Banana Carrot Muffins

My fridge is freezing my food. If I turn up the temperature on the fridge then the freezer allows my ice cream to melt. So, I keep the fridge super cold and sometimes I have to deal with frozen produce. This time it was carrots. So with a bunch of frozen carrots and many over ripe bananas in the freezer I decided to make banana carrot "cake" muffins. Using trusty all recipes I knew I would find a recipe I would like and of course I did. This recipe met my needs perfectly. With some tinkering to the ingredients - a standard practice in the Crowder household - I had my banana carrot muffins.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup Splenda
• 1/2 cup egg beaters
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 box raisins

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine apple sauce and sugar. Add egg beaters; mix well. Add bananas, carrots, and raisins. Mix well and allow to sit while preparing step 2.
   
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and pumpkin pie spice.
   
3. Gradually mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients.
4. Portion equally into a 12 serving muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 servings - calories per serving - 110

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Easter Sunday seemed like the perfect day to make a nice huge brunch. My friend Elliott came over and together we made a fruit salad that was amazing, apple cinnamon muffins - the ones from this blog - scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and these banana oatmeal muffins. I will say that the apple cinnamon muffins are by far my favorite. However, these are nice for something a little different.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tbsp egg beaters
  
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons non fat milk
• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons apple sauce
  
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup mashed bananas
• Cinnamon

Strudel Topping:

• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tbsp light butter
• 1 tbsp flour

Directions:

1. Combine flour, oats, Spenda, baking powder, soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly. Stir in the milk, apple sauce, and vanilla. Add the mashed banana, and combine thoroughly. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined. Divide evenly into 6 muffin tins.
3. Mix strudel topping ingredients with a fork. Top the muffins.
   
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes.

Makes 6 muffins - calories per muffin - 140

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

With the combined desire to make muffins and use oats (oats are heart healthy) I decided to make pumpkin oatmeal muffins. I have no idea where I got the basic recipe from. My poor computer decided to crash before I blogged this entry. However, I remember that I changed the recipe a lot and I am not going to add a recipe to this post. I am going to try these again so when I do I will post the recipe I use then.

Apple Cinnamon and Blueberry Muffins

I made the blue berry muffins from my blog again this morning but instead of making just blueberry I split the batter in half and mixed half with blueberries as before and half with apples and cinnamon. Last time I made these I used Splenda packets in combination with real sugar but last time I was shopping I picked up some granulated Splenda so I decided to try just using the Splenda this time.

These were excellent. Miles loves blueberry but he actually enjoyed the apple cinnamon muffins over the blueberry. The topping was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I only made 4 muffins this time and we scarfed them down. You can actually see the steam coming off the inside of the blueberry muffins.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 6 tbsp Spenda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp apple sauce
• 2 tbsp egg whites
• 1/4 cup non-fat milk
• 3 tbs frozen blueberries
• 1/4 apple
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  

Topping:

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/2 tbsp butter - light version
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners. I used my Silicon bake-ware so I did not need to grease the muffin cups.
   
2. Combine flour, Splenda, salt and baking powder in a medium sized bowl. Place apple sauce into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg whites and enough milk to fill to 1/2 cup. Mix this with flour mixture.
   
3. Split the mixture putting half into the measuring cup. Into the measuring cup add blueberries and fold in gently. Put mixture into two of the muffin tins.
4. To the other half of the batter add 1/4 of an apple, peeled and cubed. Add the cinnamon and mix together. Split into 2 muffin tins. You should now have two blueberry muffins and two apple muffins. The tins should be between halfway and two thirds of the way full.
   
5. Mix topping ingredients with a fork in a small bowl until grainy and sprinkle muffins with crumb topping mixture. Sprinkle the cinnamon muffins with a little extra cinnamon.
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Makes 4 muffins: calories per muffin - 145

Blueberry Muffins

Miles L-O-V-E-S blueberry muffins. He normally just makes Jiffy muffins but because he has been trying to loose weight he can no longer sit down and eat an entire box of Jiffy blueberry muffins. I wanted to treat him to his favorite breakfast and I found a recipe from allrecipes that looked promising...even with all the changes I would make to cut calories.

These "To Die For Blueberry Muffins" really were good. I used frozen blueberries and the blueberries were quite a bit larger than normal blueberries. Next time I will actually use fewer berries. I never thought I would say that but it is true. There were too many berries in this mix. I also followed the directions posted by other bakers that suggested making half the topping. Half the topping was more than enough. I probably only used half of the half that I made. I also used brown sugar for the topping instead of the white sugar the original recipe calls for.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 12 packets of Splenda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup apple sauce
  
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup non-fat milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Topping:

• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp butter at room temp

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners. I used my Silicon bake-ware so I did not need to grease the muffin cups.
   
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder in a medium sized bowl. Place apple sauce into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way to the top.
   
3. Mix topping ingredients with a fork in a small bowl until grainy and sprinkle muffins with crumb topping mixture.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Made 7 fist sized muffins: calories per muffin - 175

Banana Mini Muffins

I LOVE bananas, chocolate covered bananas, plain bananas, banana bread, banana pancakes, banana everything. I have been craving bread recently and my work had some very ripe bananas that no one wanted to eat. Of course at this point I am thinking about how wonderful banana bread would be for breakfast this weekend.

After looking all over the internet for a recipe and only finding breads with tons of four, sugar, and oil I decided to combine a couple of recipes and make my own substitutions. This recipe was a complete invention so I wasn't sure quiet how it would turn out. In the end my kitchen smelled fabulous and the muffins were delicious. I like my banana muffins a little on the under-cooked side so these might be a little moist for some people. If you like your muffins more like cake-like I would cut the apple sauce down to 1 tbs and add a pinch of baking powder. I will definitely be making these again.

Ingredients:

• 2 small/medium very ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup AP flour
• 6 packets of splenda
• 1 tbs light butter (I used Land-o-Lakes)
• 1.5 tbs unsweetened applesauce
• 1.5 tbs egg substitutes
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix sugar with butter (this helps to get all the butter blended smoothly!)
3. Add egg substitute, and beat lightly to get the mixture to fluff up a little.
4. Add the bananas, smashing them into the mix with a fork.
   
5. Add the vanilla, and applesauce.
6. Then add all the remaining dry ingredients and mix well.
7. Spoon about one tbs of batter into each mini muffin cup
   
8. Bake for 15 -20 minutes. Keep an eye on them as oven temperatures and cooking times vary. You'll be able to tell it's all ready when the color is good and golden brown, or when a knife comes out clean from the center.
9. Remove muffins or loaves from pans to cool on a rack.

Makes 12 mini muffins. Calories per muffin: 50