Apple Coffee Cake Muffins

I made muffins over the weekend. Not just any muffins – apple coffee cake muffins!  OMG, these are hands down the best muffins I have ever made.  They taste just like coffee cake to me.  

I made a batch on Friday night to take to my bosses daughters field hockey game on Saturday for them to take home.  I have a 9 muffin holder so there were three leftover.  Hannah ate one and said “Mom, did you write this recipe down?!”  See, I’ve been known to mix up a recipe that Hannah loves, and then not writing down all the steps, trying to recreate it, and never coming close.  

Just don’t ask Hannah about the black bean soup incident of 2007.  It was a black bean soup recipe I made on the fly, pre-blog, and Hannah declared it the best black bean soup she’s ever had, and I’ve yet to recreate that recipe.

I brought the calories and points down on this recipe by using only 4 tablespoons of butter in the recipe – 3 in the batter and one mixed with the streusel topping.  I shred the butter with my cheese grater too – I think it mixes in the batter better that way.  All you need is a bowl and a fork to mix together.

I lately have been using parchment paper when I make muffins.  One, because I think the muffins look pretty after they are cooked, and second, because I have a great, but old muffin tin, and with the parchment paper, the muffins are easy to remove from the tin.  

See how pretty they look?!

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Hannah and Jacob spent the night downtown on Saturday.  It was nice to get up yesterday and start getting bizzy in my kitchen early – usually I wait until they wake up, because I am nice like that. 😀

I made a pot of spicy black bean soup using two cups of vegetables that I had in the fridge that needed to be used up.  A printable recipe will post later this week.

This is a perfect recipe to use for meal prep using last weeks veggies. 

I am still on the delicata squash bandwagon!  So many people have made my #delirings on Instagram – makes me so happy when someone tags me that they made one of my recipes.  

Below I made delicata squash gnocchi!  Holy balls was this delicious.  I am such a tease, this recipe will post later this week too.

Sunday morning breakfast?  Pumpkin zucchini pancakes with a one point apple pie filling topping.  #swoon.  Yep, you’ll have to wait for that recipe too – the pancakes are only two points and 113 calories too!

Saturday night I had a bistro dinner night in.  I made more delicata rings, except this time I added a tablespoon of Lipton Onion Soup Mix – I know – the irony isn’t lost on me that I added onion flavor to delicata squash rings. 😀  Have you tried the fried or baked version yet? You can find the recipe here.

I had such a fun time at the field hockey game on Saturday.  They won!  

Another action shot.  

I posted this picture on my Instastory over the weekend, and someone said “don’t you mean 1996 for the year you graduated?!”  Um, thank you that you thought I was 40, but no, I am 50.   It is hard to believe that picture was taken 32 years ago!

My bosses youngest daughter is so fricken cute – she asked to take a selfie with me during the game.  So sweet.  She also wanted to know if I would come to her soccer games. 😀

Drum roll please. . . last week while I used the WW points as a guideline, I used My Fitness Pal to track my calories last week.  My average calorie intake was around 1550 calories.  My lowest intake was 1250, and my highest day was 1720.   

Another thing I did different last week? Not eat like an asshole the day of and after weigh in.  I’ve done the hamster wheel too long – do great during M-F, weigh in Saturday morning and think “I can eat whatever I want because I have the whole week to work it off!” 

I drank 100 ounces of water a day – which is still a struggle for me, but I got er done.

I completed #dryseptember!  Except for my friend Tia’s husband’s birthday (which I already knew I would have a few cocktails – on the day before Labor Day) I gave up my beloved wine all month.

I don’t have a working scale at home, so I had no idea I would have that big of a loss.  But it just goes to show that you sometimes have to wait a week or two for the scale to reward you with your efforts. 

But I have to say that knowing the actual calories of some things, totally switched my mindset.  Like my vanilla bean scones – I maybe would have given them a second thought to “spend” five points on a small scone, but they are only 108 calories.  Yes, could I have had a healthier option of an apple and some peanut butter for the same amount of calories? That answer would be yes.  

But I love scones.  I ate the scone, enjoyed it and moved on!  What a novel concept!  It’s like my mind is switching to “lifestyle” vs. “diet” and it’s made the mental part of this journey so much easier.

I cannot believe today is October 1 already.  With dry September I can have my wine again!  But maybe I won’t.  I lost 6.8 pounds in September.  If I keep that pace up, I could be 153 on NYE – or 13 pounds from my goal of 140 pounds!  

I do know that I will have at least one Octoberfest beer this month – those are too good to pass up this time of year.  

Happy Monday friends!  And make these apple coffee cake muffins – you can thank me later. 😀

Make it a great day!