Green Smoothie Muffins

I might be running a little late for your St. Patrick's breakfast, but these are still definitely worth making. I have to confess I was put off by their potential color (mine did not come out as green as the muffins I saw on Pinterest, so beware that yours might be greener than this), but these are so delicious that every single one of my kids wanted more more more until there were no more. Which is nice since they contain three fruit/vegetables and are 100% whole wheat. Also, a few handfuls of chocolate chips never hurt anything.

Green Smoothie Muffins
adapted from I Can Teach My Child
makes 12 large muffins
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Bake time: 20 minutes
Cost: $2.85
bananas: .45, strawberries: .60, spinach: .30, whole wheat flour: .30, sugar: .15, egg: .10, canola oil: .10, chocolate chips: .75, other stuff: .10

3 very ripe bananas
8 strawberries
2 C baby spinach
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour (preferably white)
3/4 sugar
1 egg
1/4 C canola oil
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2-1 C chocolate chips, optional

Combine bananas, strawberries, and spinach in food processor or blender. Blend until smooth.

In a separate blow combine whole wheat flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Then beat in the egg and canola oil. This will leave you with a somewhat crumbly batter. Now add your "green smoothie" and mix.

Mix in chocolate chips if using.

Pour into 12 muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let cool and enjoy.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

This is kind of a picture re-do, although when I went to my original post--one of the first posted to this blog, I realized I had done something I often did in that first year of blogging--I'd tinkered with my go-to recipe to give you both a decadent version of what I usually make and a spare "healthy" version of what I make. I still hope that that is useful to some, but--truly--wouldn't it be nice to have the actual recipe I actually make every time I actually bake pumpkin muffins. Yeah, probably. Some decent pictures wouldn't hurt either.

So, here you go, the recipe I make every time I make pumpkin muffins/bread.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Makes 24 muffins
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20-30 minutes
Cost: $4.40 (or about $.18/muffin)
butter: 1.00, sugar: .25, eggs: .40, flour: .25, whole wheat flour: .25, pumpkin: 1.00, chocolate chips: 1.00, other seasonings: .30(ish--kind of guessing there; sorry)

A few notes:
-You can use cheap pumpkin. Usually this works fine, but if your pumpkin puree is very cheap (or homemade), it will have a higher water content and these will taste a little more sponge-y than usual--still great, but not as perfect. For cheap pumpkin, I like Aldi's brand--it does NOT give me spongy texture.
-For the wheat flour--Sometimes I use up to 1 1/2 C (and scale the white flour back accordingly), so that's your call. If I use too much, these get pretty dense.

1 C (2 sticks) butter, softened significantly
1 3/4 C sugar (or even go for 2 C if you're feeling feisty)
4 eggs
2 1/2 C white flour
1 C whole wheat flour (white whole wheat works best)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1-2 C chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs. Add the whole wheat flour. Add half the pumpkin. Add 1 1/2 C white flour and all remaining dry ingredients (except chocolate chips if you count that as dry). Add remaining pumpkin. Add remaining cup of white flour. Mix in chocolate chips.

Bake at 325 for 20-30 minutes (mine are usually done at around 26 minutes or so) in muffin tins. Test with a toothpick (or the more barbaric butter knife) to make sure the middles are done.

Allow to cool.

Note: This can be made into two loaves if you wish. You'll cook for 50-60 minutes I believe.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

6-Week Muffins

(These mini-muffins were made from batter approximately 5 weeks old.)

Game changer: A batter for muffins that will last 6 weeks in your refrigerator. 

You know what that means, right? It means that you can make a huge amount of batter and then every morning, drag your sorry, lazy behind out of bed and, while still half asleep, pour batter into muffin tins and then 20 minutes later when you've finally realized you're awake because possibly you've taken a shower, but more likely because your kids keep talking with the dulcet tones of children respectful of the morning pauses and silences--by which I mean yelling every word they say as though you were on a different continent. When this happens, all of the sudden (with no significant effort on your part) hot, sweet breakfast will come forth out of the oven like a miracle of goodness. 

That is what I'm talking about. 

I originally heard about these at a church event. We were given a recipe and I almost fell out of my chair and then one of my friends leaned over and said, "You can do that with my muffin recipe too." I love her muffins and they are already on this blog. So I thought I'd start with those babies. And sure enough, it worked. We probably could have gone through our batter in much less than 6 weeks, but I intentionally kept it in the fridge to make sure nothing nasty was going to grow on it. Nothing did. And we ate these muffins and they were delicious. 

I was sure the leavening would just poof out and not work after the first day, and I will say, they didn't have quite as much rise by week six as they did for the first batch, but they were still very respectably muffin-like and not leaden bricks of dough. 

Here's the recipe. (Note: This original recipe can make muffins or pancakes, but the pancakes do NOT work for 6 weeks--they just wind up really really flat if you try.) It makes quite a lot by itself, but if you double it, you'll have a super lot. Use what you want, tightly COVER the rest, and make muffins whenever you like. 

Magic. 

One Bowl Oat Muffins

January has arrived in all its negative degreed glory. My kids have been home the last couple of days due to "unusually low temperatures" (Really school system? Truly I think that the superintendent had just planned a romantic rendezvous with someone and then when we only got a centimeter of snow, she had to come up with some other reason to cancel school--"uh, well, it is awfully cold outside, unusually so--eureka, that's it-- romantic rendezvous here I come.") Anyway, it has been cold and we've had people home and hungry. What better thing to do than make muffins.

I thought I had these on my blog.

I would have bet money on it, but I have trolled my way around it several times and can't find this recipe anywhere. Which is just wrong because these are some of the most delicious, most simple, most adaptable, and just generally best muffins out there. So now I will give you this recipe. And happy January because it's also low in sugar (though it doesn't go all out and announce that fact) and low in cost ($.08/muffin--that's what I'm talking about January), and did I mention infinitely adaptable.

