cup oat bran
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt

ADD-IN

  • one small apple, peeled, diced small (1/2 cup)

WET

  • 1 cup of mashed sweet potato (*see note below for preparing sweet potato)
  • 1/2 cup of yogurt or kefir
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a muffin tin, or line with baking cups.
  2. In a large bowl combine dry ingredients.
  3. Mix in diced apple.
  4. In medium bowl combine wet ingredients, then add to dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.
  5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin.
  6. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool.

*Sweet Potato

Prick a sweet potato several times with a fork or pairing knife.  Bake in 350F oven for about an hour.  Allow to cool, peel, then mash.  I usually do this step in advance.  I throw a sweet potato into the oven while I’m baking something else, so the mash ready to go.  A large sweet potato yields about 2 cups when mashed.

Store muffins in an air-tight container for up to two days.

 

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

Activities, Arts and Crafts
Lizzie Homemaker easy homemade pumpkin pie playdough made with pumpkin pie spice
We’ve been celebrating the season with this festive pumpkin pie playdough.

The kids went nuts when they saw this little playdough pumpkin pie.  I set it out for them when they got home from school.  They immediately dove into the activity using their social skills and math skills to negotiate how to divide up the pie.  They cut, counted and distributed the pieces then they smooshed it up to create new things.  Playdough is a great toy – and even when it’s presented as something specific (like a pie in this case) – it still ends up in open-ended play.

Pumpkin Pie Playdough Recipe

The warm scent of pumpkin pie spice is so cozy and relaxing. Perfect for chilly fall days.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 tbsp cream of tartar
  • 2 tbsp of pumpkin spice
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • add orange food colouring for pumpkin pie filling, leave it out for the crust colour

Directions

  1. Mix all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pot or saucepan.
  2. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly for about 4 or 5 minutes.  The dough will start to pull away from the sides of the pan and should no longer be sticky to the touch.  (If it’s still sticky cook a little longer until it’s not.)
  3. Remove the dough from the pot.  Allow to cool slightly and knead.
  4. Form into a pie or play with as is.

Store dough in an air-tight container.