A Duo of Muffins.

I've been waiting most of the week to bake some muffins to freeze for those hurried mornings, that are likely going to start creeping up even more! I decided to make some healthy oat bran applesauce muffins and since I had a lot of very ripe bananas to use up, I went with the strawberry banana muffins from Annie's Eats. Both batches of muffins turned out well & tasted great, and will great to grab from the freezer when we don't have time for a proper breakfast.

Coming in with 6g each of fiber and protein, the oat bran muffins provide a big nutritional punch in the morning. These muffins were delicious and had just the right touch of sweetness. A spoonful of homemade apple butter on top made them even more delictable! I love finding new recipes that are both healthy & delicous! The recipe for the oat bran muffins is from Hodgson Mill Oat Bran Hot Cereal, and can be found on the back of the box. I'm going to reprint the recipe for those that may not have any oat bran on hand or at least not this brand.

The strawberry banana muffins could also be considered fairly healthy and could easily be played around with to make even healthier. I'm not generally a big fan of combining bananna and strawberries, so I did have some reservations about these muffins - thankfully, I was won over by this particular flavor combination! Like the previous muffins, these also had just the right touch of sweetness and had a delicate note of banana - nothing overwhelming like some bananna baked goods can be. I'll certainly be keeping both of these recipes in my muffin rotation.

Oat Bran Applesauce Muffins

1/2 c. Brown sugar, packed

1 1/2 c. Oat bran cereal

1 1/2 c. Unbleached white flour

1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 1/2 tsp. Baking soda

1/2 tsp. Salt
2 eggs or 4 egg whites

1 c. Applesauce, chilled

4 Tbs. Vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 400. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or grease muffin cups.

2. Blen together dry ingredients. Add eggs, chipped applesauce and vegetable oil. Mix until well blended. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Let stand for 10 minutes.

3. Bake 15 inutes or utnil golden brown.

Yield: 12 muffins

Recipe obtained from: Hodgson Mill

What I did: I used 2 eggs, only because I was to lazy to seperate the whites out. I used natural applesauce & think using a flavored applesauce would also be good. I might even experiment with apple butter in place of the applesauce next time. I also thought about trying out different spice combinations - ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. or even some dried fruit or nuts. Lastly, I used canola oil in place of the vegetable oil with no problems.