I invented this particular recipe after wondering what to do with some leftover bran cereal. Because bran flakes are so similar to Raisin Bran (which has more sugar than Fruit Loops!), I determined to make a healthy, wheat flour and oats muffin that also tastes good enough that the kids would eat it.

The secret: bananas! They are so sweet that I only needed a half cup of sugar. So I chose brown sugar, which always adds a hint of caramel flavoring to any baked good. Mmmm!

Here’s a great tip for saving brown bananas for future baking projects: Don’t EVER put them in containers, or they turn a nasty brackish brown. Instead, freeze bananas in the container mother nature originally gave them and just toss them into the freezer. Here are the frozen bananas I used for this recipe:

These were frozen solid, so I just microwaved them for a minute. Here’s what you see inside once they have thawed. They keep a nice, light color while frozen:

So here’s the recipe:

1 cup of bran flakes cereal

1 cup rolled oats (NOT instant oats)

1 cup wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then, in a separate bowl, combine the following:

2 large eggs

2 bananas, mashed

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk w/ 1 tablespoon of vinegar, left to sit 5 min)

1/3 cup canola or sunflower oil (NOT vegetable oil, which is bad for kids’ health)

Whisk together, then fold into the bowl of dry ingredients

Drop into greased muffin tins, using a large ice cream scoop (to keep muffins uniform in shape). Bake at 400 degrees for 25-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Here’s the recipe:

1 and 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 and 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup apple juice

2 cups diced apples (can substitute raisins or other diced fruits)

1/4 cup canola oil

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl; set aside. Combine wet ingredients in a smaller bowl, then add apples. Pour entire mixture into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Bake in greased mini muffin tins for 7-10 minutes at 400 degrees (or in regular-sized tins for 15-20 minutes).

Using summer squash gave these pancakes a beautiful golden color, and using the blender to grind my wheat made them super-healthy AND super easy, because I didn’t have to haul out the wheat grinder!

Here’s the recipe:

Squash N’ Wheat Blender Pancakes

• 1/2 cup of whole wheat grains
• 1/2 cup of oat groats, kamut, or spelt grains
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 large summer squash (or zucchini) quartered, with the seeds scraped out
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
• 1 tablespoon baking powder (for thicker, fluffier pancakes, use Rumford baking powder. See note, below)

Directions:

Place wheat, oat grains, and milk in the blender. (Note: you can also just use one full cup of wheat, but the pancakes won’t be as soft if you do)

Can you tell the difference? Oat groats on the left, wheat berries on the right!

Blend on high speed for two minutes. The resulting batter will be pretty thick:

Then add your quartered summer squash or zucchini pieces:

And blend on high speed for another minute or so. Add remaining ingredients EXCEPT baking powder. Blend to combine, then add in baking powder last of all and blend for another minute. If you are using Rumford baking powder,  the batter will visibly puff up and rise to the top of the blender. This makes the pancakes softer and fluffier than white flour pancakes, so kids will never notice the whole grains!

Pour batter onto hot griddle, and turn after bubbles start to appear on the surface:

The resulting pancakes look so yummy that your kids will never know that they’re loaded with veggies and whole grains:

These pancakes tasted so good that my eleven month-old devoured them, even WITHOUT syrup!

I invented these muffins last night, because my garden has produced quite the bumper crop of summer squash this year:

The resulting recipe turned out some very healthy, yet delicious muffins! In my pictures, you are seeing mini-muffins with mini chocolate chips (smaller muffins=less mess). But you could easily make them as regular-sized muffins with regular-sized chocolate chips, too!

Here’s the recipe:

Sugar Free Summer Squash Muffins

• 3 cups grated/shredded summer squash
• 1 cup honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 eggs

Slice the summer squash and remove their seeded centers. Shred the squash on the fine setting of your cheese grater or food processor. Place the zucchini on a finely woven cotton towel like this:

Next, close the towel around the squash and squeeze out excess liquid, like this:

You should end up with a play-doughy ball of summer squash pulp that looks like this:

Next, add honey, eggs, vanilla, and oil to the squash in a medium-sized bowl and stir to combine.

