Oatmeal and Apple Muffins

Maybe I have said before, I really can't remember, I am diabetic. Type 2. My blood sugars tend to run higher than they should. So when my friend Beth announced that she too was a "denyabetic" and that new changes were going to be made, that motivated me to make changes as well. I have 2 sons. My oldest one, Shane, is tall and skinny as a pencil. With his shirt off, you can count his ribs. My second son, Blake, is a little shorter and chunkier. He is my total foodie kid. Will eat anything, or at least try it. He told me last week that he was embarrassed by his body image and wanted to slim down. This is the other reason to get me thinking of a more healthy lifestyle for myself and my family. I worry about eating disorders, and know that it doesn't just choose females.

In between doing our daily "check ins" with each other, Beth sent me this link for these muffins. They use very little sugar..1/4 cup for 12 muffins! And I think that next time I will sub in honey instead of the sugar. This recipe only uses 1 cup of flour..next, maybe wheat flour. But the one thing that I liked about this recipe is that she gave us add in combo's and the amounts to use. I chose to chop up a granny smith apple and throw it in. These muffins are really, really good. They have been good for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

One-Bowl Oatmeal Muffins: Basic Recipe
Adapted from: Simple Bites

Be sure to read the recipe all the way through before getting started. You will note that the oats soak in the milk 1 hour prior to assembling the rest of the ingredients, so take that into consideration before starting out.
Makes 12 medium muffins

1 cup milk*
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 cup rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 large egg, at room temperature
¼ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly ground
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, freshly ground
add-ins of your choosing (see above suggestions)

Combine milk, vinegar and oats in a large bowl and let stand one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a twelve-cup muffin tin and line with cupcake papers.
Crack the egg into the oat and milk mixture; add brown sugar and mix to combine. Stir in melted butter.

Sift remaining ingredients into the bowl: flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, & spices. Gently fold into batter, taking care not to over mix.

Sprinkle add-in and flavorings of your choice and combine muffin batter gently.

Use a large ice cream scoop or 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop batter into muffin tins. Bake until light brown and tops spring back when gently touched, about 10-12 minutes. Note: Muffins will take slightly longer to bake if you are adding fresh fruit such as blueberries or rhubarb.
Remove from oven and cool in tins. To remove, run a sharp knife around the edges and pop muffins out. Enjoy!

*You may also substitute 1 cup buttermilk, and then omit the vinegar from the recipe.

One-Bowl Oatmeal Muffins: Flavor Combinations
1 cup Raspberries, fresh or frozen & ½ cup Dark Chocolate, chunks or chips
¾ cup Diced Apple (Granny Smith or Russet) and ½ cup toasted Walnuts, roughly chopped
¾ cup Dried Cranberries & ½ cup toasted Pecans, roughly chopped
¾ cup White Chocolate, chopped or chips & 1 cup Blueberries, fresh or frozen
½ cup toasted unsweetened Coconut & ¾ cup Peanut-Butter Chips
1 cup diced Rhubarb, fresh or frozen & ½ teaspoon Green Cardamom, freshly ground
¾ cup Dates, pitted and chopped & ½ cup Pistachios
¾ cup Golden Raisins & ¾ cup grated Carrot

Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins

My family is a family full of muffin lovers, especially warm right out of the oven with a little bit of butter that is melting....ok, let me get back to this muffin.

This is from BFMHTY by Dorie. Love them. Nice and chocolaty, moist and dense. This is one great muffin!

Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins
From:BFMHTY

6 Tbsp unsalted butter
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet

Melt the butter and half the chopped chocolate together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water; or do this in a microwave. Remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg and vanilla extract together until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients and the melted butter and chocolate over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough-a few lumps are better than over mixing the batter. Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Coffee Cake Muffins

I have done it again, staying away for too long! This summer is just flying by, and that doesn't leave a lot of time for being in the kitchen, and I am missing it! I need my therapy sessions! These muffins are easy to put together and very, very good! They are moist, dense, and you have a swirl of cinnamon in the middle, well, I say the middle...but some of my swirls were more near the bottom of the muffin than the middle, but that didn't change the taste at all. Spread the warm muffin with a pat of butter and you have total comfort!

