Why is it we have more obesity than we ever had many years ago? My Mom didn't buy packaged cookies or cakes or mac and cheese or much of anything that wasn't home-made. Consequently, there weren't any preservatives or cheap ingredients for fillers. Nobody heard of Sucaryl, Saccharin, Sweet n Low and the rest of the fake, chemical sugars. It is funny now how the new tree-huggers tell us old folks how we ruined the world when we never had bottled water, we took our pop bottles back to the store and they washed them and re-used them. They didn't make chairs out of them. They were glass. The same with the milk bottle. Kids made extra cash by asking to take the neighbours wire hangers back to the cleaners for 2 cents each.
So now that you get my point, at this time of year I make honey cakes for my nearest and dearest by request only. It is an old recipe and people actually wait with anticipation to receive the home-made honey cake. It doesn't taste anything similar to the store bought cake anywhere. Mine has orange juice and orange rind and coffee and brandy in it. I save the old 3 1/2" x 5" recipe card in a box with some of my really ancient recipes and some were pretty healthy I might add. I am not saying that the honey cake is diet but it is an annual treat that even the most seasoned dieter will have as an indulgence.
My Mom never made iced cakes. I don't either. Not that I don't like them. I love them, from the cheapest vanilla birthday cake from Loblaw's to the most decadent. I love them all. That was perhaps my downfall. As I grew up and served bought cakes, I would eat the icing and my Mom liked the inners better. I remember my sister-in-law, Penny saying how she had raped a cake by eating all the icing off of it in one sitting. But the reason I don't make the soft cakes or cake mixes is because I prefer to eat something with substance like honey cake, apple crumble, bran muffins and the like.
While looking in my old box of recipes I found some of my really old favourites and they were very healthy. Please don't get turned off by the title of this one. This recipe is called Zucchini and Wheat Germ Muffins. They are surprisingly tasty and not too sweet and would be perfect for breakfast with a little jam or butter.
I have no idea what the point count is but I would guess 4 for a regular sized muffin and 1 for a mini-muffin.
ZUCCHINI AND WHEAT GERM MUFFINS
375 F - for 12 x 2 1/2" muffins 20-25 minutes
- for 48 x 1" muffins 12 minutes
2 cups of flour
1 cup of shredded zucchini (tightly packed)
3/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
3/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 egg, beaten
In a large bowl mix flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking powder and zucchini in that order. Make sure the grated zucchini is covered in the flour mixture. Set aside. In a small bowl beat egg, milk, oil until frothy and hand mix it into the flour mixture just to blend. Don't overwork it. Spoon into greased muffin cups and bake into a preheated 375 degree oven. 20-25 minutes for regular muffins and 12 minutes for mini muffins.
Well, I am proud to say I made 48 mini muffins and ate two of them. I also made 12 honey cakes today and 2 have already been given away. Another old recipe I found in the little box was ginger beef stir-fry. I already have the meat marinating in the fridge and am looking forward to that for dinner tonight. I will serve it on rice but of course I will have a minimal amout of the rice. Again, it is an old recipe and I don't have a calorie or point count so I am just going to limit myself to 4 ouces of beef mixture. This old-fashioned stir-fry doesn't have the exotic Chinese vegetables now available, just plain old spinach, green onion, ginger, garlic and mushrooms and I think that will just suit me fine.
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