Snacks for the Brood & Co.

I must confess - my blog is still in the infant stage but after seeing on my blog roll a posting from Raising Olives about linking with snacks for a crowd - I wanted to do a double post today so I could participate! 

Usually, our crowd that needs snacks are my own brood - YES, they can eat me out of house and home once the Bigs (Spillz/C-funk) get home from school and with Wookeese going through a growth spurt I believe! - or their friends. 

This week I tried to be prepared!  Aside from the usual cut/whole fruit, veggies, cheese chunks, I decided to do some batches of muffins.  Makes a great after-school snack, take to school snack, or a curb-pregnancy-craving snack!  No matter the flavor - WE LOVE MUFFINS!

I did two kinds this week.  A basic chocolate chip muffin and a cranberry orange muffin (recipe below).  I did a dozen of each and many have already disappeared! . . . . may be back to the kitchen by the end of the week!  :) 

Cranberry Orange Muffins:
2 C Flour
3/4 C Sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C dried cranberries
1 egg
3/4 C orange juice
1/4 C vegetable oil
1 tsp grated orange rind*
      *I didn't have oranges on hand to use the rind and they still came out orange-y with just the OJ

• Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Mix wet ingredients and then incorporate into the dry ingredients - making sure not to over mix; just til moistened.
• Spoon into 12 muffin cups in muffin pan (or greased muffin pan - like I had to do since I ran out of muffin paper liners!).  Sprinkle tops with extra sugar and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until slightly golden on top.
• Enjoy!!

Also, made a batch of cranberry & chocolate chip granola bars cut into bite size pieces to also keep hungry tummies at bay until dinner time!   I love this recipe because it can be tweaked with any type of goodies you have on hand and/or have a tasting for.  :)

*Sigh* . . . . now to see how long these snacks last in the house. . . . .

**Linked to Raising Olives blog: