A tasty shot of fiber for ya...

I don't even have a picture for you today, but I have a great recipe. One of my college friends started a group on Facebook called Healthy Cooking on a Budget, and another college friend posted a bran muffin recipe that is very yummy and quite easy. In fact, I had a batch whipped up and out the door to take to a meeting at work before I remembered to take a picture! They aren't much to look at anyway, but they are delish, and full of nutritious ingredients.

Of course, I made a few tweaks to the original recipe below. The first change was a mistake. When I was at the store, I remembered that I needed some kind of bran cereal, but I bought All-Bran instead of oat bran. Oops. But I just stirred the cereal in with the wet stuff and let it soften while I got on with the rest of the batter. I also used whole wheat white flour, because that's what I had on hand. It made the texture very light. And instead of chopped dates, I used date crystals, so they ended up dissolving into the muffins like sugar. I upped the vanilla to one full teaspoon, and I added an extra couple of tablespoons of oil, too, but the batter still looked a bit heavy to me. So I ended up stirring in a scant 1/4 cup of buttermilk. I baked them in cupcake liners, and they came out just beautifully. Using a regular muffin scoop, I got 14 muffins. They took 20 minutes to bake, and I let them cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning them out. YUM!

Mimi’s Muffins

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
3/4 cup oat bran cereal (I accidentally used All-Bran*...and would do it again)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix all dry ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.  Then mix the following in a larger bowl:

1/3 cup mashed banana (=one banana)
1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream
2 egg whites or 1 egg
2 tablespoons oil or applesauce (I increased this to 1/4 cup)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I increased this to one teaspoon)
1/2 cup brown sugar
*I stirred the All-Bran cereal into the wet ingredients to let it soften while I mashed the banana and grated carrots and chopped nuts.
**I also added about 1/4 cup buttermilk to the wet mixture.

Combine the dry ingredients with the wet mix, then fold in:

1/2 cup carrots, shredded
1/2 cup dates, chopped (I used date crystals)
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used walnuts)

Bake in muffin tins at 400* for 18-20 mins. Makes about 10-12 muffins. (I got 14 using a regular muffin scoop.)