One Bowl Oat Muffins
adapted from Simple Bites
makes 12 muffins
prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10-12 minutes
Cost: $1.00 (without add ins)
milk: .13, oats: .10, brown sugar: .07, butter: .50, flour: .15, other stuff: .05

1 C milk
1 tsp white vinegar
1 C oats (rolled recommended, but quick work too and are better if you've got a child with a texture aversion)
1 egg
1/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C butter, melted (oil works too, but butter is tastier)
1 C plus 2 Tbsp flour (I use mostly white, but sub in 1/4 C of whole wheat)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
add ins if you choose (we usually go for 1/2 C chocolate chips)

Combine Milk and vinegar (note: If you've got a cup of buttermilk, you can use that in place of the milk and vinegar.) Add oats and let sit for about 5 minutes (with quick oats, you can just give it a quick stir and you're good to go).

Mix in egg. Add brown sugar and melted butter. Mix.

Combine remaining dry ingredients and stir them in just until combined.

Add add ins if using.

Pour into 12 greased or lined muffin tins.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes (slightly longer if you've added fresh fruit as an add in).

Potential add ins:
raspberries
apples
nuts
dried cranberries
blueberries
rhubarb
coconut
dates
carrots

You can go to Simple Bites for exact measurements on the add ins if you're interested.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Blueberry Apple Almond Whole Grain Muffins

This month for Secret Recipe Club, I had Bizzy Bakes. Up in the upper left corner, Bizzy has a whole section donated to muffins. I always figure if someone's got a specialty, you should got with that. So I did.

These were great. They had nuts, fruit, and whole grains. I subbed out the brown rice flour because I didn't have it. I subbed part whole wheat, part all-purpose, and a bit of barley flour I had lying around. You could do all white or all wheat if you wish. These also have oatmeal. Which just made them really really well rounded. Bizzy made these with blueberries, but mentioned in the post that they had originally had apples. I thought I'd use apples and blueberries. I did not regret it. Next time I make them, I think I'll even throw in a half cup of shredded zucchini. Yes I will.

It also called for cardamom, which I love and forgot and was sad about. But if you don't love it, know that these are still good without it.

Blueberry Apple Almond Whole Grain Muffins
adapted from Bizzy Bakes
makes about 18 large muffins
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes
Cost: $3.50 or about $.20/muffin
milk: .10, eggs: .20, sugar: .15, oil: .10, blueberries: 1.00, apple: .50, whole wheat flour: .30, flour: .10, barley flour: .30, almonds: .75

Note: Muffins with whole wheat risk being dry. Buttermilk will help them to be a little moister, and as I said in the above comments, I'd throw in 1/2 C shredded zucchini, which would also keep these from risking dryness.

2/3 C milk or buttermilk
2 eggs
2/3 C canola oil
1 C sugar
1 c old fashioned oats
1/2 C barley flour
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 scant Tbsp cardamom, optional
1 C blueberries
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1/2 C almonds, chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare pans. Chop apples and almonds.

Combine milk, eggs, oil and sugar.

Combine oats, flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom in another bowl.

Add dry ingredients to wet ones. Then add fruits and almonds. Mix until just combined. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a fork comes out with a few moist crumbs. If you're going to err, underbake rather than overbake. An overbaked healthy muffin is a very dry muffin.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Whole Wheat Strawberry Donuts

These donuts are baked, not fried (this does mean that you'll need one of those Donut Pans.
If you don't have one, you can easily make these into muffins (which, surprise, is what they really are--only in donutty shapes and with a glaze). Incidentally, we also made several that were mini muffins which turned out cute little donut-hole looking things that were super fun.

My only caveat is that they don't come out all nice and pink, like I was hoping they would. If you want pinky pink strawberry donuts you're going to have to use some food coloring in either the donut or glaze. We skipped it and even my three young girls lived to tell the tale.

Whole What Strawberry Doughnuts
adapted from Mary Quite Contrary Bakes
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 9 minutes or until you stick a fork in and no batter comes out (this will be longer for muffins since they are not as flat)
Cost: $1.65 or about $.16/donut
whole wheat flour: .10, flour: .05, sugar: .05, milk: .05, egg: .10, butter: .05, strawberries: .75, powdered sugar: .40, other stuff: .10

1/2 C whole wheat flour (preferably white whole wheat flour)
1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C milk
1 egg
1 Tbsp melted butter
1/2-3/4 C strawberries
2 tsp strawberry jam
1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

Glaze:
3 C powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C cold milk

Preheat oven to 425. Grease donut pan.

Combine strawberries and strawberry jam. Puree it in small blender.

Combine dry ingredients. Add milk, egg, butter, and maple syrup. Stir until combined. Stir in strawberry mixture, starting with 1/2 and only adding more if needed. Batter should be wet, but not crazy runny.

Plop it into donut molds. This makes about 10, so if you've just got a 6-donut mold, you'll need to do it twice or do muffins or mini-muffins (donutty holes) like we did.

To make glaze: Stir all ingredients until smooth. If you had a little extra strawberry stuff, you can add that too (we had a little extra and added it).

When donuts are cooled, dip them into glaze, set on wax paper and let glaze set.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Strawberry Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips

This seems so weird since it is hailing/slushing as I write, but strawberry season is on its way. I'm getting a head start by working through my last few bags of frozen strawberries from last summer.

Normally I dismiss recipes that bake strawberries. They are clearly popular because I see a whole bunch of them racing around cyberspace, but they're just not my thing. Generally when you bake strawberries into a bread, muffin, cookie, or whatever, they turn into a squishy (booger-esque) blob that at some point you are forced to bite into (say it isn't so). Which is why I didn't re-pin this recipe when I saw it on my sister's board. But then she had to go and rave about it, so then I had to go and try it. I did, however, cut my strawberries into tiny bits--a move I did not regret. Next time I might even go and puree the derned things. But even with my un-love of baked strawberries, these really were butt-kickingly good. (I did add chocolate chips to half of them; we have that issue around here). Kip ate one just because they were there and he was hungry. He ate it not expecting to like it due to the fact that it was not brown and chocolatey looking like most things he likes. Then he proceeded to eat a whole bunch. I'm not gonna lie: it surprised me. My picky husband snarfing down on the banana, strawberry, yogurt muffins. Will wonders never cease?

