Happy belated Easter! Last weekend I made some carrot cake cupcakes for Easter which were fun and delicious, (You can check them out on Instagram.) and this week I decided it would be fun to turn them into Healthy Breakfast Muffins. It feels like the right kind of thing to eat in the springtime. Plus I needed to use up some bananas!
I started with bananas and carrots and added pecans, oatmeal and some whole wheat flour. These muffins are surprisingly light and not at all dry. I used coconut milk for mine because half the family is now dairy-free. You could easily substitute regular milk, buttermilk, or Greek yogurt instead.
It’s Saturday morning, snow is falling gently from the sky and your plaid flannel sheets are delightfully warm and cozy. If you are going to get up today that feeling needs to continue. Eventually you throw on an oversize sweater with leggings and your favorite fuzzy slippers and head downstairs. What can you whip up that’s easy, delicious and pleases everyone? Chai Spiced Dutch Baby Pancake should do the trick.
Throw everything in the blender, pour it into a cast iron skillet and voila! Enjoy with a cup of tea and a good book. Bonus points if you’re sitting by a fire!
When I was young I remember going to my Grandparents house next door for dinner. I know that my Grandma was a good cook but I don’t remember most of the things that she made. It’s the fun meals that stick in my mind. When we visited them in Florida we got to have “strawberry soup” for dinner sometimes. Grandpa loved that one – bread torn up and topped with fresh strawberries, sprinkled with sugar. We’d pour milk into the bowl and it was like a weird sort of cereal. I’m guessing it started among the generation that grew up during the Great Depression. However, my favorite meal was when Grandma would make Homemade Blueberry Peach Cobbler for dinner and we got to eat as much as we wanted.
Cobbler for dinner is not a huge stretch. I’m sure it’s no worse than french toast or pancakes as a meal, but as a kid it felt like an amazing winter treat. I’ve made cobbler with various fruit over the years, but blueberry peach is nostalgic as well as delicious. Juicy tart blueberries meld beautifully with the soft, sweet peaches. Stir it up into a syrupy cocktail and top it off with light sweet biscuits that are soft underneath with a little crunch on top! I’m thinking that this would be a fantastic Valentine’s Day Brunch…
We’re back to January. I don’t know about where you live, but it’s freakishly cold here. I’m not a fan of sub-zero weather. However, I shouldn’t complain to loudly because it’s the perfect time of year to BAKE! For whatever reason our kitchen is the coldest room in the house this time of year. Gotta get that oven running to take off the chill. Connor recently informed me breakfast is boring, so clearly it’s time for a new muffin recipe. After thinking about it for a while I decided to make Fresh Orange & Oatmeal Muffins.
I love that these muffins are a little off the beaten path from what I normally make. They are soft and light with a lovely citrus tang. I think I’ll add some orange zest as well the next time to bring out more of the orange flavor specifically. I wanted these muffins to feel indulgently healthy (is that a thing?) so they are packed with oatmeal, yogurt, pureed oranges and wheat flour. These came out so nice and flavorful that we didn’t even bother putting butter on them!
Christmas is hurtling toward us and the children are starting to hyperventilate in their excitement. Dinners and breakfasts are being planned and last minute gifts bought and wrapped. To that end I’m sharing my take on a delicious and crowd-pleasing Christmas breakfast. Ok, I’ll be honest, we’re all going to want to eat Sticky Pecan Cinnamon Rolls in the middle of winter when the doldrums set in as well.
You can shorten this method a little if you feel the need. I tried two different ways to make these rolls and both ended up pretty similar. The first batch I made I rolled out the rolls right after I finished kneading the dough. No first rise, just straight to the pan. I did let them rise for 20-30 minutes in the pan before baking but they didn’t change much until they hit the oven.
I know that October is generally the season of pumpkin everything, and normally I embrace that whole heartedly. For some reason I’m just not feeling it right now. Maybe it’s because there are so many pumpkin recipes already in circulation. Or perhaps it’s because the weather feels much more like September than October here in Ohio. Either way, when I was musing over what I wanted to bake and share this week apples are where I ended up. Specifically Apple Spice Muffins with Pecan Streusel Topping. I’m not sorry! I promise to deliver some delicious pumpkin recipes in time for Thanksgiving feasts, but for now let’s make muffins!
Soft and flavorful inside with a sweet crunchy topping it’s the perfect fall breakfast muffin. I used a cup and a half of chopped apples but you could easily bump it up to two cups. Shredded apples will also work and save you the work of peeling them. If I’m being honest, I’m tired this week and I love having something already done for breakfast. Fry or boil a couple eggs and it’s a healthy and well rounded meal!
Is there anything better than a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls? I really can’t think of anything. In the past I only made them occasionally but I’m thinking that might change now. I developed these Caramel Iced Cinnamon Rolls to be a lighter, healthier, everyday kind of cinnamon roll. Made from a base of my Simple Multi-Grain Bread recipe, the rolls themselves have no butter, sugar, milk or eggs. Now, I realize this doesn’t sound like a great start for cinnamon rolls but trust me, these are amazing! Super soft, flavorful and guilt-free!!
