Cranberry Orange Muffins

So yesterday I was babysitting, and a favorite activity for one of the little girls (Elise) is baking muffins. Yes, she's 3. And, honest to god, she helps A LOT. She has mixed all of the ingredients more times than I can count, and she also loves pouring things into the bowl, and my favorite...cracking the egg (though she won't touch the actual inside of the egg, hehe).

Now yesterday Elise had the most awful cough I've heard in a while. And as a reminder, she's 3, and she's stirring the ingredients for the muffins. So where do you think the coughing was directed? Yup...right into the batter. Yuuuuuum.... I mean ew.

I decided that at 425 degrees all the germs would be killed, plus if I'm going to get sick from her, heck I'll get sick whether I eat the muffins or not. And I was really excited about these muffins. Anyway, promptly after we put the muffins in the oven, Elise was asleep on the couch. So I continued the baking activities with Evan, a cute but rascal-y 18 month-old.

So there's not much to do at this point...the muffins are in the oven, there's plenty of time, and Evan's shirt is off so we go upstairs to get a new one. We come downstairs, plenty of time still, try to put the shirt on but it's a no-go. Ok, no shirt. Wait...apparently no pants either. Great. Alright so here's the point when Evan tries to pull his diaper off. Fine. Ok, diaper off. He's starting to use the potty, so presumably he won't pee all over the floor. Hmmm...those muffins should be done...uhhhhhh wait. Evan is making all kinds of squeaky noises...I run for the potty but now he's PEEING ALL OVER THE FLOOR.

At this point I'm running for some towels, yelling for Evan to stop (which of course he can't do) and trying to get him to sit on the potty before it's too late, which it already is. I throw some baby wipes on the floor...wait Sarah, what is that exactly going to do? I recover and find some paper towels, but now Evan is bawling. Pee all over the floor, crying kid.

So I quickly pick up the miserable (naked, presumably wet
with urine) child and rock him around the room. Now, I smell burnt something...oh, burnt muffins. Of course.

Despite disasters, the second batch of muffins came out delicious, (actually I even ate the burnt ones...I kind of don't mind burnt things) and we ate them up quick.

So here's my recipe...gotta love cranberry & orange flavors together!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oatmeal (mine was quick cook)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
grated rind of most of an orange
1 large egg
3/4 cup vanilla yogurt + 1/2 cup milk
3 tsp juice from the orange you just zested!
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp applesauce
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients into a bowl and blend thoroughly. In a separate large bowl, stir together egg, yogurt & milk, orange juice, butter & applesauce. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir until just blended. Add cranberries & again stir until just blended. Batter will look somewhat runny. Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven. Makes about 12 regular sized muffins.

So I fully intended to take more pictures today when it was bright and sunny, but unfortunately...we ate them all. I completely forgot. Enjoy the cute pictures of Evan enjoying the muffins instead...his cute poses should be enough of a reason to try them!