And while I'm discussing Kip and, tangentially, chocolate (they always go together, don't they), I should say that the chocolate chips really added a bit of a wow factor to these as well as provide a little bite to an otherwise smooth muffin (oh, I just love the bite of a chocolate chip in a smooth muffin, yes I do).

You know what else? These are even better the second day.

There's still quite a bit of experimenting I wish to do. I want to try them with whole wheat (or part whole wheat). I want to add some oats to experiment with texture. I want to puree the strawberries. But for now, I give you this: a very solid, surprisingly delicious recipe that will let you love some of the bounty the coming spring promises.

Strawberry Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips 
adapted from Closet Cooking
Makes 12 large muffins (or 12 regular muffins and 8 random mini muffins, which is what I ended up with)
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 12-15 minutes
Cost: $3.20 or about $.25 per muffin
flour: .20, sugar: .20, bananas: .40, eggs: .10, yogurt: .40, strawberries: 1.00, chocolate chips: .90)

1 3/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C brown sugar
3 large, rip bananas (mashed)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C plain yogurt (recipe called for Greek; I used regular, but it was full-fat)
1 C strawberries, sliced
1 C chocolate chips, optional but nice

Mix flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. (Note: I should confess that I ALWAYS skip this step and just toss the dry ingredients in after my wet ones are ready.)

Mash your bananas. You can leave the strawberries sliced, but if you--like me--don't like the squishies, I recommend chopping them into tiny bits or even pureeing them.

Mix brown sugar, bananas, strawberries, eggs, vanilla, and yogurt in a large bowl.

Add dry to wet. Mix until combined. Add 1 C chocolate chips and mix until combined.

Drop into muffin tins and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (You can also make a large 9x5 inch loaf if you'd prefer--cook 50-60 minutes.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

After a break for December, it's time for another Secret Recipe Club post. I've spent the last 2 weeks sick and this is a nice way for me to get back on the horse.

This month I had the blog No Reason Needed. It wasn't hard for me to choose which recipe I wanted either.  She had a recipe for Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. I've had this on my 'learn to' list for, quite literally, years.

Why, you may ask? Why the hesitation. Well....and now it's time for my confession--I've never actually eaten them from scratch. I've always only made them from a box or--even worse--bought them package-wrapped from a store. And that I haven't done for years. It started seeming, well, kind of unwholesome and all, and at least half of my family does not like poppyseeds (you'll remember that they have issues with texture of any kind, right. Telling them that poppyseeds felt like sprinkles in your teeth didn't help either). So I didn't want to wind up with a whole batch of sugar-laden muffins that I'd wind up eating myself.

Looking at No Reason Needed's post, I hesitated again, although for the exact opposite reasons. Half whole wheat, limited sugar, limited fat. Would I even like them? Was I in for a big disappointment?

Heck no. These were great. Moist, flavorful, and they had the texture of those delightful popping poppyseeds. Ah, texture how I miss you when trying to cook for my picky family. They were (as No Reason Needed noted in her post) not intensely lemony. I think that if you had some lemon extract, 1/2-1 tsp of that wouldn't hurt if you wanted a more lemony muffin.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
adapted from No Reason Needed
Makes 12 muffins
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Cost: $.1.50 or about $.12/muffin
whole wheat flour: .20, flour: .10, sugar: .07, poppy seeds: .05, lemon: .50, yogurt: .45, egg: .10, other stuff: .03

Note: The original recipe called for 8 oz lemon yogurt. I only had plain yogurt, so I subbed in more lemon juice and a bit more sugar to compensate. If you happen to have lemon yogurt on hand you can use it and reduce your sugar to 1/3 C and reduce your lemon juice to 2 Tbsp. If lemon yogurt is hard to find, just follow the recipe below.

1 C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat pastry flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
1/2 C sugar
2 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp grated lemon rind
3 Tbsp lemon juice
8 oz plain yogurt
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flours, sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

In a smaller bowl, combine oil, lemon rind, lemon juice, yogurt and egg. Mix that all together.

Add wet to dry and mix until just incorporated.

Pour into muffins liners and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Self Frosting Nutella and Pumpkin Muffins

Guess what? I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year. And while I always enjoy hosting it, I'm kind of enjoying the break too. But it's made me a little lazy. I've barely been shopping at all the last couple of weeks, I haven't been obsessively perusing the blogosphere looking for fun new recipes or tips for perfect turkeys, I haven't even reviewed my notes from last year's big day, and I haven't sent my sister's their annual packet of fresh herbs because we'll all be together (come to think of it, I ought to get a packet of herbs to my sister-in-law). One thing I have been doing here in lazy mode is thinking of easy dessert recipes--things that can be made well in advance, please a crowd, and contain pumpkin.

I should tell you that in addition to pumpkin, these contain Nutella. I love Nutella, but I've been slow to hop on the Nutella bandwagon--you know, the one where you make everything with Nutella and everyone goes blissfully insane. 

Why so slow to join that party? you're probably asking. Well, logical or not, I do have my reasons. One is that at about $3.50 for a small jar, Nutella isn't exactly a cheap condiment. Two is that I was kind of afraid that if I ate it on everything, I wouldn't really appreciate it as much as I do when it comes once a year to us in Kip's stocking. Three is that I sometimes feel like people take a mediocre recipe, add Nutella to it, and badaboom, everyone loves them. Maybe I'm just jealous, but that kind of bothers me.

In a way, I guess it almost seems like the Nutella takes all the glory from the recipe. Like you could combine Nutella with dirt or you could combine Nutella with the best chocolate cake ever and you'd still get the same gaga response from the masses. Does that make sense? No. Okay, well we'll chalk it up to my own personal insanity.

