Tag Archives: ginger

Gingerbread Muffin in a Mug – Muggin

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look at the ginger pieces


gingerbread muggin


Sometimes I walk around all day craving it. Other times I wake up in the night and want it. What is “it?”
Well gingerbread of course. What did you think I was talking about?
Chocolate?
Chocolate cravings are easy to quell. A few dark chocolate chips and I’m good to go.

But gingerbread, now that’s another story. I have to have a reason to make gingerbread. I have perfected a gingerbread cupcake and a gingerbread muffin (which is ooooh so close to the cupcake, but without the yummy frosting so I can eat it for breakfast.) And yes I have several ginger cookies, and gingerbread people cookies that I love to bake with grandkids. But I’m avoiding sugar so I need to find another way to satisfy this yearning. (And please don’t suggest ginger tea; it’s fine, but not gingerbread.)

Somewhere in the night it hit me – create a Gingerbread Muggin recipe – a muffin in a cup. And I did and now I can share it with all of you to quell your cravings.

molasses is a key ingredient


a bit of crystallized ginger


Ingredients
1 egg
2 TBS plain lowfat yogurt (or vanilla flavored)
1 ½ TBS molasses (don’t you love molasses?)
½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 TBS chopped crystallized (or candied) ginger, optional, but fabulous.
3 TBS muffin in a mug mix* See below.

tip mug onto a plate


Directions
Use a large coffee mug that will hold 12 – 16 oz (1 ½ – 2 cups of liquid)
Put ingredients into the mug in order listed. Whisk as you go.
Microwave for 1 ½ – 2 minutes until done.

gingerbead nirvana


Ingredients for the Muggin mix
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or white flour – your choice)
1 cup oats (I used quick oats.)
½ cup ground flax meal
½ cup wheat germ
3 TBS baking powder

For more recipes, check out the “Single Servings” category on the left of the recipes.

Breathe deeply. Ginger has many health advantages. Now you can have gingerbread for breakfast in a little guilt free muffin.

Other recipes you may enjoy from Nana Clare’s Kitchen:
Banana Nut Muggin – three ways

Chocolate Chip Muggin

Blueberry Almond Muggin
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Stir Fry Chicken and Cashews

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stir fry chicken and cashews

the first time ever I saw your face

Like many Americans, one of my favorite Asian dishes to order is Cashew Chicken. The owner of a local restaurant complained to me about this one day. “You don’t even look at menu, you just order Cashew Chicken.” Not true. Sometimes I order chicken with almonds. But she’s the one with the hot tray of food, so I didn’t want to argue with her.

To please her I ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan, which was delicious, but I missed my cashews. As soon as I got home I searched for a recipe to make my own Cashew Chicken. (Is this “passive-aggressive” behavior or “compulsion-to-please” behavior? Ah well, why name the neurosis? Just go with it…)

whisk broth mixture and set aside

peel and grate fresh ginger


saute veggies while chicken is resting


I found this recipe on “My Recipes” which is a website that includes the Eating Light folks. Not a bad idea, lower sodium and low fat. I’ve made this twice now and we’ve been very pleased with the results.

It looks like a lot of ingredients, but it goes together in minutes. If you have a bit more time, you can let the chicken soak in the wine sauce for a few minutes. You could even do this step in the morning and cover the chicken-happily-soaking-in-wine-sauce and refrigerate until you are ready to cook.

dry roast your cashews


First two- no three – tips:
• Rice – I make a pot of brown rice nearly every week. It heats up quickly in the microwave and can easily be dressed up to make rice pilaf or used plain with dishes like this one.
• Cashews – The recipe calls for dry roasted without salt. I purchased raw cashews and placed them on a clean, ungreased bar pan. I popped them into an oven at 300 degrees for about 7-9 minutes. Voila! Dry roasted nuts. I do this on a regular basis with walnuts too and then I keep them in a baggie in the fridge to adorn my morning oatmeal. Watch them so they don’t burn.
• Rest the chicken – Many recipes call for us to start browning chicken and then to let it rest. Apparently it helps the chicken be juicier and more tender. (I know I’m a lot more tender if I get a rest.) So just set it in a bowl for a few minutes.

Ingredients
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces.
3 TBS soy sauce, low-sodium, divided
2 TBS red wine or dry sherry
4 tsp corn starch, divided
½ cup chicken broth, low sodium
1 TBS honey
1 TBS sesame oil, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 stalks chopped celery
½ cup red bell pepper, chopped – or green pepper
1 TBS grated peeled fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 green onions, chopped
¼ cup dry roasted cashews

Directions
Combine 1 TBS soy sauce, wine and 2 tsp corn starch in a medium bowl. Add the chicken and stir to coat. Set it aside. (At this point, you could have a glass of wine or check e-mail, if you like. Or you could continue to cook. Just wanted to give you options.)

Combine the remaining soy sauce, corn starch, broth, and honey in a small bowl. Set aside.
Heat 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
Add chicken mixture to pan. Sauté for three minutes.
Remove chicken from pan to rest. (See Tip #3 above.)
Heat remaining oil in pan.
Add vegetables and sauté for two minutes.
Add ginger and garlic and sauté another minute.
Return chicken to pan. (We love a good reunion!)
Stir in broth-soy sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Cook another minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat.
Serve with raw green onions and cashews sprinkled on top.

The crunch of the cashews with the tender chicken will dance happily in your mouth. The green onions will play off the spices in the sauce. You, too, can now order something else when you eat at an Asian restaurant, because THIS will become your favorite cashew chicken. Enjoy!

