Cinnamon Bun Muffins (Gluten Free, Low Carb)

I have been getting lots of requests for more Special Diet recipes (low carb, gluten free, vegan, etc.)  So this one is for you!  This recipe is low carb and gluten free due to the use of the almond meal.  The use of honey or maple syrup makes it low on the glycemic index as well, meaning that your body will break it down faster instead of storing the sugars like when using granulated white sugar does. 

But most importantly, they are SO, SO yummy!  These muffins have tons of cinnamon, making your home smell like heaven while baking.  The almond meal gives a nice nutty flavor that blends everything together beautifully.  Even if you aren't concerned about any special diets, you would still fully enjoy these muffins. Our whole family just loved them.  Thank you Comfy Belly for introducing us to this great recipe!

Cinnamon Bun Muffins (Gluten Free, Low Carb)
recipe courtesy Comfy Belly

1/2 cup of yogurt
1/4 cup of honey (or maple syrup)
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups of blanched almond flour
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

Cinnamon Topping Ingredients 
2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons of honey (or maple syrup)
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted (ghee or coconut butter will work too)
1/4 cup of chopped walnuts (optional; or other nut)

Preheat oven to 310 degrees F.

Combine all the wet muffin ingredients into a bowl and blend well with a spoon. Add the dry muffin ingredients and blend well with a spoon. Place cupcake liners in a baking pan, and fill the liners halfway with batter.

Blend all the topping ingredients well. Add about a tablespoon of topping to the center of each muffin. Now put another scoop of batter on top of each muffin until the batter just about reaches the top. Add nuts now if your adding them to the top of the muffin. Evenly distribute the remaining topping over the top of each muffin. Optionally, use a toothpick to poke at the top of each muffin to allow some topping to drip into the batter.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick placed in the center of a muffin comes out clean and the tops are starting to brown. Cool and enjoy!

Store for a few days covered, or in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

Don't forget to enter my 

Giveaway for (6) packs of See-Through Sticky Notes 

by Avery Office Supplies for one lucky winner!  

click on the link to make your entry and to read all the details for this great prize!

I linked up on Sweets For a Saturday #43. Come find some other delicious sweet things :)

*GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!* Avery See-Through Sticky Notes Review and a GIVEAWAY!

"Imagine what you can do with Avery Sticky Notes and what schools can do with ½ Million Box Tops coupons!"

This is the question that Danae of Avery Office Products asked me the other day.  My first thought was "Well considering I use sticky notes all over my cookbooks and magazines for those I Seriously Need To Try recipes", that is an easy one!!!  Take a look for yourself.  This stack here on my counter are the cookbooks I am using right now.  Look at all of those colorful papers sticking out the tops of my cookbooks......

My other thought was "wait a minute, did you say ½ Million Box Tops?!!"  As a mom of a child who's school collects these little things -that is a HUGE prize.  Jackson goes to a private, nonprofit school with no funding of the community.  Something like this would be amazing for them to be presented.  What a wonderfully awesome, awesome gift.  

So when Avery asked if I would like to review their new product Avery® See-Through Sticky Notes and also run an extra special giveaway for all of you wonderful readers in conjunction to their own Mark the Spot campaign, I jumped at the chance!  

So at first appearance they are really nice.  They have a great feel to them, smooth, and silky- you know a ball-point pen would write really nice on them.  Although they are a little tricky to separate (probably my only complaint) once placed they looked so cool!  I love so much how you can easily see right through them.  And the backing sticky is good too.  I stuck, pealed, restuck, pealed and stuck again; and yet they still hold strong.  They didn't loose adhesive or start to curl at the edges (oh how I hate that!).  

....see how the traditional post-it, my old faithful, completely covers up and hides all the words beneath it.  But the new fancy-pants Avery sticky notes are completely transparent.  There is absolutely no need to remove the note to read the recipe under it.  Love it!

I am notorious for writing all over my cookbooks.  I like to take notes in the margins: good recipe or not, added this, removed that, etc.  But in my brand new cookbooks, the first few notes are always the hardest to make because well, they are so pretty!  With these new sticky notes, I can use those to makes my comments and not worry about ruining my nice, new book.  I also noticed that my writing doesn't smear when rubbed.  So my handwritten notes stay easily readable.  

I also found that in cooking magazines where there is a lot of content in a small space, these sticky notes were wonderful for working as a highlighter, showcasing the information I found most useful- as well as writing on for reminders of later projects.  

Over all I think these guys are great. Although thin, they almost have a velum or plastic-y feel to them making them seem much sturdier then their paper counter-part. You can see how the paper post-its have curled over time and heavy use...  I haven't owned these new Avery post-its long enough to know if they will also bend in time.  We shall wait and see.  But I definitely give these guys a thumbs up.  They are my go-to for page-marking from now on!

So here is the exciting news!  

Twenty-thousand people who register for their Avery® Sticky Notes Mark the Spot Sweepstakes on Facebook will randomly be selected to win a FREE pack of Avery® See-Through Sticky Notes. Five of those winners will be randomly selected to receive 100,000 Box Tops coupons (valued at $10,000) that will be applied to a school of their choice. The selected schools of the “Avery® Sticky Notes Mark the Spot” promotion will be presented with credit for the 100,000 Box Tops for Education®.

Sound good to you?!

