Category: Baking

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Cranberry Orange Scones

I baked the other day. Clearly a wise choice during a sugar withdrawal.

I’ve taken to keeping a batch of muffins in the freezer for breakfast. It’s win win. The girls get a ‘good’ breakfast without having to cook on a school day. Wow I sound awful! It’s just that baking in the midst of a school morning wrangle sounds kind of like a root canal.

Mise en place
Mise en place

Now they’ve learned to expect variety at breakfast so I need to step up my muffin game!  I have a great chocolate chip muffin, but I need other options. I’ve tried a few lemon muffins but without success. Gotta keep looking!

Combining cranberries eggs and cream - this looks DISGUSTING!
Combining cranberries, eggs, and cream – this looks DISGUSTING!

I wanted to make cranberry orange muffins but my search for a recipe landed me in a scone. Of course I had to go out 3 separate times to get the ingredients. Oh well. I do enjoy a good cran-orange scone. Oh wait, I can’t. Not for 42 more days. Ugh.

Now the fun part - getting messy!
Now the fun part – getting messy!

I don’t even know if they’re any good! That’s right – can you believe it? I didn’t even taste it. But at least it smells and looks good. I love how you can see the bits of orange zest in the dough.

This is how it is to bake with the little - flour everywhere.
This is how it is to bake with the Little – flour everywhere.

The Little loves to help in the kitchen. Both girls have accumulated their own gear – aprons, whisks, chef caps, the whole nine. Kneading the dough was going to be messy so I may as well let her participate, right?

Painting on the milk - look how serious she is!
Painting on the milk – look how serious she is!

Luckily the girls liked the scones, they had some this morning. Since they’re going into the freezer, I suppose I can decide whether I like them on my next cheat day. I wonder if I can talk the Husband into today being a cheat day??

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Withdrawal is REAL

Discovering how many things secretly have sugar is about as a fun seeing the calorie count at a bakery counter!  I’m fine most of the time. Except at dinner when a sip of wine might be nice. Or after the girls are in bed and my sweet tooth is at its worst. Or when that afternoon slump calls for a tiny nibble and even the healthy snacks have sugar. Or… and you see how I’m faring so far.

A few days into this fitness challenge and let’s just make it more difficult, hmm?

  1. Bake scones for the girls’ breakfast
  2. Plan a birthday party – the Big turns 7 next week
  3. Peruse cake recipes and try not to drool
  4. Attend a school function. At a Brewery.
  5. Dinner with new friends
  6. Prep for birthday week (confetti pancakes and mixers for a Bubble Beverage Bar)
  7. Sunday picnic with my BFF – that NEVER involves bubbles or sugar or bourbon. (Insert dramatic Tina Fey level eye roll here)

And that’s just next week! Thank goodness we agreed to preset cheat days – we won’t earn that point for that day, but I think it’s worth it, don’t you? Let’s be realistic. Tell me you wouldn’t eat cake for your kid’s birthday. I won’t believe you!