ORANGE BRAN FLAX MUFFINS

I made some of my favorite muffins the other day and wanted to share with you. They are so healthy, you can freeze them, pop them in the microwave and they turn out great. Charli loves them and that makes me feel good.

Fresh oranges give these muffins great flavor!

1 1/2 c. oat bran

1c. flour

1c. ground flaxseed

1c. wheat bran

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 oranges, quartered and seeded

1 c. brown sugar

1c. buttermilk

1/2 c. canola oil

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 c. golden raisins (optional)

*Preheat oven to 375 F. Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine oat bran, flour, flaxseed, wheat bran, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

*In a blender or food processor, combine oranges, brown sugar, buttermilk, oil, eggs and baking soda. Blend well.

*Pour orange mixture into dry ingredients. Mix until well blended. Stir in raisins.

*Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Makes 24 muffins.

Per muffin: 186 cal, 4 g pro, 30 g carb, 8 g fat, 1 g sat fat, 18 mg chol, 3 g fiber, 140 mg sodium, 4 g flaxseed

A note from the recipe: We know this muffin is higher in fat than we recommend. However nearly half the fat is alpha-linolenic acid-the plant version of omega-3, which is sorely missing in most diets. We think it's worth finding room for this muffin.

SNOW DAY!!!

We woke up to snow this morning and we probably have an inch altogether. Now I know that is not much to some peoples standards but 2 inches is usually our max. So any snow is fun for us.
I had to go out and take some pics of our house while it was snowing.
I bundled up Charli and her friend Keegan, so they could go play in the white stuff. Keegan had to borrow Charli's clothes. Sorry about the pink pants Kelly and Todd. He didn't seem to mind.
Charli licking the snow off the slide.
And of course we had to make snow angels.

3 YEARS IN REVIEW

Charli's Birth-Day. Under an hour old. This is one of my favorite pictures from the hospital.
Charli at 8 months old. Sitting up and wearing clips in her hair!!!
One year pictures from the Picture People. Standing up!!!
Our 2 year old, September 2006
Our big 3 year old. September 2007

Birthday Pictures!!!

I celebrated my birthday with some friends on the 13th. We went to dinner at Basque Norte in Chico and they brought me 30 balloons. It was so many balloons it was crazy!!! Kelly and I wore our knee high leather boots to dinner. It was so fun and we all had a great time.
Here is me trying to get all 30 balloons to fit into our car. They actually all fit and Charli loved sitting next to them on the way home.
I tried to get some pictures of Charli and I on my actual birthday but here is what I got!!! I guess that is what you get when you have a 3 year old and they want to be silly!!!

Charli and the dog vest!!!

So last night Charli got creative and put on Will's dog vest. Will was our Miniature Pinscher's vest. On a sad note, Will past away in late July, he was 13 and was hit by a car. He has been very missed since he left us. Anyways it was so hilarious to see Charli come out of my room with Will's vest on and that she was actually able to get in it and it some how looked like a mini dress. She then proceeded to put on my knee high leather boots. So funny and of course she just hammed it up for the camera. Another side note, Chad got me those boots for Christmas on Ebay. He bought them through Ebay Express and they were 99 cents and shipping was $11.00. I am not joking. I love them and they are so nice, I have always secretly wanted a pair of black boots. My husband did good.

Charli's First Haircut!!!

So Charli got her first haircut and didn't even know it!!! I had been contemplating wether or not to cut her hair. Actually I really only wanted to trim it. Her hair takes after Chad and I, we both have fine hair and not much of it. So as a result Charli got the same type of hair. And because I have never cut or trimed it, it was becoming pretty wispy and scragly.

I asked my mom to come over and she was willing to trim it. She used to cut my hair when I was growing up. So I had full comfidence that she would do a good job and Charli would actually cooperate with her. My mom cut off about 2 inches and it has done wonders for Charli's hair. It actually curls under naturally at the bottom and there seems to be some life to her hair. We saved her hair by sticking it to a piece of scotch tape. That peice of memorabilia will be going in the scrapbook.

So this is the damage we discovered in our neighbors yard on Friday. We had up to 60 mph winds and for whatever reason the tree in our yard couldn't withstand the wind. This tree completely missed our addition, and our neighbors house behind us. This tree was to be Charli's future tree house. It fell into the chain link fence that was right next to it, took out two panels of it, and landed in our neighbors yard. The tip of the tree hit our neighbors garage, enough to let water drip in. We have AAA insurance and they have been wonderful, our neighbor on the other hand has not. I will not be surprised if he trys to sue us for whatever reason. Friday was really a crazy day for us and a lot of other people as well. I have never seen winds that strong in this area. Some of our house wrap and roof wrap came off our addition but Chad was able to go out and secure it back on. our neighbor in front of us had a chimney fire and they had no idea about it. I called 911 while Chad drove over there to let them know. They have a wood stove so they just thougth that they had a good fire going and really did not know there was a flames coming out of their chimney. Then a couple houses down the chimney fire house, a tree fell right through a house and completely took out the roof and fell into the house. Those poor people, we don't know them but their house is not liveable. I can't even imagine the total cost of the damage that was caused. We never lost power but almost everyone around us did and for many days. Over all I feel very blessed that we are all okay and were not hurt. Children are truely amazing to me, Charli never seemed fazed by any of the chaos. She just kept on going like her normal self.