 But when I saw this recipe, I just couldn't hold out any longer, especially when knock-off Nutella went on sale at Aldi for $1.19 (yes, especially then).

I love chocolate and pumpkin together. And I just had to see if these really did "self frost." (THEY DO.)

Although I actually found that I prefer the Nutella stuck into the middle of the muffin providing a sort of Nutella-filled doughnut effect (sorry, forgot the pictures for those)--also having it in the middle means my kids can't quite as easily just eat the Nutella part off the muffin, not that they would ever do such a thing. At any rate, I'll give instructions for both the self-frosting and the cream-filled varieties of muffin. 

Make them for Thanksgiving. Even if you don't want to depart from the pumpkin pie these can feed all those voracious nieces and nephews for breakfast when you all get together crazy style in the same house.

Self Frosting Nutella and Pumpkin Muffins
idea adapted from A Feast for the Eyes, muffin recipe adapted from Food
makes 24 muffins
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Cost: $2.40 without the Nutella; it will cost you another .50-1.00, depending on whether you can find a good knock off brand or not.
flour: .30, eggs: .40, sugar: .35, pumpkin: 1.00, oil: .20, spices. 15

Note: You can use all white flour if you want; it's delish, but the white whole wheat doesn't hurt either.

2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C white whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 pinch cardamom (you can skip if you don't have)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
2 C sugar
2 C pumpkin (about a 15 oz can--it's not quite exact, but if you don't have 2 C, the can works fine)
1 1/4 C vegetable oil (I use canola)

To frost or fill:
1--1 1/2 C Nutella

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients (except Nutella) together. Don't you just love instructions like that? I mentioned my lazy style Thanksgiving attitude, right?

To do self-frosting muffins:

Put batter in muffin tins--you're going to fill them nearly to the top. Then plop on 1 (generous if you will) Tbsp Nutella onto each muffin. Use your finger (or a spoon if you were not raised in a barn) to sort of swirl it so that it's just combining on the edges with the pumpkin batter. You just kind of want to connect the pumpkin to the Nutella--you don't want to swirl batter into the Nutella in a way that would mix them.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into muffin part comes out clean.

Allow to cool before eating (I really prefer these cool to warm). You'll bite on and voila, you'll have a Nutella frosting on top. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. (See, there goes the Nutella stealing all the glory; these muffins rock on their own just for the record).

To do Nutella-filled muffins:

Put batter halfway up the muffin cup. Add 1 (generous if you will) Tbsp Nutella. Cover with batter so that muffin cup is filled. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. It's a little trickier to test these for doneness--just do your best to make sure the batter isn't gooey. For me, this is almost always at 20 minutes.

Allow to cool and eat. (Again I must reiterate that I really prefer these cool to warm. Both are good, but I love love love them once cooled.)

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

I might as well tell you right up front. These are one of those muffins that parents "hide" vegetables in. Yeah, I know, parents (and plenty of non-parents who like to add their two cents as well) have strong feelings about these sorts of things.

One camp says you should never ever hide a vegetable because children need to see the vegetables they're eating and learn to eat them by golly. The loudest in this camp also accuse parents who do so of lying to their children. Only a couple weeks ago, I read something a famous fitness guru said about how she would never do such a thing. I admit that I couldn't help but think that this famous fitness guru was probably famous (and rich and busy) enough that she wasn't always (or perhaps usually) the one who ends up feeding her kids.

The other camp loves the idea of hiding a vegetable. They're thrilled to have junior eating some cauliflower, even if he doesn't know it (and would not himself be thrilled). They claim they've got to get their picky kids nutrients in non-gummy-vitamin form somehow. The most ardent of this camp believe that if foods are hidden regularly enough, kids will eventually start to become accustomed to the taste. Well, maybe. Although in my experience, the best of the hidden vegetable recipes are the super sweet ones.

I kind of sit in between these camps. I admit that I went through a phase where I was desperate with my picky kids and picky husband (they wouldn't even eat much fruit at that point). I checked out a couple sneaky cookbooks from the library and went to town. The problem was that most of the non-sweet recipes my family was still too picky to eat (and some of them were super-grode) and the idea of pureeing everything every week seemed a little oppressive. Also, I knew that they weren't coming to an acceptance of carrots through this method. I also knew that they needed to see vegetables for what they were and to eat them that way. If for the sake of politeness at other people's houses if for nothing else (yeah, we're still working on that food politeness thing; it's a constant point of parental angst for me). On the other hand, however, when parents, or people who aren't parents but have plenty to say to parents, or people who are parents but who have nannies and cooks in their employ start criticizing this method, I seriously want to smear some slimy butternut banana puree in their smug little faces. Because, come on, it can be tough to get your kids to eat well, especially on a regular basis. Especially if you have a picky spouse or extended family members. Especially if broccoli has a hard time competing with the constant flow of candy that seems to be spewing forth at every holiday and from plenty of non-home venues such as their school, the library, did I mention their school (it's a little nuts), and most certainly, Grandpa.

So if I can add a little something simple and good to a recipe I would have made anyway, I will. And if it's in smooth hidden form, I generally have a little more success (as a note: you may remember my muffins from last week; they were delicious, but they had--gasp--texture within them and my oldest kids and husband wouldn't even try them). So, yes, pumpkin in pancakes, carrot in muffins, spinach in a smoothie, even a little squash in macaroni and cheese--that's not so bad. And it gives me hope that my oldest and most stubborn and picky child will, perhaps, consume enough vitamin A to one day bring forth grandchildren. Because, let's face it, this is all about me and my needs, right?

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins (with carrot puree)
adapted from Deceptively Delicious
Makes 12 muffins
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes
Cost: $1.55 or about $.13/muffin
(sugar: .15, peanut butter: .45, carrot puree: .50, banana: .15, egg: .10, flour: .20)

Note: You can make your own purees if you wish, but I admit that I am usually (um, okay, always) too lazy for this and tend to buy mine in baby food (or canned form in the case of pumpkin). In this recipe I use one 4-oz jar of pureed baby food carrots.

