Muffin Mania

Alright, last Sunday was a little trying for me.  I woke up with great aspirations for the big weekly breakfast that I was going to make and realized after the first batch that all my lovely dreams went flying out the window real quick.  I decided to have an all out Muffin Mania and I was going to make 3 differant kind of muffins.  Needless to say after the first batch's issues I stuck with just making 2 kinds.  But I will say, I did end up making lemons into lemonade or in this case muffins into cereal!  And I am not kidding, you have to try this out, it is by far the best breakfast I have had in a long time and it is the only way I will eat muffins from now on!!  I started out making Miniature Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins, thinking Mela would get a kick out of teeny tiny muffins.  I invisioned her face lighting up and her saying something along the lines of "Ooooh, that's a BABY muffin!"  She has a thing with pointing out that anything large is a Daddy and Medium sized is a Mom-Mom (that's what she calls me) and tiny is a Baby.  She is soo cute at this stage!  Continuing on-  These were great in theory and everything was going great until they were cooled off and I couldn't get them out of the muffin tin without crumbling apart.  After about 5 losses, a few curse words and a couple temper tantrums on my part, including a thrown butter knife into the sink, I knew I needed  to get a grip, take a deep breathe and figure out a way to salvage these still yummy but not eye appealing muffins.  I grabbed my big chef's knife and started to cut the muffin tops off, which had no problem staying intact.

I figured we could still eat the teeny tiny muffin tops, so I then scooped out the remaining muffins and crumbled them up into a bowl and poured Rice Milk over the top of them. 

SERIOUSLY, soooo goood!!  I've been eating this for breakfast the whole week!  The second batch of muffins that I made were Crunchy Streusel Applesauce Muffins.  They turned out great!  I made them regular sized and they turned out perfect, but I will still be crumbling them up and eating them in cereal form!!  This is a must try!  Think about it, when you eat muffins normally you are usually cleasing your palate and washing them down with milk anyways!  This is soo much better, it just took things up a notch!


"Baby" Peanut Butter & Banana Muffin Cereal
adapted from Deceptively Delicious

Nonstick Cooking Spray
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup carrot or cauliflower puree/baby food
1 banana, mashed
1/4 cup soymilk (or rice, almond, hemp)
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons water)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon soy protein powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Coat the mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the firmly packed brown sugar, peanut butter, the carrot/cauliflower puree, mashed banana, soymilk and the flax egg.  Stir well.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and protein powder into a bowl and mix well. 

Add to the bowl with wet ingredients.  Mix until just combined, batter will be a little lumpy.

 Add the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar and stir once or twice.

Divide the batter among the muffin tins using 2 small metal spoons.

Bake until the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center, about 18-20 minutes.  Let cool, cut off the tops and scoop out the remaining for the yummiest cereal of your life!!!

Crunchy Streusel Applesauce Muffins
adapted from Deceptively Delicious

Nonstick Cooking Spray

Topping
2/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons Earth balance butter

Batter
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup soymilk (or rice, almond, hemp)
1/2 cup squash or carrot puree/babyfood
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons water)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with nonstick spray or fill with muffin liners.

To make the topping, stir together the oats, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.  Once well combined, stir in the melted butter.

To make the batter, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.  Stir until mixed. 

In a second bowl, mix the applesauce, milk, squash/carrot puree, brown sugar, canola oil and flax egg until well combined.  Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, stirring just until moistened, the batter is supposed to be lumpy.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle with the streusel topping.  Bake until the topping is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center about 18-20 minutes.