Starting the year off right

Multigrain and Cherry Muffins
Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter’s Cookbook Copyright 2003

1 cup seven-grain cereal
1 cup dried tart cherries
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup cooking oil
1 ¼ cups buttermilk or sour milk I used sour milk (lemon juice + milk)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, finely chopped, or 1 teaspoon ground ginger I used ground ginger
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 slightly beaten egg

1. Grease 12 muffin-top cups or sixteen 2 ½-inch muffin cups; set aside. In a medium bowl combine seven-grain cereal, dried cherries, brown sugar, and oil. Pour buttermilk over cereal mixture; let stand for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine whole wheat flour, baking powder, ginger, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; set aside.
3. Stir beaten egg into buttermilk mixture. Add buttermilk mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Spoon batter into prepared muffin-top cups or muffin cups, filling each muffin-top cup almost full or each muffin cup ¾ ways full.
4. Bake in a 400 degree oven until golden. (Allow about 12 minutes for muffin-top cups or 15 to 18 minutes for 2 ½-inch muffins.) Cool in cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from cups; serve warm.
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I thought I would start the year out right and make an antioxidant rich food for Sweetnick's ARF Tuesdays. I bought these dried cherries to use in the White Fudge but decided against that. I think they were better suited in these muffins. I had the seven-grain cereal in the freezer for a while since I bought it to use as a hot cereal and really didn't care for it.

These muffins had good flavor, but they were a little bit gritty from the cereal. Maybe it would be better to soak the cereal mixture overnight instead of just 30 minutes, like with the Overnight Oatmeal Muffins. They were still pretty good, you know, for a 'healthy' baked good. With the cherries, the grains and the ginger, these muffins are practically guilt-free.

Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter’s Cookbook is definitely one of my favorite cookbooks. I think this is the ninth recipe I've tried from it and I have a mile-long list of other recipes I want to try from this book. The book has about 500 recipes, each one with a picture. There are recipes for practically everything - brunches, kid's favorites, appetizers, breads, entrées, desserts, sandwiches, etc. I think anyone who is into healthy eating would love this book. I think they could have given it a better name - something focusing on the healthiness of the food. This book isn't just for 'dieters'.

Blast From the Past: Memphis-Style Pork Chops from November 2006, from this same cookbook. I'm making these again this week. I've been craving them.

Question of the Day: Would you buy this book as a gift or would you be afraid that the recipient might be offended by the term 'dieter'?