1/2 C packed brown sugar (divided)
1/2 C creamy peanut butter
1/2 C carrot puree (about one 4-oz jar baby food carrots)
1/2 C mashed banana (about 1 large ripe banana)
1 egg
1 C whole wheat flour
1 scant tsp baking powder
1 scant tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
a handful of chocolate chips if you're of weak character

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

In large bowl, mix 1/4 C brown sugar with peanut butter, carrot puree and mashed banana. Add egg and mix.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to mix until just combined. Don't overmix it or your muffins will be tough. Add remaining 1/4 C brown sugar (and chocolate chips if using). Mix this just a turn or two. You don't even want it incorporated. You want to see some stripes of lovely brown sugar. This will give it a sugarier, crispier top.

Put batter in muffin tins and bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Morning Glory Muffins

Yeah, I know I already posted a muffin recipe this week. I'm going to post another one next week too. What can I say, I'm on a jag. It's a good jag, though. And not even a crazy sweet one (although the recipe uses 1 C sugar, it's for 20 muffins so you're only getting about 2 tsp per muffin; it's not sainthood, no, but it's not dessert either). Also, there are fruits and vegetables involved. Come on, that's righteous, right?

These do contain foods that are "chunky," by which my children mean that they have more texture than 'blah.' I didn't care. I was willing to eat them all. For the record, they keep for about 3 days at room temperature and freeze quite well.

Morning Glory Muffins
Adapted from ezrapoundcake
Makes about 20 muffins
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Cost: $3.60 with nuts. About $1.00 less without
(whole wheat flour: .20, flour: .10, sugar: .15, coconut: .25, raisins: .25, apple: .30, pineapple: 1.00, walnuts--I didn't use, but I'm guessing 1.00, eggs: .20, oil: .15)

1 1/4 C whole wheat flour
1 C all-purpose flour
1 C sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C shredded, sweetened coconut
3/4 C raisins or cranberries (optional)
1 large apple, peeled and grated
1 C crushed pineapple, drained (about on 15 oz. can, drained)
2 C grated carrots
1/2 C chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
2 eggs
1 C vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 and line your muffin tins.

Whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Add coconut, raisins, apple, pineapple, carrots, and nuts. Stir to combine. (I shredded my carrots and apple in the food processor, which was speedy. If you've got a food processor, you could probably use fresh pineapple too and just sort of puree it in the food processor before you change it to 'shred.')

Add eggs, oil and vanilla. Blend well.

Spoon batter into muffins tins. Bake about 17-25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Emilee's Bran Muffins and/or Pancakes

That's a weird title for a food, right? After all, how can something be a recipe for both bran muffin and pancake. I wondered the same thing when Emilee gave me this recipe for bran muffins and then told me that you could make pancakes with the batter too. In fact, she said, she liked them even better as pancakes than as muffins.

Let me tell you this: These were perfectly delicious bran muffins. They were honestly very good. But they were some kind of butt kicking pancakes. They were so good, in fact, that we got nary a photograph before they were all consumed. They were so good, in fact, that I will tell you a story. I burned one batch of the pancakes on one side. When I finally sat down to eat there were no un-burned pancakes left and I was starving, so I carefully cut off the burned side of the pancakes and ate the rest. About this time Emma finished her pancakes and headed over to my lap for more. All that was left were the thin burned sides that I had sliced off--no syrup, no nothing--just a burned sliver of a pancake. Emma ate all three. I thought she'd take a bite, make a face, and leave the rest. This is, after all, what she often does with perfectly good, completely unburned foods that I make. Not only did she not turn her nose up at the burned pancake slivers, she cleaned my plate, leaving only a couple bites at the very end.

This revelation--that muffin batter could become pancakes--it might forever transform my world. Because it might work with other muffin recipes as well. Wow. The possibilities. Three minute cook times vs. 20 minute cook times. Hopefully my head doesn't explode.

There is one drawback to these muffins as pancakes, which is this:  In pancake incarnation, these are already quite sweet so you can forgo the syrup and eat them plain or with fruit or with a wee dusting of powdered sugar for looks' sake (not a problem).  However, I should warn you that your older children might expect syrup on a pancake no matter how sweet you tell your children it already is. This makes for a doubling up on the sugar, which is disturbing to me. But not, I guess disturbing enough to keep me from making these next time. I'll try to get a picture when I do, although there are no guarantees because I value my fingers too much to place them in the path of hungry, bran-pancake crazed children's mouths.

Emilee's Bran Muffins and/or Pancakes
Makes about 24
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Cost: $1.45 (that's about $.05 per muffin)
(cereal: .25, sugar: .25, butter: .25, eggs: .20, buttermilk: .30, flour: .20)

1 1/2 C All Bran cereal
1 C hot water
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C butter
2 eggs
2 C buttermilk
1 Tbsp baking soda
2 C flour

Combine All Bran and hot water. Let it sit for a couple minutes and then mash it up until it's a paste.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, buttermilk, and baking soda. Then add your bran mixture. Then add your flour. (Note: Should you forget to add the flour like I did the first time around and just put the other mixture into your pancake skillet, you will get something a lot like bran pudding, which sounds horrible and which seems so wrong on every level and yet which was pretty amazing and which I haven't quite stopped thinking about yet.)

If making muffins, fill your muffin tin and bake at 375 fo 15-20 minutes.

If making pancakes, just ladle the batter onto a hot skillet and make as your would any other pancake.