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Ginger Snaps

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perfectly spiced

ginger snaps

How can you resist a cookie that is soulful and sweet and may help you breathe better? Well, OK, the breathing part is simply my observation – or excuse – for eating these. I can’t say for sure if eating these cookies will help you breathe better, but you won’t regret the experiment. (I’m fessing up so that I don’t find myself in the middle of a “60 Minutes” investigation.)

However, ginger is used in many cultures as both a spice and as medicine. But the most important thing is the taste and these ginger snap cookies have that in spades. I found the recipe on a food blog called “Cookie Talk”- http://cookie-talk.com/?s=ginger+snaps – and Tara-the-blogger found the recipe in an Alton Brown’s Good Eats 3 cookbook. I adapted it a bit. The original recipe called for grated fresh ginger in addition to all the ingredients I’ve listed below. I didn’t have any on hand, but ironically, I did have the crystallized – or sugared – ginger, which really made these special. That and the bold use of spices, including cardamom, of which I had limited knowledge. The kitchen dictionary at Food.com’s website says that it is used in both Scandinavian and East Indian cooking. http://www.food.com/library/cardamom-319

crystallized sugar pieces in different shapes


I admit I backed off the sugared ginger a bit, thinking it would be too much. But when they were done, I found myself looking for bits of it. Also, I needed these for several occasions, so I doubled the recipe. I’m so happy I did because it only made about 3 ½ dozen cookies. My cookies didn’t look as perfect as Tara’s, but she’s a trained pastry chef. However the results were really fabulous. Embrace the ginger, embrace the ginger, embrace….

Grandma Zolas tea cup and a ginger snap


I’m enjoying a cup of spicy tea (and eating two cookies!) as I’m writing this and I decided to use my Grandma Zola’s tea cup. I only have one, but I love using it now and then to remember all the wonderful times we had drinking tea, munching cookies and reading her poetry. She loved to write poetry and published it into her 80′s. She died at 99 years of age. Amazing.

Zoe begs for a cookie


Ingredients
2 ¾ cups flour
1 TBS baking soda
2 TBS ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground clove
1 tsp salt
1 ¾ cup dark brown sugar
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
½ cup molasses
2 large eggs
1 cup sugared or crystallized ginger, finely chopped

chop ginger into small pieces


plop dough onto parchment paper


Directions
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Whisk the flour and spices together in a bowl, set aside.
• Place brown sugar and butter in the mixing bowl and beat on low about 3 minutes, until fluffy.
• Add molasses and egg and beat another 2 minutes.
• Add crystallized ginger and stir to combine.
• Add the dry ingredients and mix just until blended.
• Use a 1 TB cookie scoop or spoon and drop the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
• Bake in the middle rack of the oven about 12 minutes for chewy cookies or 15 for crisp cookies.
• Cool on either a wire rack or brown paper.

cool on brown paper or wire racks


Tips:
I always do a test run on just one cookie so that I can check the timing or to see if there is enough flour. I was happy I did, as the first cookie spread out too much. I adjusted the recipe and a bit more flour is reflected in the amount above.
For my oven, 12 minutes gave me crisp ginger cookies with a bit of a soft middle, which is how I like them. Each oven is different.
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Lemon Gingersnaps

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lemon gingershaps


If you love gingersnaps, you’ll appreciate the subtle mix of the ginger and lemon.
I married the cookie monster. When my husband, Ken, and I were newlyweds, we ran a radio station in the Chippewa National Forest in Northern Minnesota. He was a farm kid who grew up in Southern Iowa and I was a city girl from Minneapolis, so it was a big change for both of us. We didn’t own a television and didn’t have a telephone, other than the one at the radio station, so we had lots of time for….talking. (You thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you?)

my mother-in-laws hand written recipe to me


Ken shared all kinds of stories about his childhood and it seemed to me that most of them involved cookies and raiding cookie jars. At some point, I wrote to his mother and asked for his favorite cookie recipe. She sent back this now worn sheet with the directions for Lemon Gingersnaps. Later that year she gave me a copy of her favorite cookbook – Kitchen Klatter, which also held the recipe for the cookies. What a wonderful gift. My own copy is now so worn that the cover fell off, but I still love the recipes. (And you can still find the cookbooks on eBay or Amazon.)

my 1975 cookbook


My mother-in-law, Grace, died in December, five years ago, at the age of 93. Thinking of her, I found the original recipe the other day. Finding a recipe in someone’s handwriting is always so special to me. I whipped these up yesterday to take to my Bible study group last night. Ken downed three before dinner!

These aren’t a traditional gingersnap. No molasses and they have a soft middle. But the light lemony flavor mixed with the ginger is wonderful. Perfect for a cold night – or any time.
I changed it slightly to add more whole wheat flour and a tad more ginger. My friends declared them delicious.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable shortening (The new versions are made of vegetable oil now.)
2 tsp lemon flavoring
2 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
Sugar for dipping – about ½ cup in a bowl

Directions
• Preheat oven to 375
• Lightly grease cookie sheets (I use 2 or 3 so one can be baking, while I prepare the next)
• Cream together the sugar, shortening, lemon and eggs. Beat well
• Sift dry ingredients together and add to the sugar, egg mixture.
• Stir just until blended. (never over mix flour or the cookies will be tough)

small scoop worked well


• Make little balls of dough that are about a tablespoon in size. (I used the smallest Pampered Chef scooper and it was perfect)
• Drop the dough balls into a bowl of sugar and roll them to coat.
• Place on cookie sheet two inches apart but do NOT flatten them. They will spread and crinkle.
• Bake 7-9 minutes.

roll dough balls in sugar


Tips:
• These will be a light color when they are done.
• Don’t overbake them or they will be hard.
• They should have a crisp outside with a soft inside.
• You can use all ww pastry flour or all regular flour – your choice.

a sea of sweetness

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