Oatmeal Banana Muffins

I saw a recipe for Oatmeal Banana Bread on a friends pinterest the other day and realized I have all the ingredients, and they sounded really yummy, so I set out to make them today. I changed up the recipe a bit and made muffins instead of a loaf. I actually don't even own a loaf pan...I may need to remedy that soon :).

These muffins are crazy good. The only regret I have is not putting chocolate chips in them. I thought of it right as I was putting the crumb topping on them :(. I'll have to add them in next time, because there will be a next time!

Oatmeal Banana Muffins

You will need:

• 2 whole, overripe bananas
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup fat free milk
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cup old fashion rolled oats
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• pinch of ginger
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tbsp ground flax meal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the topping: In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, pinch of ginger, 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tbsp melted butter. Stir to combine and set aside.

For the muffins: Mash the bananas in a medium bowl, then stir in the milk and egg. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, pinch ginger, pinch nutmeg and flax meal. This is also where I would have added mini chocolate chips if I was thinking clearly ;). I am saving those for buttermilk scones though...

Pour mixture into 12 lightly greased muffin tins, about 2/3 full, and sprinkle with the topping mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges to make sure they will come out cleanly and let them finish to cool on a rack.

These smell so good and taste even better! They have just enough sweetness from the overripe bananas and brown sugar crumb topping. I really enjoyed them. I quickly added the ingredients into an on-line calorie counter and these come out to be approximately 150 calories, 2 grams of fat and 4 grams of protein per muffin, not to bad!

Source: adapted from Greatist

Time For Another Swap

This time, instead of a recipe swap, it was a blog swap. This was nice because you were able to browse someones blog and choose any recipe you'd like. I had very good intentions of not procrastinating and getting this done right away. How did that work out for me you ask? Not so well :(.

The blog I got assigned to was doughseedough. There are tons of great recipes to pick from, but since I could only pick one I decided on Sea Salt Caramels. I was excited to make these and wrap them up. They look so cute in her picture in the little parchment paper wrappers. I thought they would be a nice treat to give to people as well.

Well....it was sort of a bust. I don't know what I did wrong, but I messed up somewhere and had to toss the whole bunch, and frantically find something else to make that I already had the ingredients for (which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't procrastinated!).

It worked out that for a couple days I've been watching a bunch of bananas go from just right to past ripe and spotty, thinking- "I should really make some banana bread with those, or something."

This was my opportunity! I searched through her blog and came across a recipe for Banana Crumb Muffins. Peeerfect:). So I cleaned my kitchen from the first mess I had made today, and got ready to make a second mess.

Banana Crumb Muffins


You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped (I didn't have walnuts, so I substituted pecans)
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (I had these on hand and figured I'd throw them in, not in original recipe)
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cold butter

Pre heat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl mix together banana, egg, sugar and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture, chocolate chips and nuts into the flour mixture until just moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tbsp flour, cinnamon and cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle over the batter.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick, inserted into the center of a muffin, comes out clean.

Given the kind of day I had today, I was compelled to indulge in a second muffin after I had eaten one. I don't regret it.

As bummed out as I was about the caramels not coming out right, I am really happy it lead to me making these muffins. They are delicious!

Source: doughseedough, who adapted from allrecipes



I'm also going to take this opportunity to show off this really cute cake tester my mom got me awhile back from Crate and Barrel. I had put in my utensil drawer and kind of forgot about it (sorry mom!). I need to use this more often, instead of boring toothpicks :).

Thanks again to Sarah from A Taste of Home Cooking for organizing the swap!

Zucchini Muffins: Round 1

There are a lot of vegetables that I don't use on a regular basis...more like at all. So, in an effort to expand my  vegetable use, and do it in a way that isn't completely boring I decided to test out some zucchini bread/muffin recipes.

This first one is on the healthier side. I'm sad to say it, but my brain and my taste buds are not geared for thinking "yummm this is healthy and so delicious!"

I give these a B+. They aren't eyes-roll-back-when-you-take-a-bite awesome, but they're pretty healthy, so what do you expect.
****Edit**** I had one of these the next day for breakfast and I'm bumping it up to an A! I think my problem was eating it warm with butter last night...not a good idea.

Kathie's Zucchini Muffins

You will need:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
• 1/2 cup fat free milk
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Sorry for the crappy pictures, I made this at night and the lighting was particularly awful. One of these days I'll take some time to work on my photography skills. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grate zucchini and set aside.

In a large bowl combine the first seven ingredients (through salt), and mix together with a whisk.

In a separate bowl combine the zucchini and next 4 ingredients (through egg) and mix well. Looks yummy huh?:)

Make a well in the center of flour mixture and pour in milk mixture, stirring just until moist. Spray 12 baking cups or line with cupcake liners. Spoon in batter. Mix together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over top of the muffins. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack.

They seem like they'd be good for a mid-morning snack or with some fruit for breakfast. I may freeze them in baggies of two so I can defrost them as I want them.

Source

Look out for Round 2! I'll be making zucchini lemon muffins with not quite so much attention to my caloric intake:):).