Note: I recently learned that you can keep this batter for up to 6 weeks in your fridge. Check out this post for more details if you wish.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Not Too Sexy But Still Good All-Bran Muffins

Everyone needs a friend who makes their grandma look chic and hip and trendy. They need this friend because on so many levels a friend like this can make you feel better about yourself. First off, you feel cool next to this person because even if you are not that cool, you appear cool beside this person. Secondly, on the days when you are really not cool--like maybe wearing your fat pants with a non-matching top around the house as you scrub the goober puddle that has built up under the refrigerator--that friend will somehow one up you. Say, by wearing fat pants that she accidentally shrunk so they are now high waters and tight in the wrong places as she putters about wiping pee off the countertops in the bathroom (because as we all know, that is a perfectly logical place to find pee in a bathroom) and then goes (after washing her hands quite thoroughly) shopping in just that same outfit without once thinking to change into a pair of jeans. Such a person uses weird cliches, does not understand technology, and probably eats bran of some variety. It's just the type of person your kids do not go to bed praying to have as their mother. What more could you ask for in a friend? I, dear followers, am that friend. You're welcome.

Now, let's eat some bran muffins. Why, you ask? Well, duh. Because it's January and you, like every other self-respecting American, made a goal to lose 10 pounds. But it's the end of January and the box of All-Bran in your pantry is really starting to languish. But also because it actually makes some pretty good muffins. My favorite are the Original All-Bran Muffins. I buy All-Bran when I see it on sale just to make those. Though this month I was wooed (remember, I make your grandma look cool) by the new recipe on the side of the box, which pulled out all the hip, sexy, foodie stops and used the words 'almond butter' and 'dark chocolate' in its name. I have to tell you this recipe didn't come out hip, sexy, or foodie (though admittedly I just used peanut butter instead of its cooler almond brother), but it was good and pretty healthy too--using not too much sugar, a variety of grains, and some banana. Plus, it'll give your stale All-Bran a boost. 

Not Too Sexy But Still Good All-Bran Muffins

adapted from All-Bran

Makes 12-14

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Cost: $1.60

(flour: .15, sugar: .08, milk: .20, oats: .10, banana: .12, peanut butter: .40, egg: .10, chocolate chips: .45-.90)

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1/2 C sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/3 C milk

1 C All Bran cereal (I expect that other varieties of twiggy looking bran cereals would work as well, but can't promise that)

1 C rolled oats (I used quick)

1/3 C peanut butter

1 medium banana, mashed (about 1/3-1/2 C)

1 egg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 C dark chocolate (or, heck, regular chocolate) chips--I only used about 1/2 C (it is still prime resolution month, my friends)

Preheat oven to 375. 

In a large bowl, combine milk, All-Bran, and oats. Let this stand 2 minutes so it's nice and soggy. Mix in peanut butter, mashed banana, egg, cinnamon, an d nutmeg. 

Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add chocolate chips. Stir until just combined (You never want to over-mix muffins as it makes the cooked muffin tougher.)

Spoon batter into muffin tin. 

Bake 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool a bit and eat. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Whole Wheat Orange Muffins with Zesty Glaze

Pretty enough for a brunch. Healthy enough for a January breakfast. Amen and amen. Of course we don't do brunch around here unless breakfast is running so late that it sort of turns into, um, brunch (does it count as brunch if people are sitting naked except for diapers/underwear around the table or is that against the strict standards of brunching etiquette?). 

A few notes on this recipe:

-It calls for corn syrup. I went with that, but I'm not sure why it's there and why it can't just be a couple tablespoons of white sugar. 

-I'm sure you could use fresh or frozen juice, but you're zesting the orange, so you might as well juice it too.

-When I made the zesty glaze, my original plan was to roll in onto a warm muffin and coat the muffin that way. That didn't work--the sugar and zest wouldn't adhere to the muffin or stay put on anything. I was going to just leave the muffins as they were (because they taste great plain as well), but after an hour or so, I noticed that the juices from the zest had sort of melted the sugar and now I had more of a glazy thing to work with. I stuck the tops of the muffins in and just enough sugary water/zest stuck to look pretty and give the muffins a nice orange-y kick. (This is how it looked after sitting:

-You could leave the zest off.

-You could increase the sugar in the zesty glaze (as it is it's for orange flavor and punch only; there's not a lot of extra sweetness added)

-You could frost or glaze the muffins (for extra sweetness) and then add the zest to the top of that for prettiness. I'd recommend a cream cheese frosting, but use what you will. 

Whole Wheat Orange Muffins with Zesty Glaze

adapted from tasty kitchen

Makes 9-10

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10-15 minutes

Cost: $.75 (That's about $.07/muffin; take that coffee shops)

milk: .05, oil: .03, egg: .10, 1 large orange: .25, whole wheat flour: .20, sugars: .12)

1/3 C milk

3 Tbsp canola oil

1 egg

2 Tbsp corn syrup

1/3 C orange juice (1 large orange)

1 pinch grated orange zest

1 C whole wheat pastry flour (I used white whole wheat)

1/3 C brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

For the zesty glaze:

1-2 Tbsp orange zest

2 Tbsp sugar

To prepare muffins:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk milk, oil, egg, corn syrup, orange juice, and pinch of zest.

Mix in flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt until batter just combined. 

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean or with some moist crumbs. 

To add glaze:

(You'll want to start this before you do the muffins so it can sit long enough to have the sugars melt.)

Combine zest and sugar. It will be granular at first (and smell awesome). Let it just sit there until the sugars have sort of melted and you have some watery stuff in the bowl. Then it's ready. Dip tops of muffins into this. 

Serve warm or cool. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Linked to Sweets for a Saturday

Pumpkin Muffins (with optional cream cheese filling)

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

Because at this time of year, you totally need sugar for breakfast too. Okay, well, probably not. But these are very good. They might have even ousted my favorite, but I'd have to eat them side-by-side to be sure. So add them to your plate of treats and eat them thusly.

Pumpkin Muffins (with an optional cream cheese filling)
adapted from food.com
Makes 24-30
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time 20 minutes
Cost: $2.40 (without cream cheese. That'll cost you another .40 if you can find it on sale--thanks, Aldi)
(flour: .30, eggs: .40, sugar: .35, pumpkin: .99, oil: .20, spices: .16)

3 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 pinch cardamom (you can skip if you don't have)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
2 C sugar
2 C pumpkin (about a 15 oz can)
1 1/4 C vegetable oil

Optional filling:
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tsp sugar
dash pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients (besides optional filling) together. Don't you just love instructions like that. They make my holiday bright.

