Thursday, October 8

Fall Party Treats & Using Pressed Leaves

What to do with all those leaves you and your kids collected on the weekend hike? Why, press, dry and decorate, of course! I love using nature for seasonal decorating. We brought a tray of treats over to cheer up a friend the other day: Since she's a healthy, ingredient-reader kind of girl, we baked oatmeal chocolate chip muffins and decorated them with a little more melted dark chocolate -- spelling out her name with one letter on top of each muffin:
Our freshly-pressed red maple and yellow oak leaves gave our tray a festive, fun, fall feeling. :-)And, of course, my little artist decorated a rainbow-colored leaf card to go along with our treats!
Here's the recipe I used for
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins:
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 c buttermilk
1/3 cup oil/applesauce
1 t vanilla
1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t soda
1 t baking powder
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
~ 6 oz chocolate chips

In one bowl mix egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla with fork. Set aside.
In another bowl mix flour, salt, soda, baking powder, oatmeal and brown sugar by hand.
Stir liquid mixture into dry ingredients.
Mix until blended.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Fill greased muffin cups and bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes.
Makes 12 muffins.

(Recipe adapted from my great friend Maralyn Mathias's cookbook Around the World with Annie.)

6 comments:

Molly Anne said...

Those leaves look lovely (how's that for alliteration?) as a tray liner. So bright and beautiful, I bet that made Jennifer's day. :)

slip4 said...

These muffins look wonderful! How much vanilla?

jeanne @ Inspiring Ideas said...

Oh - great catch and yes, they are good! That's 1 teaspoon vanilla! Thanks! :-)

Love the alliteration Molly! I have quite a stack of pressed leaves and a few more projects for them as well!

The Summer Kitchen Girls said...

This is such a cute idea! We'll have to make some soon!

Corrie Howe said...

Yum! These look great! And I love the idea of using leaves to line the tray. Beautiful!

Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest!

tammy said...

Oh yummy and how thoughtful! You are teaching your daughter a wonderful thing by having her be a part of cheering up a friend. Love the recipe and leaf idea. Truly inspiring to me. :)

thanks for stopping by my blog this morning.

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