The first one is Banana Peanut Butter Spent Grain Muffins, based on the Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffins I found at Eat Me, Delicious. I substituted 1 1/2 cups of spent grains (I believe it was crystal malt) for the 1 cup of quick oats. The muffins are delicious, and extremely moist – almost too moist. Next time, I think I’ll cut the buttermilk back to 1/2 cup.

Banana Peanut Butter Spent Grain Muffins

 
Adapted from Eat Me, Delicious (http://www.eatmedelicious.com/2009/09/banana-peanut-butter-oatmeal-muffins.html)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups spent grains
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup mashed banana (about 2 med.)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup light buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, spent grains, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, brown sugar, eggs, mashed banana, peanut butter and buttermilk until very smooth, making sure all egg has been well-incorporated. Pour into flour mixture and stir until no streaks of flour remain.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin tin, filling each just about up to the top.

Bake for 16-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.

Remove muffins from tin and cool on a wire rack.

Makes 14.

NOTE: The batter tastes absolutely horrid, but when baked it’s wonderful!

Snickerdoodle Blondies

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup butter — room temperature
2 each eggs — room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.

Stir flour mixture into butter mixture until well blended. It should have the consistence of cookie batter. Spread evenly in baking pan.

Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over batter.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 322 Calories; 13g Fat (36.4% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 48g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 61mg Cholesterol; 337mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 2 1/2 Fat; 2 Other Carbohydrates.

One of the sourdough-based recipes the kids love is Sourdough Blueberry Muffins. Below you’ll find the recipe, along with nutritional ino, courtesy of MasterCook Deluxe.

Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 each egg — well beaten
1/2 cup sourdough starter (all-purpose, unbleached flour)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Measure flour, sugar, baking powder and salt onto waxed paper.

In a large bowl, beat the egg. Add sourdough starter, buttermilk and oil. Mix well.

Add dry ingredients all at once. Stir until just mixed.

Fold in blueberries.

Fill greased or paper lined muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 152 Calories; 7g Fat (39.9% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 18mg Cholesterol; 149mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

Milk Chocolate Chip Muffins

 
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Create a well in the center and set aside.

In a small or medium sized bowl, beat the egg, then stir in the milk, oil and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture into the well in the flour mixture and stir until almost all the dry ingredients are moist. At this point, add in the chocolate chips and finish mixing until everything is moist. There batter should be lumpy, so that’s okay.

Portion the batter equally into a standard 12 muffin muffin tin that you’ve either lined with paper liners, or sprayed it with cooking spray. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 – 15 minutes before eating.

Next time, though, I will mix the puree in with the wet ingredients. I think it will spread the pumpkin better through the batter, and I won’t have to worry about over mixing – or white spots in the finished muffins.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

 
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together, then form a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

In another bowl, beat the egg, then combine with vegetable oil, pumpkin and milk.

Pour wet ingredients into the well you made in the dry ingredients and stir until almost combined. Add in chocolate chips. Stir it all together until well combined, but don’t over stir. There can be some lumps, but you don’t want too many.

Divide the batter equally between the muffin cups and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

I followed the directions on the back of the cornmeal bag to make the muffin batter, and then added in the hot dogs and cheese for the corndog muffins, and some chicken, peas and carrots for the stuffed muffins. I baked the corndog muffins in a regular muffin tin (better portion control for the kids, as they’ll be the ones eating them for the most part), and I’ll make the stuffed corn muffins as jumbo muffins (as it’ll be Matt and me eating them for breakfasts).

Update: After making the corndog muffins, I decided not to use that cornbread recipe again. I didn’t really like the aftertaste. I still want to make chicken muffins, so I did some surfing and found the Best Ever Muffins recipe. It touts itself as a good basic muffin recipe that you can use as the foundation of different variations. I did it as is, adding in chicken, bacon and a handful of shredded sharp cheddar. It’s going to end up being rather sweet, but we’ll see how the combination tastes. If it’s generally good, I’ll modify the base recipe to suit our tastes. Once I do that, I’ll post the results here on Chef Lisa.

I found this recipe at Cooking During Stolen Moments. Kate and I are in similar positions. While she has two toddlers – and my monkeys are a bit older – we both struggle with putting tasty, nutritious meals on the table in a short period of time. Both of us also think that Rachel must cook in a different world where time passes different – rarely do we get her 30 minute meals done in 30 minutes.

Kate’s got several yummy looking recipes on her website, one of which are these banana muffins. I baked them Wednesday morning (I get up 45 minutes earlier than the kids do), and had them done by the time they were ready to eat breakfast. They both said I have to make them again, and add nuts or chocolate chips next time. I’ll gladly do that, but I also think I will reduce the sugar to 1/2 a cup, as I found the muffins very sweet. So sweet, in fact, that I was still tasting the sweetness in my mouth 20 minutes after I ate one.

Banana Muffins

http://stolenmomentscooking.blogspot.com/search/label/Banana%20Muffins

* 1 1/2 cups flour
* 1 1/2 t. baking powder
* 1/2 t. cinnamon
* 1/4 t. baking soda
* 1/4 t. salt
* 1 egg
* 1 t. vanilla
* 2 mashed bananas
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup applesauce
* 1/4 c. chopped walnuts or chocolate chips (optional)

1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in egg, vanilla, mashed bananas, sugar, and applesauce until combined. If desired, fold in optional ingredients.

2. Pour into greased muffin tin and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12 regular sized muffins.