PSA: Sunflower seeds have shells!!

Really, I promise you they do!  I must be the only adult on earth who didn't just know this - and ofcourse it resulted in a (just marginally amusing) mishap in the kitchen.

A few days ago I spotted this recipe for cinnamon apple pie muffins at this awesome blog.  I knew I wanted to make them, but we didn't have any trail mix - so I figured, no problem, I'll make my own.  I looked through the kitchen and threw some stuff together, almonds, walnuts, raisins, dried cranberries, and yes, you guessed it....sunflower seeds!!  Ofcourse I had no idea that the seeds needed to come OUT of their shells (how did I not know this?? Mum, I blame you!!).  So the little guy & I merrily went on our way baking our delicious muffins - he kept putting his hands in the bowl ofcourse and tasting everything (and making a glorious mess).  He looks so cute in his little apron, and he actually enjoyed baking (I usually am trying to keep him out of the kitchen so I can get stuff done!).  Once the muffins were done they looked really good (if I do say so myself), so we barely waited for them to cool before trying one. 

Not 2 seconds later the little guy is spitting his out, like spraying it everywhere and wiping his tongue with his hands.  I thought he was crazy.....until I tried one.  There is nothing quite like being speared in the roof of your mouth by a sunflower seed shell!!  They are sharp, and quite unpleasant, lol!  Ofcourse the muffins were otherwise delicious so I proceeded to break mine apart and carefully pull each sunflower seed out so that I could eat the of the rest of it.  So please learn from my mistake, and don't add complete sunflower seeds to your baking!!  I'm just terrible in the kitchen, really.  The big girl and my husband have been taking the mickey all afternoon :)

Well, maybe I'm not completely terrible.  I redeemed myself a little with the kids by making Strawberry Applesauce.  They loved it!  All I did was add equal parts applesauce (unsweetened) and fresh strawberries to the blender and blend them all up.  It was delicious!  I've looked at the flavoured applesauces in the grocery store and almost all of them have high fructose corn syrup, this is a great way to avoid that!