Coffee Cake Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Combine first 3 ingredients; set aside.

Stir together flour and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together the egg, milk, and oil; add to flour mixture stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Place paper cups in muffin pans, and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon batter into each of 12 cups; sprinkle evenly with half of brown sugar mixture. Top evenly with remaining batter, and sprinkle with remaining brown sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan immediately; cool on a wire rack.

Doughnut Muffins

First off, I really hope that blogger decides to separate my paragraphs, it is really starting to bug me!

Ok, now that I have that off of my chest, let's get to these muffins. Saturday mornings are normally pretty lazy mornings for me and the kids. I try to make muffins, pancakes, or cinnamon toast. Sometimes we stick to the normal bowl of cereal, but for the most part, I try to make something. I had seen these muffins make their way around the blogosphere and really wanted to try them. This was the perfect Saturday morning to try them. These muffins are really good. Nice and fluffy, with the cinnamon sugar topping. They were exactly what we needed on this rainy morning!


Doughnut Muffins
3 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar, plus 1/8 cup of sugar
1/2 tbs. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

For Topping
1/4 cup butter, more if needed
1 cups sugar
1 tbs. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with muffin cups.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until just mixed in. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Combine the vanilla, milk and heavy cream, in a different bowl.

3. With a spoon, mix a quarter of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then mix in a third of the milk mixture. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until well combined and smooth, but don't over mix.

4. Scoop enough batter into each tin so that the top of the batter is even with the rim of the cup, about 1/2 cup. Bake the muffins until firm to the touch, about 25-30 minutes.

5. To finish, Melt the butter for the dipping mixture in a small bowl. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. When the muffins are just cool enough to handle, remove them from the tin, dip them into or brush them all over with the melted butter, and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

Lightened Strawberry Muffins

These muffins are surprisingly really good, to be low fat. I have to admit that I will almost never turn down a muffin. There is just something about them, that I can't pass up. This recipe originally called for blueberries, but I used strawberries instead. This just proved that you could use any fruit that you would like with these. I am thinking that next batch will be made with blackberries. The one thing that I liked about these muffins were that instead of butter, you used 1/3 less fat cream cheese. I am sure that using fat free would work the same and could probably use the Splenda sugar blend to lower the calories some more. But, I am good with these being 223 calories. Oh, and the kids loved them too!

Strawberry Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 (8oz) package 1/3 less fat cream cheese, at room temp

1 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 cup (1%) low fat milk

1/2 refrigerated liquid egg substitute

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries of your choice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray (I got 16 muffins). Combine flour, baking powder and salt; reserve. In separate bowl, on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese and 1 cup sugar until blended, 1 minute. On low speed, beat in milk and egg substitute. Add flour mixture; beat until just moistened. Fold in berries. Divide among muffin cups. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbsp sugar. Bake 15-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers come out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Transfer from pan to rack; cool or serve warm.

Megan's Healthy Maple and Brown Sugar Muffins

I have been wanting to make these muffins ever since I saw where Megan had made them. The only problem is there here in Knoxville, you can't find the Malt O Meal hot wheat cereal. The closest thing that I could find was Quaker instant hot wheat cereal. I decided that I would give it a try with the instant.

These muffins took no time to whip up and put into the oven. The verdict? My muffins didn't rise. They puffed up just a little. This could be because I used the instant cereal or because I baked these at 350 degrees instead of 450. My oven tends to bake hotter than it should. They tasted good, but I would like to try them with the malt o meal cereal to compare. These are definitely a dense, stick to your rib muffin, as Megan had said.

Maple and Brown Sugar Magic Muffins
Adapted from Malt O Meal

1 1/4 whole wheat flour
1 cup Maple and Brown Sugar flavored Malt O Meal hot wheat cereal, dry
1/3 cup Splenda or sugar
3/4 cup low fat milk
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup egg substitute
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients till just moistened. Pour into greased muffin pan.

