Carrots From The Garden and The Best "Mummins" Ever

Okay, as promised, here is my extra-long post about the best muffins (or "mummins," in Nick-speak) ever. Even if you're not into recipes, please scroll down to the bottom, where I've included a little video clip of Nick chatting with me about his tasty snack.

I finally got some carrots from my garden a few weeks ago. In fact, I got a nice sized crop for a small garden. Next year I want to plant more. Nick loved the carrots, but he especially liked the long tails they had.

My husband, however, thought that these carrots were lumpy and misshapen. He wasn't too keen on eating them raw. I guess they did look a little silly. You see, where they grow the carrots in California, the soil is sandy and the carrots turn out perfectly shaped. Here in Illinois, our soil is thicker and thus the carrots are lumpier. See what I mean?

Well, crooked or not, we were eating those carrots! So I found a recipe for carrot cream cheese muffins, and I decided to alter it significantly to make it at least a little healthier. I'm sure the original recipe would be delicious, but I wanted muffins with enough fiber to have for breakfast. I'm also pretty sensitive to sugar, so I tried to reduce it without eliminating it entirely. I do some baking with Splenda, but I always leave some sugar in it or the recipe won't brown correctly. I think these muffins are a good balance of nice and naughty.

What I came up with was a delicious miracle. These muffins are quite delectable, and I've lowered the sugar as well as significantly upping the fiber. Nick absolutely loves them, and he calls them "Mummins."

I'm going to share the recipe here, because about four people have asked me for this particular recipe. Trust me, this one is worth the trouble. I even doubled the recipe last week to make another huge batch, and all of the mummins were gone in just three days.

Carrot Mummins with Cream Cheese


In one huge bowl… mix together the dry ingredients…

• 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ t. baking soda
• 1T. vital wheat gluten
• 1 t. baking powder
• ½ t. salt
• 1 ½ t. cinnamon
• ½ t. nutmeg
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup baking Splenda

In another bowl, mix together:

• 3 eggs
• 1 T. ground flax seed
• 1/3 cup of melted butter (unsalted)
• 2/3 cup applesauce

Then add in:
• 1 ½ cups shredded carrots (I'd suggest a food processor for this.)

• ½ cup walnuts, chopped finely
Now take ½ cup of raisins and soak them in very hot water for about ten minutes. Drain, and add them to the carrot mixture.

For the cream cheese filling, get a completely separate bowl and stir together until smooth:

• 4+ ounces of Neufchatel cream cheese
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 t. vanilla
• ½ cup sugar

Pour the carrot mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir to mix. (Don’t stir too much or the muffins will be tough.)

These “mummins” have a filling, and you can just put the cream cheese mixture (about 1T on top of each muffin if you'd like. I did my mummins half with the filling inside and half with the filling on top. Personally, I like the filling inside better. When the filling is on top, sometimes it bubbles over and you lose a bit of the cream cheese. I don't like to lose even a little bit of that filling. Yum!

If you want the filling inside, you have to follow these steps to make your mummins:

1. Fill each muffin cup about ½ full with the muffin mixture.
2. Add a tablespoon or so of the cream cheese mixture.
3. Put just enough muffin mixture on top of the cream cheese to cover the filling.

Bake the mummins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes. Smaller muffins bake more quickly, and larger ones may take a little longer than 20 minutes.

You’ll know they’re done when you can stick a toothpick into one and it comes out clean. (Stick the toothpick in a non-cream cheesy part.) Enjoy your mummins. I know Nick sure loved his!

Now, here's some video of Nick enjoying his mummin. I rather enjoy these little snippets of toddler conversation. When I got my master's degree (ESL concentration), I had to take a lot of classes about how people learn language. Linguistics taught me about the stages of learning a first language, and it is very fascinating to see Nick go through those stages. He's a chatty little guy. Hungry, too.  :)

Wordless Wednesday: Captions, Please!

Tall Ships, or as Nick says, "Boats!"

Last weekend we took a trip downtown to see the Tall Ships Festival at Navy Pier. My mother and stepfather came with us, and we had a great time. Thanks to Groupon, we go our tickets for only $10 per person. That helped to counteract the joys of the $25 parking fee. Even though it was extremely hot, the ships were really neat and Nick loved seeing them. He kept pointing and repeating, "Boat!" "Water!" "Birdie!"

We all look a little overheated from waiting in line, but the boats we toured were worth the wait. I would've loved to be able to go sailing on one of these. Maybe next year.

Nick loved having the chance to see his grandparents. In fact, the day after our downtown trip, Nick kept asking for "Papa?!" That's his name for Grandpa Ray. Nick even got to ride on Grandpa's shoulders.

The views downtown were absolutely gorgeous, and even though it was hot, it was cooler at the end of the pier and we got some nice breeze. It was neat to see Navy Pier all filled with these old fashioned boats. I'm kind of a history buff (my undergraduate minor was history), and I enjoyed walking by all of the boats. I still wouldn't have liked climbing up the rigging, though. I'm afraid of heights.

After we were done with the boats, Nick got to ride the carousel with his daddy. He really liked that--so much so that when we saw another carousel this week (as we drove past in the car), he started screaming, "Horsie Fun!" over and over again.

Nick loved the fountains in the inside area of Navy Pier. He was just fascinated by the water, and his Grandma Linda let him get very close. I believe Nick was trying to figure out how the fountain worked. I was just glad his cast was off so he didn't have to worry about getting it wet. He can now play with water anytime he wants.  :)

We also stopped for ice cream, which Nick also loved, of course. We should all take as much joy in simple things as little kids do. It makes me smile to see his face when he gets a special treat.

We loved the Tall Ships festival, and Greg is already saying he wants to go again next year. Oh, and Nick? He just says, "Boats!"