Since the rolls are nice and healthy you can splurge a little on the icing. Remember how I said you’d need caramel this week? Here it is! We’re using last week’s Homemade Caramel Dipping Sauce to bring some extra awesomeness to the icing. I could probably go on and on about how much I love Caramel Iced Cinnamon Rolls but I’m just gonna throw some pictures at you to make you hungry instead! You’re welcome. . .
I had planned for this to be last week’s post but since we were vacationing in Colorado it just didn’t happen. Now that we’re home and getting settled in it’s the time of year to start thinking about fall schedules. Since we home school we don’t usually start before labor day. I have our curriculum but I need to make a schedule for each kid and myself! One of our struggles in the mornings is breakfast. I need the kids to eat something filling enough to keep them from begging for snacks all morning. Unfortunately they don’t love eating breakfast. This Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Granola is my attempt to fulfill our breakfast needs.
If we don’t eat this for breakfast we’ll definitely have it for snack. I was a little worried about the amount of sugar per serving so I put it through the Spark Recipes Nutrition Calculator. It came out with 3.9 g Fiber, 5.1 g Sugar, and 4.6 g Protein per half cup serving. That’s what I was aiming for – not excessively sweet but still tasty with plenty of protein and fiber to keep us full longer!
Breakfast is often a little touch and go at our house. No one ever wants to eat the same thing on the same day, and they claim to dislike whatever the other one likes. I try not to get too annoyed because I get tired of breakfast food pretty quickly myself. However, I refuse to spend hours tailoring breakfasts. Check your seat kids, if you’re not sitting in plastic orange diner booths you can’t order a custom meal! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a nice Mom and I try and change up what’s available throughout the week so everybody gets something they enjoy. Like these delicious Caramelized Banana Bread Muffins. With these on the counter I can just whip up some eggs in the morning and boom – healthy, yummy breakfast for everyone! Perfect for breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, dessert, snack….sorry I distracted myself.
Look how pretty they are! You could mix the coconut and chocolate in but I kind of like having it on the top. The coconut gets toasty in the oven and the chocolate is soft and sweet. Plus, this way you can make sure everyone gets chocolate in theirs. Otherwise you have to use the light colored cupcake papers so that you can check the bottom of each muffin and make sure it has plenty of chocolate chips in it before you commit. You know what I mean. This is also a great job for little hands. I put a couple little bowls of topping on the counter and let them have at it!
Since these are Caramelized Banana Bread Muffins it does add an extra step at the beginning – caramelizing the bananas – but it’s soooooooo worth it! Besides, who doesn’t want to smell roasting honey cinnamon bananas first thing in the morning? The rest of the recipe is super simple, you don’t even need to use a mixer. With a healthy mix of flour and a nice dose of fruit you can feel good about eating these yummy muffins. If you don’t have oat flour on hand (I live in the land of bulk food stores) just throw some old fashioned oats into the blender and voila!
Alternatively, if you want to get fancy for gifting as in the first picture, bake in mini springform pans. Wrap in parchment paper and tie with jute twine for an adorable gift! This is a great alternative to cookies at the holidays.
Simplify your breakfast with these easy Caramelized Banana Bread Muffins. Packed full of flavor and deliciously healthy, they are sure to become a favorite!
Ingredients
4 ripe bananas
honey
cinnamon
1/2 cup (60g) wheat flour
3/4 cup (75g) oat flour
1/2 cup (65g) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup (85g) lightly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) coconut milk (canned)
1/2 cup (125ml) oil - vegetable, canola or melted coconut are fine
1 tsp vanilla extract
dark chocolate chips
unsweetened coconut flakes
Instructions
1
Preheat your oven to 400 F (205 C)
2
Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Peel your bananas and lay them out on the tray. Drizzle each one with a zigzag of honey and then sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 20-25 mins until the tops become golden brown. Let them cool for about 5 minutes then scoop them into a bowl (I scrape the golden honey bits off the paper in as well). Once cool, mash them up.
3
Reduce oven temp to 350 F (175 C)
4
Put 12 cupcake liners into muffin pans.
5
Whisk dry ingredients together.
6
In a separate large bowl combine the eggs and sugar and mix until smooth.
7
Add coconut milk and oil and mix again.
8
Stir in the vanilla and bananas.
9
Gently fold in your dry ingredients until just combined. This batter is moist but very thick.
10
Put about 1/4 cup of batter into each liner and sprinkle liberally with chocolate chips and coconut flakes.
11
Bake for 20-25 minutes until tester comes out clean.
12
Eat warm with a cup of tea!
Notes
+++ Adapted from Half Baked Harvest +++ If you don't have oat flour, pulse old-fashioned oats in the blender to make your own! +++ The Teatime Baker | www.teatimebaker.com
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