Beat or mix cream cheese. Add sugar. Add spice.

Plop 1/2-1 tsp into center of each muffin and push it down. Yes, you do want to push it down. I thought it'd just sink in during baking, but they kind of just stay there like a great white peak, so push them down so you've got the top of your plop of cream cheese flush with your pumpkin batter.

Note: You don't have to do the cream cheese thing, but I was surprised at how much I liked it. It adds a little something special and takes the edge off any too-sweetness.

Bake muffins at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick (fork, knife, whatever) inserted comes out clean or with a few (very few) moist crumbs.

Allow to cool. These are good warm or cool, but I did favor the cool ones just slightly.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Lemon Muffins with White Chocolate Chips

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on $10/day or less.

Today is Secret Recipe Club reveal day. Can I get a whoot whoot. Thanks to Amanda and Amanda's Cookin' for cooking up such a fun idea. (Click here if you're interested in signing up)

This month I got Debbi Does Dinner Healthy and Low Calorie. And truly Debbi's blog is full of healthy ideas. I printed off several of her recipes and have already tried more than one. Which did make picking which one I used for today a little tricky.

I chose the Lemon Muffins because a) I love lemon and b) I had a decent picture.

Debbi's recipe actually called for all white flour. But I had some white whole wheat that I've never used before and have been wanting to audition. This recipe seemed like the perfect opportunity (no one wants to eat a brown lemon muffin).

One thing I loved about these muffins was how very much you could play with them. I added white chocolate chips. Here are some other ideas:

-Add dried cranberries or macadamia nuts or both for a lemon cranberry macadamia muffin. Yum.
-Top or fill with raspberry or blackberry jam.
-Create a lemon glaze to pour over them (a little lemon juice and about 1 C of powdered sugar)
-Use lemon extract instead of vanilla extract for a more lemony punch.
-Try orange instead of lemon.
-Roll them while warm in sugar as Debbi does.

Lemon Muffins with White Chocolate Chips
adapted from Debbi Does Dinner Healthy and Low Calorie
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
makes 12 large muffins
Cost: $1.42/ per muffin: about .12 cents, a little more with chocolate chips
(lemon: .30, milk: .10, flour: .10, whole wheat flour: .18, sugar: .09, butter: .30, egg: .10, yogurt: .25)

1/4 C lemon juice (I used fresh squeezed, but you could probably get away with bottled)
3/4 C milk
2 C all-purpose flour (I used 1 C all purpose and 1 C white whole wheat)
1/2 C sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C butter, melted
1 egg
1/2 C vanilla yogurt (I used plain and didn't miss the vanilla-ness; you could probably use lemon to very good effect)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2-1 C white chocolate chips
Debbi rolls them in 2 Tbsp melted butter and then sugar when they're warm, but I skipped this since I took the lazy road and added white chocolate chips.

Heat oven to 400. Prepare muffin pan.

In small bowl combine lemon juice and milk and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

To milk/lemon juice, add butter, egg, yogurt, lemon zest and vanilla (don't worry if it's clumpy or curdled looking)

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir just until combined. When there are still a few wisps of flour left, throw in the white chocolate chips if using.

Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake about 12 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Debbi likes hers warm, but I preferred mine cooled. I thought it brought out the lemon more. I'm weird like that with muffins.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

100% Whole Wheat Muffins

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

I don't know what my problem is with breakfast foods. Honestly I just love them. Way back when I was young and single, breakfast was by far and away my biggest, most favorite meal. It was also my idea of the perfect date. And on days that I was very very hungry I'd walk home craving--not a steak, not a big plate of pasta, not even a milkshake--but oatmeal with a layer of melted brown sugar on top. So I hope you forgive the fact that this site is a wee bit breakfast heavy. And cookie heavy. And chocolate things heavy. Please. Forgive.

When you think of whole wheat muffins, you think of muffins at their most virtuous. And their driest. And blandest. And most dreadful in every way. This recipe came to me by accident. My friend photocopied a recipe I'd asked for from one of those homemade recipe books that friends and church groups sometimes create. At the bottom of the page was this recipe with the promise: "Almost like cake!" Well, I thought that was a recipe worth trying. It was not, for the record, just like cake, so don't get any overly lofty ideas in your head. But it was very sweet and moist with a lovely lovely crumb that did, indeed, resemble cake. The only problem was that it contained 1 full cup of sugar for about 12 muffins. I was worried that reducing the sugar would be the muffin's undoing, but these reduced sugar muffins turned out very nicely as well, although I must give this warning: they were slightly slightly drier. This didn't bother us, however. The only thing that irked my kids was that they did not contain chocolate chips. Because as we all know, breakfast foods that don't come in a box should contain chocolate chips. If you, like me, have ruined your children, throw in a handful of chocolate or cinnamon flavored chips. If you, like better mothers, have not ruined your children, you could always throw in a handful of blueberries or raspberries instead.

100% Whole Wheat Muffins
makes 12 muffins
donated to a homemade book by a person named Angie Farnsworth (thanks Angie)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Bake time: 10-15 minutes
Cost: $70
(butter: .30, sugar: .15, egg: .10, milk: .15)

1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C brown sugar
1 egg
2 C whole what flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 C milk
handful chips or fruit, optional

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add egg. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add them to the butter mixture. Remember that with muffins you want the dry ingredients just barely incorporated. If you mix the shadingdang out of the batter, your muffins will come out dry and tough instead of light and cake-like. If using, the bad mothers can gently fold in their chips and the good mothers can gently fold in their fruit. Put batter into 12 muffin tins. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes. Note: With this reduced sugar recipe, you want to be sure not to overcook these babies or they really will come out dry.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chocolate Muffins with Peanut Butter Frosting: Low Sugar, Low Fat, Whole Grain, Lots of Variations

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch our family of 6 struggle to nurse its chocolate habit and still eat real food on $6/day.

