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).

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.

Don’t be fooled by the outside appearance of this muffin! It’s cornbread-like appearance can be deceiving, but the muffin base is definitely not the sweet-salty flavor of cornbread! Instead, is is straight-up true tamale saltiness!

Inside each salty cornmeal muffin you can use whatever tamale filling you like best (and I have some suggestions, too!)

Here’s the recipe:

Zesty Tamale Muffins

1 and 1/2 cups fresh ground flour

1 cup cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon salt

Combine these ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the following:

1/3 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

Stir wet mix into the dry ingredients above. Then add:

1 egg white, beaten until stiff

Fold the beaten egg white into batter, then drop one scoop of batter into greased muffins tins, using an ice cream scoop. Top batter with a smaller scoop of taco meat, tamale filling, or my mixture* idea below:

You can also top this filling with chese, which I did not do in the photo, but which makes these much more kid-friendly.

Next, cover filling with a second ice cream scoop of the batter:

Bake at 400 degrees for twenty minutes, then allow to cool for ten minuted before removing from tins (when they’re really hot and soft, they can fall apart if you try to remove them from the tins too soon!).

These taste great when spread with sour cream!

*For my filling, I sauteed six ounces of chorizo sausage with a diced onion and minced garlic clove, then drained the oil and dropped it into the center of the tamale batter. This is spicy and not very kid-friendly, but I sure liked it!

I invented this super-scrumptious muffin so that I could have some sort of grab-n-go lunches in my freezer for days when I was going to be running errands or working, and didn’t want to rely on fast food for me or my kids. I always bake these as a mini muffin to help save on calories per serving, because they do have cheese and bacon in them, but I leave the skins on my potatoes and use wheat flour, so they are still healthier than any restaurant version.

Oh yeah–they taste better, too!  Here’s the recipe:

Loaded Baked Potato Muffins

2 egg yolks

3 cups mashed potatoes (or 3 cups grated raw potatoes, squeezed dry in a dish towel)

1/4 cup grated onion

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 stiffly beaten egg whites

1 cup crumbled cooked bacon

3/4 cup shredded cheese

1/2 cup sliced chives (optional)

Stir the egg yolks into the potatoes and onion. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder. Add to potato mixture, then fold in the oil and beaten egg whites. Stir in bacon bits and cheese (along with chives, if using them). Spray mini-muffin tins with canola cooking spray, then drop muffins into tins using a regular-sized ice cream scoop. Batter must fill cups because muffins won’t rise much. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until edged are dark brown and crisp, insides resemble dry mashed potatoes. Garnish tops with extra shredded cheese and bake another couple of minutes.

Refrigerate in air-tight container within 2 hours of baking.

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.

My solution: I created these healthy, whole grain TUNA MELT MUFFINS!  These taste great, they don’t get soggy, and my kids actually ate them–they’re so picky, that these muffins must be good! I pack them in my husband’s lunch cooler, and he can microwave them until they are melty, but the muffin base stays nice and crisp!

Here’s the recipe:

WHOLE GRAIN TUNA MELT MUFFINS

2 cups whole wheat or seven-grain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 beaten egg

1 cup cold milk (or water)

1/4 cup canola oil

Mix ingredients by hand until just combined (will still be lumpy). Fill 12 muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.

TUNA FILLING:

1 can tuna, drained

4 ounces Neufchatel cheese*

Combine tuna and cheese; place a spoon full of tuna mix into center of each muffin cup before baking.

Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Top with shredded cheese, then bake another five minutes until done. Store in refrigerator if not eaten within the hour.They taste great with a slice of pickle or tomato on top!

*Can also use cream cheese, but do NOT use mayo, because it will liquefy during baking.