Bake at 400 18-20 minutes.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins

I saw this recipe on a forum that I am a member, and it was originally made with raspberries, but for some reason cranberries popped into my mind and sounded really good with this recipe. And I was right. I had some cranberries in the freezer and this was a perfect way to use them. But, I really didn't realize that cranberries would float in batter! I love these and have eaten 1 every morning for breakfast. I like the tartness of the cranberries with the cream cheese and sweetness of the muffin. The hubby does not like cranberries, but liked the muffin and thought they would be good with blueberries. I bet they would!

Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins

3 ounces cream cheese

3 eggs

1 c. sugar

1 c. milk

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

6 Tbsp. butter

2 c. flour

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. cranberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease the muffin tins or line with paper cups. In a small bowl, beat together until smooth the cream cheese with one egg, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla and set aside.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, butter, and one tsp vanilla. Stir over medium heat until the butter melts. Cool until warm to the touch, then beat in the remaining two eggs. In large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and remaining sugar. Add the milk mixture and stir just to blend. Fold in the cranberries. Divide the batter equally among the muffin cups. Spoon about 2 tsp cream cheese mixture on top of each muffin. Pull knife through each top to swirl slightly. Bake about 20 minutes or until top springs bake when lightly touched.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

This morning I woke up hungry, and the usual bowl of cereal was just not doing it for me today. So, I decided to make these muffins. They are quick to put together and bake, so within 30 minutes, you can have hot chocolate chip muffins. Now, Abby (my daughter) does not like sweet stuff at all for breakfast...pancakes, pop tarts, Krispy Kreme doughnuts...notta....so, no surprise that she didn't like these. My boys on the other hand, LOVED them. I think that they both eat 3 a piece.

These will definitely be made again in my house. This recipe also will make 2 dozen.

Chocolate Chip Muffins:
3 1/2 all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 Cups granulated sugar
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 Cup milk
1 Cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 Cups chocolate chips, I used semi-sweet
3/4 Cup coarsely chopped, toasted pecans or walnuts (optional)

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, soft together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well. In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, butter, milk, sour cream, eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla, until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and fold gently with a rubber spatula just until the dry ingredients are mostly moistened; the batter will be lumpy, and there should still be quite a few streaks of dry flour. Fold in the chocolate chips, and the nuts, if using, just until combined. don't over mix; the batter will still be lumpy.

Fill muffin cups about 3/4 of the way up to the top and bake for 20-25 minutes.

TWD-Orange Berry Muffins

Here we are again, with this weeks edition of Tuesday with Dorie. When I joined in on this a few weeks ago, I just figured that we would bake a recipe each week and make a few great friends and just post about it, so that I could go back a year from now and remember my experience on it. I never dreamed that Dorie herself would check it out and actually comment. So, a great big THANK YOU to Dorie for the comment!



This week was chose by Michelle with Sugar and Spice. What a great choice! These are perfect for any morning snack....or late morning, early afternoon...bedtime...ok, anytime of the day perfect. The orange flavor is a background flavor, just as Dorie said in the book. It is not a really strong flavor at all. I also made half of mine with sugar sprinkled on top and the other half not. I liked the half that had the sugar on top, it gave a little extra sweet crunch, although, my 10 year old son did not like the sugar topping.



The batter came together quickly, and because I made mini muffins, 10-12 minutes later, I had perfect blueberry muffins.



This week, we have 2 new chicks to join our escapade..Nicole from Crazy Delicious and Ashley from Eat Me Delicious. A great big welcome to you guys. And of course, don't forget to check out Laurie, Michelle and Jaime, too!



We have a great one already picked out for next week!

Orange Berry Muffins


Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
About 3/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons honey
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries–fresh preferably, or frozen (not thawed)


Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds of a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.
Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup or a bowl and pour in enough buttermilk to make 1 cup. Whisk in the eggs, honey and melted butter.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of orange is strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough–the batter will be lumpy and bubbly, and that’s just the way it should be.

Stir in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes. If you want to top the muffins with decorating sugar, sprinkle on the sugar after the muffins have baked for 10 minutes. When fully bakes, the tops of the muffins will be golden and springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.