Whole-Wheat Banana-Strawberry Muffins

Well, would you look at that. I made something that wasn't an America's Test Kitchen recipe!

Mimi's Giant Whole-Wheat Banana-Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (some reviewers said the recipe was too cinnamon-y, so I halved this since sometimes I find too much cinnamon flavor distracting)
  
• 1 cup frozen sliced strawberries (I used the fresh strawberries I had going bad on my counter, which was the inspiration to try this recipe. I cut them into fairly small chunks - like half inch-ish cubes - per suggestions of some reviewers.)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 12 large muffin cups, or line with paper liners. (I used regular sized muffin cups and filled them pretty much all the way. They don't rise a ton. Ended up with 16 muffins total.)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, applesauce, oil, brown sugar, vanilla and bananas. Combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon; Stir into the banana mixture until moistened. Stir in the strawberries until evenly distributed. Spoon batter into muffin cups until completely filled.
3. Bake for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when pressed lightly. Cool before removing from the muffin tins.

Makeover Morning Glory Muffins

In my quest to not purchase "sugar coated cocoa bombs" for breakfast, I've been trying to make different muffins, etc. and also incorporate more whole grains and stuff into our diet. I came across these muffins and made them last night, they are delicious! And they have whole wheat flour, flax seed, apples, carrots, lots of good stuff for you. I want to toy around with the recipe to see if I can make it lower calorie, but as it is one muffin was enough to leave me stuffed so it's okay that it was 250 calories (because normally I eat ten bowls of sugar coated cocoa bombs-- which is like a thousand calories. ) So give these a try, the recipe is very forgiving.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup ground flax seed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 egg whites
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 medium tart apple, peeled and grated

1. In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In another bowl, beat the egg whites, egg, applesauce, orange juice, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the carrots, pecans, coconut, raisins and apple.
2. Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray or use foil liners; fill three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

My notes: I didn't have orange juice, so I used the juice from a can of mandarin oranges (Bentley wolfs down mandarin oranges), I did not use the coconut or raisins, but I put in some craisins (normally not a big fan of craisins but I loved it in these muffins!), I also did not mix in the nuts, but rather sprinkled some on top of half of the muffins (so I could let Bentley eat some of the non nut kind) oh and also, I used three eggs instead of one egg and four whites (since two egg whites is equivalent to one egg). Oh and I think I put in more carrots than what it called for (if I am going to get my food processor dirty I get it dirty for lots of carrots, not just a few).

Definitely worth your while. The best "healthy" muffin we've made yet!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. ground (canned) pumpkin
1/2 c. cooking oil
1/3 c. chocolate chips

Mix together. Fill muffin cups and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!!

Six week bran muffins

I made these today and I think they are quite delicious for how healthy they are ; ) I got the recipe from allrecipes.com, the original recipe makes like a million (I am not joking) muffins. I guess the batter keeps in the fridge for six weeks so you can make fresh muffins every couple days or whatever. I scaled it back and it made about 24 muffins.

• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup whole bran cereal
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1-1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups whole bran cereal

1. In a large bowl, add boiling water to the first cup of bran cereal, cool.
2. Cream shortening or margarine, sugar, eggs, and buttermilk together. Add to bran mixture. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the 2 cups of bran cereal. Stir only until moistened.
3. Bake in a preheated 425 degree F (220 degree C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

I added a splash of vanilla and a little molasses (because really, when else am I going to use molasses). Someone also suggested topping with nuts or course sugar so they look fancy, I added some chopped nuts on top and it was great!

Enjoy! And then enjoy again for six weeks!