In a separate, larger bowl, combine the following:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup chopped nuts (or mini semi-sweet chocolate chips–which I use because otherwise my kids won’t eat muffins this healthy). Can also add chopped dates, craisins, or raisins.

Combine dry ingredients, then stir in the squash mixture. Next add:

• 1 egg white, beaten until thick and foamy

(Note: this egg white is optional, but I like to add it because it makes the muffins lighter, fluffier, and they puff out more in the pan when I add it).

Drop muffins into tins sprayed with canola oil cooking spray, using an ice cream scoop to ensure uniform sizes (or use a large cookie scoop for regular-sized muffin tins, since in this picture, I was using mini muffin tins)

Bake them at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes (remember: this is for mini muffins. You want 15-20 minutes for regular-sized). These tasty muffins hide the vegetables so well, that all you see is a hint of gold on the inside (unlike zucchini, which leaves green tints in baked goods, thereby alerting my children to their healthy content!)

I made these muffins last night. Now that we have early church, I don’t have time to cook on Sunday mornings, so once the kids are up and dressed, I hand them each a baggie with 3 or 4 mini-muffins on our way out to the car. By the time we get to church, they eat them all gone! What a great way to have a quick–yet healthy!–breakfast.

With brown sugar in the batter and pineapple chunks in the center, these muffins taste so incredibly dessert-like that my kids devoured them without stopping to notice the coarse whole grain flour and precious little oil I used to make them! They gobbled them up so quickly that next time, I will have to double the batch if I want any leftovers to freeze for quick breakfasts on-the-run!

Here’s the recipe:

Pineapple Upsidedown Muffins

2 cups  fresh-ground whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

2/3 cup buttermilk (or regular milk mixed w/ 2 teaspoons vinegar and left to curdle for 5 min)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 2 tsp imitation)

1 egg white, beaten until stiff

1 cup pineapple chunks, drained.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl ,whisk together all remaining ingredients EXCEPT the egg white. Add wet ingredients to the large bowl and stir until just combined. Fold in the egg white until just combined.

Drop batter into canola-sprayed mini muffin cups using a mini cookie scoop. Press one pineapple chunk into the center of each muffin, then top with another half scoop of batter. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I like the convenience of breakfast bars, but hate the cost (four buck for six bars? COME ON!), added preservatives, high fructose corn syrups, and very environmentally not-friendly wasteful packaging!

And so I invented these–my yummy breakfast muffins, loaded with the tasty flavors of whole grain flour, oats, and fruit jam!

You can use any jam that you have on hand instead of the apricot jam I recommend, but I recommend it be something light in color (think marmalade*, peach jam, apple butter) or else your muffins will take on the pinkish or blue-ish hues of strawberry or grape jams!

Here’s the recipe

Breakfast Bar Muffins

1 cup quick oats

1 cup whole grain flour (can be wheat, spelt, seven-grain, whatever)

1/4 cup sugar (can substitute honey)

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1/2 cup fat free milk

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 cup apricot preserves (can substitute peach jam, apply jelly, or orange marmalade*)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg white, beaten stiff

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl until combined. In a separate bowl, mix egg, milk, oil, jam, and vanilla, then stir into dry ingredient. Fold in beaten egg white, then drop into greased muffins tins and sprinkle extra oats on top. bake at 400 degrees for 20-22 minutes for large muffins, or 8-10 minutes for mini-muffins (pictured here)

 * For an AMAZING do-it-yourself, environmentally-friendly homemade marmalade recipe and instructions, you have got to check out this recipe, from one of my favorite blogs ever!

Here’s the recipe:

Sugar-Free Pumpkin Muffins

1 and 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup apple sauce

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup water

3/4 cup raisins or coconut (I prefer sugar-free or regular miniature semisweet chocolate chips–NOT milk chocolate which is too sugary.  The raisins just weren’t as kid-friendly)

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately, then mix together until combined.  Bake in muffin cups at 350 for 20-25 minutes for regular size muffins or 8-12 minutes for mini muffins.