Busy, Busy, Busy

Since school started, I have so much to post about and no time to write. I love the beginning of the school year, because there's so much promise. I also actually miss my students, and it's so nice to see them again, even if it's just in passing in the hallway. But I'm already missing the lazy days of summer, now that the craziness of the school schedule has started. I swear, there are some evenings when I do not sit down until it's time for Nick's bedtime, and that's only because he sits in my lap while we read stories. My school has been very hot and humid this week, so I come home every day and take a shower. Hopefully it'll cool down some next week.

Next week, I'm going to post about our trip to Navy Pier to see the Tall Ships. I also have a cool post about the best carrot muffin in the world, and a garden update. But for today, I'm going to talk about Nick and how he was busy with his Grandma Toni.

He loves to get into the laundry basket; in fact, he likes pushing his toys around in it as well. We have tons of developmentally appropriate toys, and yet my son prefers to play with the broom, a laundry basket, and an old toothbrush. Ah, well, at least he's easily entertained. Plus, he's mostly stopped eating the crayons, which is a definite improvement in maturity. Either that or he's figured out that they don't taste very good.

Next is a picture of him coloring with Grandma Toni and I. Lately Nick wants to color for about an hour each day. He doesn't make anything recognizable yet, just scribbles. But he physically puts crayons into our hands and begs us to draw. He likes when we draw shapes so that he can name them and then scribble on them. So far he can recognize (and name) our oh-so sophisticated drawings of the following things: square, house, socks, kitty, circle, star, moon, heart, car, and door.

Nick calls his crayons "colors!" and he just about flipped out on Tuesday when I took him into the store to buy groceries and decided to get an extra box of washable crayons. Poor kid nearly dislocated his arm trying to grab them from the back of the cart. I tried to convince him that he couldn't possibly color while in the cart, but to no avail. Luckily his arms are still short, and he got to color the picture above as soon as he got home.

Nick seems to have inherited his love for a brand new box of crayons from me. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I stockpile new boxes in my classroom, and when I color with my students, I always pull out my own "special" box of sharp new crayons. Of course, I'm such a softie that when my students beg to use my special crayons, I always let them, and then I have to start over again next time with a new box.

Wordless Wednesday: Captions, Please!

Bubble Fun

Nick and I have been loving having his Grandma Toni here during the week. Last week, she stayed from Tuesday evening to Thursday evening, and we had lots of time for fun stuff like bubbles. I cannot believe how much easier parenting is when there are more pairs of hands around to help. There are two people to blow the bubbles! Do you know how lightheaded one can get while blowing bubbles continuously for 30 minutes or more? Two blowers are much better. 

Nick really wants to blow his own bubbles, and he will keep putting the bubble wand into the soap solution again and again. Unfortunately, he doesn't get the idea of "blowing." Instead, he simply sucks on the bubble wand.

Nick seems disappointed when sucking on the bubble wand does not elicit any bubbles. You'd think he would dislike the taste of soap, but it doesn't seem to bother him. I guess I won't be washing this kid's mouth out wiht soap. Nick would think it was a treat!

The actual bubbles themselves are very exciting to Nick, and he loves to chase them. But he always tries to steal the bubble wands, even if he has his own. I guess he figures that if the bubbles are working, that bubble wand must be special.

Here's to more bubble fun before it gets too cold outside!  :)

Language Development Update

Earlier this year, I was concerned enough about Nick's talking (or lack therof) that I went and had a developmental evaulation done. Since Nick had only about three words at fifteen months, I wanted to make sure everything was okay, and our pediatrician recommended that we have one done. The evaluation showed no significant delays, but they did tell me that he was about three months behind in language. Not enough to worry about, but just something to watch.

Well, Nick is certainly not behind now. I cannot even count the words he knows. Since July, his language development has really exploded. I think he's learned at least 100 words just in the last month. He remembers them, too. For example, we had him at the public pool today, and this boy hadn't been in a pool (or a sprinkler) in nearly a month because of his broken arm. On the way there, I told him we were going to go swimming. "Swimming water?" he asked. "Yup," I replied. When we got there, he knew right away what it was. "Pool!," he exclaimed as we walked towards it. "Water swimming pool! Down!" (The "down" meant he wanted me to put him down so he could go into the water.

I took the video below right before bedtime this evening. Nick was in an especially talkative mood, and he kept playing with his toy refrigerator. I was astounded that he knew the names of everything inside, so I quickly grabbed the camera to get some proof. I even got him to repeat most of the words on command.

Also, it'll be really nice to be able to remember later what his talking sounded like when it first really took off. I can remember this time last year, when Nick was learning to crawl, I took lots of video of him scooting across the floor on his butt and "helping" me cook. I think I'd totally forget about these times without the videos.

Lately I can actually have a little conversation with Nick, and he responds. He can follow directions, sometimes even two-step directions. Nick loves reading stories, and will go through the same book again and again, looking for the things he can name and repeating the parts he knows. He can also recognize a circle, a square, a star, and a heart. Not too shabby for a kid who was behind just a few months ago. 

 

It is still, however, impossible to reason with this one-year old. But he does respond to bribery (quite well, actually). Thus the advent of the "diaper cookie." All I have to say is "diaper cookie" and he knows what to do. I break one of those little ginger cookies in half, and give him half. He immediately gets still and eats his cookie while I tackle the diaper situation. Then, if he's been still with "no kicking," he gets the other half. Is this good parenting? I have no idea, but it works for me. I got the idea from Harvey Karp's book, "The Happiest Toddler on the Block." I'm cool with anything that makes my son sit quietly while I change his diaper, with no kicking or flinging of the diaper's contents.