Using my wheat.

I have been working on finding and making recipes that use %100 whole wheat... no white flour or mostly whole wheat with only a little white flour. Here are 2 that my family particularly loves!! They are a huge hit and whenever I make them, the kids get so excited. The first recipe is called "Whole Wheat-Blueberry Brownies" - don't let the name scare you away. When I first made this recipe to take to a friends house, I told NO ONE that it was made entirely from wheat, or that it included blueberries. The entire batch was eaten up in record time... honest!! Everyone, kids and adults alike, ate and ate until they were gone!! So, I try to make a batch of these brownies every Saturday, and then instead of putting it in a 8x8 pan, I put it in mini muffin tins. After the tiny bite sized brownie bites are cool, I put them in a tupperware container in the freezer. For school lunches I usually pull 3 of them out, put them in a little lunch tupperware and send them in my kids's lunchbox to school. The kids love to eat them for dessert and I don't feel too guilty about what I am giving them in their lunches.

The next recipe is called "Whole Wheat Banana Muffins"..... even my daughter who HATES banana's eats these muffins with abandon!!!! I usually double this recipe because everyone loves them so much. I make one batch of regular sized muffins and one batch of mini muffins. Then, I freeze the mini ones and put those in my kids' backpack for snack time at school each day. The big ones get eaten when they get home from school or after dinner.... we are lucky if my batch of banana muffins makes it to Friday. We take them on the boat, to soccer, to the park- anywhere. They are so easy to grab and go.

So.... give them a try! And if any of you have any other whole wheat recipes that you love so much... let me know. I love to try new things.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Brownies

1 and 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 stick butter

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350.

Put blueberries in a saucepan and cook for 10 minutes. Mash with a potato masher to turn into a syrup like liquid.

Add butter and brown sugar to saucepan. remove from heat and let the butter melt and brown sugar dissolve.

Add the applesauce, cocoa, bkg pwdr, salt, vanilla and eggs. Combine well. Then add flour.

Bake at 350... not sure the amount of time, for our mini cupcakes it takes about 10-12 minutes... but in an 8x8 pan I am sure it will be longer.....

Banana Chocolate chip muffins

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup white flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

2 tsp baking pwdr

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

5 ripe bananas

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup applesauce

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup room temperature butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 cup mini or regular chocolate chips (you could use nuts instead if you want)

preheat oven to 350.

in a bowl combine flours, bking pwdr, soda and salt.

in another bowl mash the banana's, add milk, and vanilla.

in a mixer beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. add banana mixture and flour mixture, alternating, to the sugar mixture.

Add chocolate chips, or nuts, and put in muffin tins. Bake 18-23 minutes for large or 10-15 minutes for the minis. Enjoy.