To Die For Blueberry Muffins

Here's the weekly recipe, which my cute friend from work, Jessica Peterson, gets credit for--she discovered it on allrecipes.com and says it is wonderful! Her tip: save some cash by buying frozen blueberries instead of fresh ones. Thanks, Jess!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Delta

This past weekend was wonderful because of conference, but also because I got to go to a concert I was really excited about! It was with Delta Goodrem—an Australian vocalist who has outsold the Beatles! You've probably heard her new song "In This Life". She has an incredible voice and talent for songwriting. I fell in love with her music when I was living Australia.

I brought her a little bag of American goodies: some candy, lip gloss, and a Book of Mormon. After listening to her lyrics and thinking about it I just felt like it would be a good move. When I handed her the bag, she saw the Book of Mormon and said, “I’d like to read that!” When I was talking with her, she was so down to earth and genuine. It was definitely a night to remember & made me even more excited to go on my trip to Australia next month!

Tornado!

Last night I was taking a walk with my mom outside by her house in Draper and it started getting really windy. We spotted a couple of budding tornadoes in the distance, and Clay ran out of the house and led us to safety—he had us all grab on to some wooden beams in the basement and we held on for dear life while all the tornadoes passed us.

Okay so by now you’ve probably realized that was a dream. It got me wide awake this morning at 5:30 a.m. and I couldn’t fall back asleep—I couldn’t stop thinking of my family and how important it is to me. I got up and happened upon an article in the most recent Ensign Magazine called Protecting Our Families in the Last Days by Elder Richard J. Maynes of the Seventy (click on the title of the article to go to it).

Sometimes it's easy to forget that my family and the gospel are the most important things in life and I need to show more love to my family and always make time for studying the gospel--even when it's so hard to find time to do that. Luckily my crazy dream and that inspiring article helped me put things back into perspective. Wait, I think I see a tornado forming in the distance!

The Best Pumpkin Bread Ever

Happy October! In honor of the pumpkins poppin' up everywhere, this week's recipe is a layered pumpkin loaf. It's pretty simple to make, and since I didn't have pumpkin pie spice (which you can buy at any grocery store)I just threw in some cinnamon and nutmeg. You can also add chocolate chips if you want. It is delicious! Get excited for some awesome Halloween treats I'll be posting throughout the month.

Layered Pumpkin Loaf recipe:

Prep Time:
20 min

Total Time:
1 hr 25 min

Makes:
1 loaf or 16 servings, one slice each

What You Need

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

4 egg whites, divided

1/2 cup fat-free milk

1/4 cup canola oil

2 cups flour

2-1/2 tsp. CALUMET Baking Powder

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp. salt

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, softened

Make It

PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease a nonstick 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Mix pumpkin, 1 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 3 of the egg whites, milk and oil in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt; stir just until moistened. Set aside. Beat Neufchatel cheese, remaining 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar and the remaining egg white with wire whisk until well blended.

SPOON half of the pumpkin batter into prepared pan; spoon Neufchatel cheese mixture evenly over the batter. Cover with remaining pumpkin batter.

BAKE 1 hour to 1 hour 5 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife or thin spatula around edges of pan to loosen bread; cool in pan on wire rack 10 min. Remove bread from pan to wire rack; cool completely.

How to Store the Bread

Wrap cooled bread in foil or plastic wrap. Store in refrigerator up to 4 days.

Make this Dessert & Make Instant Friends

I love eating desserts, so I love making them! I've decided to share weekly recipes and help you and your family put on a few extra pounds. This week's recipe: Mini Oreo Surprise Cupcakes! Just click on the link. They were a huge hit. You can also do some variations like adding York peppermint patties or Nutter Butters in the middle or using brownie mix instead of cake mix. Enjoy ...

Just Blogging to Say I’m Not Blogging …

My home computer is broken so my blog is being neglected. Wow—I never thought I’d say that! Here’s an update in a nutshell: we moved upstairs in Jen and Mike’s house since they are in Arizona now. We love the extra room and especially the sunshine that didn’t used to reach us in the basement abyss! Clay started assistant coaching for the BYU men’s soccer team and he loves it, although it’s hard for him to not play. I am absolutely loving my job at Utah Valley Magazine. And we are going to Australia in less than two months! I can’t wait to take Clay there and show him where I used to live and have him meet my friends there. Happy first day of fall!

Re-living my Wedding Day

Isn’t it every married woman’s dream to re-live her wedding day?
… or at least parts of it?

Well that’s exactly what I got to do the other day with my friends and sisters. Angela, a MAC makeup artist, two hairstylists from Taylor Andrews Academy, and Jessie from Jessie Alexis Photography got us all ready for a bridal photo shoot. Fun times, intense makeup! It was fun to be in my dress again and have bridals taken with my sisters (including Rachel, who wore Jeni’s wedding dress).