I invented these super-yummy breakfast muffins for my son, who refuses to eat meat. The sausage is hidden inside a scrumptious maple/whole-grain batter and tastes soooo good that even my little meat-hater devoured them!

You can make these two ways. The first is a regular muffin with the sausage patty inside :The second is a mini-muffin with cooked sausage bits inside:

Either way, these taste SO good that you’ll never want to buy prepackaged breakfast foods again. Best of all, they’re super healthy, with two different grains and no oil or butter!

 Here’s the recipe:

Maple Sausage Pancake Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

1 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 cups buttermilk (or 3 cups milk w/ 3 tablespoons vinegar, let sit for 5 min. to curdle)

2 large eggs, beaten

1 and 1/2 tsp maple extract

**Prepare and set aside: one 12-ounce roll of sausage (flavored according to your preference) and cook it in patties, or crumbled, or half of both styles.

Combine flours, salt, soda, and brown sugar. Whisk egg and maple extract in the buttermilk, then add this wet mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened–batter will be slightly lumpy.

For mini-muffins, fold the  pre-cooked, crumbled sausage into the batter until combined.

Spray mini-muffin tins with canola oil cooking spray. Drop batter into the pan using a mini cookie scoop.

 Bake at 400 for 8 minutes (mini muffins) or 18 minutes (regular-sized)

Before removing muffins from the pan, trace around their edges with a toothpick to loosen them without tearing or shredding.

Store them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

 For regular-sized muffins, spray muffin pan with canola oil cooking spray. Drop one ice cream scooper full of batter into tin, add sausage patty, then top with a second scoop of batter.

When I bake these muffins, I usually divide the sausage roll in half; I make one half into patties, the other into crumbled sausage. Then I divide the batter in half and make big muffins for the older kids, minis for the little tykes.

These muffins freeze well, too, so you can double up, make a bunch, and freeze them for quick breakfasts! Just grab ‘em, nuke ‘em, and kids can pop them into their mouths for a quick and tasty sausage and pancake breakfast on the run! Who needs fast food when you’ve got tasty, healthy, and cost-effective meals like this??

Breakfast Bites

2 cups oats

2 cups whole wheat flour

2/3 cup brown sugar (or sucanat)

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup dried fruit (craisins, raisins, dates, etc) OR 3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (my kids hated the fruit version)

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cups ground flaxseed (optional)

3/4 cup applesauce

1tsp baking soda

2 tablespoons hot water

Mix dry ingredients.  Mix baking soda with hot water, then add to honey and oil; pour into dry ingredients and mix well.  If necessary, add extra water until dough reaches the right consistency (should not be dry and crumbly)

Place tablespoons of batter into mini-muffin pans (NOT full-sized muffin tins or they fall apart!) and flatten tops with the back of the spoon.  Bake at 350 degrees for ten minutes or until golden. 

Because I prefer mini-muffins (less mess ’cause kids can pop them into their mouths), I did not use real blueberries. The blueberries I buy are so large that I would only get about one blueberry per muffin.  Also, my children were constantly getting blueberry juice stains on their clothes, so I started buying these imitation blueberry nuggets. They are imitation, but not unhealthy. I bought them at a baking supply shop, but you can buy them online, too–just click here.

Here’s the recipe:

Yogurt Wheat Blueberry Mini Muffins

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar (or honey)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/2 cups vanilla or lemon yogurt

3 tablespoons grated lemon or orange rind

2 large eggs

1/2 cup canola oil (or apple sauce for less fat)

1/2 cup imitation blueberry nuggets

Spray mini-muffin cups with canola oil cooking spray. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix dy ingredients in large bowl. Whisk yogurtn eggs, and citrus rind together in smaller bowl. Gently fold yogurt mixture into dry ingredients., then fold in the melted butter. Do not over-mix. Then gently add in blueberry nuggets.

Using a mini-cookie scoop, drop batter into mini-muffin cups. Bake for eight-to-ten minutes or until golden in color, browning on the edges, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out w/ sparse crumbs.

*Remember, for healthier muffins, you can replace the butter with applesauce, and you can use fresh blueberries instead of the nuggets!