Well all you have to do is go to the Avery Facebook page and sign up to win a free pack of Sticky Notes and then choose the school you’d like the money to go to should you win. Pretty simple and it’s a great cause! Invite your friends and you also get to print off a coupon for $1.00 off your next Avery Sticky Notes purchase!

*GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!*
Avery Dennison has generously donated (6) packs of See-Through Sticky Notes for one lucky winner! To enter: Just mention in comments before midnight, Oct 23rd what you would use your sticky notes for. A random winner will be selected and notified via email shortly thereafter. The winner will then have 48 hours to claim their prize.

To earn extra entries, you may do one or all of the following. Each one counts as an extra chance to win but you must leave a separate comment letting me know what you did for each one.

Subscribe to My Retro Kitchen with Google Friend Connect.
Follow My Retro Kitchen on Twitter.
Follow Avery on Twitter.
Like My Retro Kitchen on Facebook.
Like Avery on Facebook.

This giveaway is open to US addresses. Good luck!


Disclosure: This post was written for Avery Dennison who provided the complimentary item for review & giveaway. All opinions are 100% mine and not influenced in any way.

Weekly Meal Plan

Do any of you do it?  I didn't used to.  For a long time I was a Fly By the Seat of My Pants kind of girl.  I would hear about my best friend's plan and think she was crazy.  But the more I thought about it, the more it made perfect sense.  Especially when you have kids and a budget. Many of you ask if I really cook dinner every single night.  And yes I do.  Even before I made a meal plan I did.  But we we were definitely more tempted to do take out because I didn't have a quick, handy list of ideas hanging on my fridge and all of the needed ingredients stocked in my pantry and fridge.  If you are trying to keep a budget you know that getting take out isn't a good way to save money (or good on the waistline either!)  Sometimes my day gets busy and cooking a full meal seems unappealing.  Like last night.  On a whim I decided to paint some of the playroom (flat paint and kids are not a good combination!)  I also needed to bake bread since we were fresh out.  By the time dinnertime rolled around I was in no mood to cook.  So salami sandwiches it was.  And everyone was fine with that!  Now I have one extra meal that will carry over to the following 14 day meal plan.  Works out all around.

So this is what I do.  Every two weeks I sit down the day before payday and make up a list of 14 meals that we would like to eat over the course of the two weeks.  Then on that Friday I go shopping for only the ingredients needed for these particular meals (plus all the essentials like milk, cheese, flour, toilet paper, etc.) This is a huge money saver because you don't buy as many odds and ends without a reason for them.  How often do you look at your pantry and fridge and see tons of stuff inside but have a heck of a time figuring out what goes with what to make a full meal?  This used to happen to me all the time and always got me so frustrated.  Creating a plan and shopping accordingly ends this cycle. I don't break my meal plan down Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, etc.  I originally tried it this way and it seemed like I never was in the mood for whatever I designated for a specific day.  So my meal plan looks more like a menu.  Each morning I look at the list of meals and decide what to make that night so I know what I need to take out of the freezer, etc.

Two weeks may seem like a big commitment to you, so if this is the case then try planing for just one week at a time.  I used to go grocery shopping every week.  But in an attempt to save money and be more prepared Scott has been challenging me to only shop once a week.  The first time I did this was awful!  I totally had a hard time planning that far in advance.  But I think I am finally getting a better system down and am forgetting less and less things.

Kalli from the blog My Life as a Kalli suggested that we post our weekly meal plans to help each other find new ideas and stay creative in the kitchen.  So here is mine:

14 Day Meal Plan Menu 
(week of October 14-27th)

• Sauteed Chicken Thighs with a Greek style Israeli couscous (think artichokes, tomatoes and olives....mmmmmmm)
• Salmon Burgers and garlic-y oven fries
• Loaded Baked Potatoes and a salad (I made these on Sunday night and topped the potatoes with leftover BLT Dip- one word amazing.  I might actually like it even better as a potato topping then a dip.  Gotta love having dual uses for recipes!  Super yummy)
• Tacos, Classic Black Beans and Spanish rice
• Pork Chops, homemade apple sauce and roasted butternut squash
• Caramelized Onion, Pumpkin and Ricotta Tortellini's with a Walnut and Sage Brown Butter Sauce (I already made these ahead and froze them.  So all I have to do is cook the torellini's for 2-3 minutes and make the brown butter sauce.  Dinner on the table in 10 minutes!)
• Mac 'n Cheese and hotdogs (Turkey Pepper Jack Brats for the grown-ups!)  
• Traditional Spaghetti with garlic toast and a side salad
• Meatloaf, buttery noodles and broccoli
• Breakfast for Dinner (whatever I feel like at the time.  Often it is just dippy eggs, bacon and toast. But sometimes I do a french toast casserole, Potato Puffs or a frittata (here is a  good one).  This night is pretty flexible, EASY and everyone loves it.) 
• Chorizo & Butternut Soup with Herbed Tomato and Cheese Quesadillas (This is a Rachael Ray recipe that I am super excited to try out.  I'll let you know how it is!)  
• Chef Salads and butter bread
• Homemade Pizza and a side salad (thinking iceburg lettuce wedges- yum!)  
• Roasted Spaghetti Squash "Pasta" and rolls

I hope this gave you all some new ideas!  And if you have any you would like to share please leave them in the comments!