Morning Glory Muffins

These good-for-you muffins are terrific for breakfast with a cup of coffee, tea, or steamed milk. They aren't too sweet (no morning tummy aches!), and they are rich in antioxidants. If you are used to eating big sugary Starbucks-type muffins, these muffins might taste a little healthy to you. Personally, I think they are deeeeee-lish!

The below recipe makes about 16 muffins. I like to cook them directly in the pan, as opposed to using a paper liner. I think they bake better that way, and if you use nonstick spray, there's barely any clean-up.

Ingredients:

2 cups bran cereal (no raisins)

1 cup mashed ripe banana (3 medium)

½ cup nonfat or soymilk

1 egg (beaten)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup whole-wheat or white flour (I use whole-wheat)

¼ cup organic Sucanat or regular ‘ol white sugar (I use Sucanat, available at Whole Foods)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 tablespoons flax seeds (I buy the golden roasted flax seed at Trader Joe’s, they have a lot more flavor!)

½ cups chopped walnuts (or other nut if you don’t like walnuts)

2 handfuls or 1 cup fresh organic blueberries (washed and dried)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pan with nonstick spray.

Combine cereal, bananas, milk, egg, vanilla, and oil in bowl; mix well. Let stand 5 minutes; stir to break up cereal.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, flax seeds, and nuts in separate bowl. Mix with fork.

Add flour mixture all at once to cereal mixture, stirring just until moistened. Then fold in the fresh blueberries. Try not to mash or crush them.

Divide evenly among prepared muffin cups. (I use a large ice cream scooper with a lever/release. It’s not only super easy, but it creates a lot less mess and uniform size muffins.)

Bake 12-15 minutes (using convection feature if you have one) or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.

When finished, let stand in muffin pan for 5 minutes. Then remove the muffins and place them on a cooling rack. (The bottoms of the muffins get a little moist with all of the fruit and cooking spray, so by placing them on a cooling rack they are able to dry out.)

Store in a glass container, if possible. The muffins keep for about a week. After a few days, I put them in the refrigerator, so the blueberries don't mold. You can pop them in the microwave for 15 seconds to bring them back to "life" before eating them. You can also freeze them if you like!

Note:

You can substitute 1 cup of bran cereal with oatmeal if you prefer. They are not branny tasting either way.

You can eliminate the blueberries if you don’t like them. The recipe still remains the same.

You can add other yummies in place of the blueberries – diced green apple, dried tart cherries, etc. You cannot eliminate the banana though.

The muffins are roughly 125 calories each.