Last week I had the best idea ever: low sugar chocolate muffins with low sugar peanut butter frosting. This brilliant idea was followed by a violent craving for such delicious virtuousness.

But try looking up low sugar chocolate muffin on the internet. Just try it.

You'll find a lot of things with Splenda and several low-fat recipes, which contain plenty of sugar. You'll find a few recipes in grams, which makes it even more glaringly obvious that Americans think sugar belongs on the bottom level of the food pyramid, even though they still have fat relegated to the tiny top triangle. You'll find recipes with about 2 Tbsp of cocoa for a big old batch of muffins. But you won't find a nice dark chocolate-y muffin with very little sugar inside and no artificial sweeteners. At least I didn't. I was full of righteous indignation and immediately turned out a dark chocolate muffin with only 1/4 C sugar for the whole 12 large muffined batch (and all whole grains to boot).

And then I realized why this might be more of a challenge than I had originally thought. The muffins were just short of bitter, and possibly only edible due to the peanut butter frosting that did turn out rather well. It was mostly me and Emma making our way through them--I through duty and she through baby-like ignorance of sweeter things. (Ah, the baby-like ignorance...)

I doubled the sugar in the next batch I turned out and added a wee bit of all-purpose flour. This fixed the problem completely and they were nice and chocolate-y and very good. They were also popular with the minions. But by this point, each frosted muffin had about 3 tsp sugar, which is hardly the worst thing in the world, but I felt that this added sugar relegated them to healthy after-school snackdom, rather than guilt-free breakfast-hood (what, I've got my standards, okay).

Still, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to scale the sugar back again. I knew I could only do it by reducing the amount of cocoa and I wanted a good chocolate-y muffin. I perservered (the life of a food blogging mother being wrought with peril, you see) and even tried a batch using applesauce instead of oil, although this is generally against my principles. These muffins were quite good too, even the applesauce ones. They were not, I must in all good conscience tell you, as good. They are still a muffin of compromise--a muffin that had to sacrifice some of it's deep chocolate-y-ness for a healthier punch. Maybe I should have called them Middle Age Muffins or Old Gray Mare Muffins or maybe Four Children Later Muffins, but we all know that those titles aren't the ones that will bring in the big bucks. So we'll stick with the words 'chocolate,' 'peanut butter,' 'low-fat' and even 'low sugar'--that's where the glamour is. And don't worry if you haven't had four kids and aren't approaching your mid-30's, I'll give you the scoop on those healthy after school muffins too, so you can decide how righteous you wish to be. (And if it's cupcakes you're after, check the web because Americans don't seem to have a problem turning out recipes for those.) 

P.S. These muffins can go without the frosting just fine, but the frosting is nice because (well, because it's super yum, but also because) it adds a nice bit of protein and a bit of moisture for those extra virtuous ones. However, they also add a bit more sugar and of course, some fat.

Chocolate Muffins with Peanut Butter Frosting: Low Sugar, Low Fat, Whole Grain
adapted from One Bowl Oatmeal Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Cost:

1 C quick oats or 1/2 C oat flour (some families, not to mention any names, have trouble with texture, so they play it save with the flour, although the quick oats don't add tons of chunkiness)
1 C milk
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 egg
1/4 C sugar
1/2 C applesauce
3/4 C whole wheat flour
1/4 C all-purpose flour
4-6 Tbsp cocoa (I used 5 and thought I could get away with one more)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon (You could replace this with 1/4 tsp almond extract--both flavors give the chocolate a little depth, so choose your poison or your weapon or just whatever--the metaphor sort of got away from me there)
1/4 C chocolate chips (optional) (I bet you could use coconut instead if your minions would not revolt)

Put oatmeal in a bowl (If using oat flour, add it with the other flours). Pour milk over oats. Add vinegar and stir. Let it sit a minute if you've got the time.

Add egg. Add applesauce. Add sugar.

Sift in flours, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon (I sort of give mine a mix on top of the wet ingredients, but you could combine in a different bowl if you'd like). Stir into wet ingredients until just combined. Note: If the batter is very wet (the quick oats variation tended to be a little wetter), add 1-2 Tbsp more whole wheat flour.

Add chocolate chips if using.

 Pour batter into prepared muffin tins. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Frosting 1--Peanut Butter Frosting:

1 C peanut butter
1/2 Tbsp butter
1/4 C powdered sugar (you may even be able to get away with 2 Tbsp. Try it and see if it needs more sweetness)
1 Tbsp milk or cream if necessary

Beat peanut butter and butter. Add powdered sugar. Add milk if necessary to loosen it up (I melted my peanut butter so it wasn't.)

You could also (see below) try adding 1/2-1 oz. cream cheese instead of the milk, though I haven't tried it.

Frosting 2--Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Frosting:

I like this one quite a bit, but was going for more of a peanut butter punch. I bet you could add 1-2 Tbsp of cream cheese to the top recipe instead of the milk/cream option to get the best of all worlds.

2 oz. cream cheese
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1/4 C powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese, butter, and peanut butter. Add powdered sugar.

Frosting 3--Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting

Make the 1st frosting and add 3-4 Tbsp cocoa to it. I preferred the frosings just with the peanut butter, but if you're even more of a chocolate nut than me and mine, go for it.

Muffin Variation 1--Living Dangerously:

Replace the applesauce with 1/2 C canola oil or butter.

But why, you ask. Because it is somewhat richer and allows the chocolate flavor of the cocoa to come through more. If you don't care about fat, or if your kids need a little more of it on their bones, go for it. You'll have a slightly richer muffin.

Muffin Variation 2--Relegated to Healthy After School Snackdom (My Favorite)

Replace the applesauce with 1/2 C oil or butter.
Use 1/2 C sugar (instead of 1/4 C)
Use 1/2 C cocoa (instead of 4-6 Tbsp.)

Heck, add 1/2 C chocolate chips while you're at it.

And lick off the frosting knife. Quick, no one's looking.

PRINTABLE RECIPE