Banana Yogurt Muffins, once forgotten

My very first original recipe, and still a classic.

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

Light orange, sweet chocolate, and a splash of vanilla make for a breakfast you can look forward to.

Pumpkin Gingerbread Muffins

These pumpkin-gingerbread muffins make winter almost bearable.

Whole Wheat Banana Oat Muffins (with Chocolate Chips)

Banana redemption is mine.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These gems popped into my Facebook feed on just the right day.

Molasses Bran Spice Muffins

Who ever heard of kids asking for more bran muffins? (I did! Today!)

Maple Zucchini Muffins and the Window of Opportunity

These Maple Zucchini Muffins had a very short and specific shelf life. By day 3 they were no good anymore, but for two perfect days, they were glorious.

Mini Banana Maple Muffins

LIttle banana bites with a touch of maple flavor, lovely for guilt-free eating and apparently perfect for trading on the 5th grade snack market.

Vanilla Crunch Muffins

jump to recipe I have been wanting to make these Vanilla Crunch Muffins for ages! I don’t know why I wanted so long. They are sweet, if somewhat sticky, with a lovely coconut crunch on top, and smooth vanilla flavor. A little different from my usual fare. I started by scraping the vanilla bean. Lucky […]

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Muffins (without Pecans)

jump to recipe These were supposed to have pecans in them, originally, but circumstances forced me to rename them Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Muffins (without Pecans). The recipe I based them on was called “Pumpkin Pecan Muffins,” but mysteriously,  there weren’t any pecans listed in the ingredients or in the directions. I posted so in the […]

Vanilla Bean Blood Orange Mini Loaves

jump to recipe This recipe for Vanilla Bean Blood Orange Mini Loaves turned into The Great Ingredient Improvisation Experiment. I didn’t have all the ingredients, so I had to wing it a little, and once I was winging it, I started adding in some things too. The results were incontrovertible: a perfect soft crumb, and […]

Fluffy Corn Muffins

Some homemade chicken soup inspired these fluffy corn muffins. Dave spent the whole day making soup, and when we got back from the movies, I decided I’d better whip together something to go with it.

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Muffins

These blood orange poppy seed muffins are just a lovely variation on the Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins I’ve been perfecting. The texture, the flavor, everything translates perfectly to the flavor of the blood orange. I don’t really know which is better, just that both are sublime.

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I am unnaturally excited about these Meyer lemon poppy seed muffins.

I’m always looking for a good recipe for such things, and I’m always inundated by recipes that call for a full cup of butter and ridiculous amounts of sugar. Conversely, there are a slew of recipes out there that are “low fat” and “heatlhy” and come out heavy, dense, and stick to the muffin papers. But now, I have found it. THE PERFECT LEMON POPPY MUFFINS! They are here! In my house!

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

jump to recipe I thought I’d run out of variations on a banana theme, but these Whole Wheat Banana Muffins took me by surprise. They taste like the best banana bread, but slightly softer and fluffier as befitting a muffin.  Don’t skimp on the bananas when you make these! This isn’t one of those recipes […]

Chocolate Cupcake-Muffins

Why are these called Chocolate Cupcake-Muffins? Because they are muffins, and they are cupcakes, and they are delicious. They can be eaten for breakfast or for dessert. They can be eaten plain, or with peanut butter, or with whipped cream frosting. They are made with healthy ingredients like quinoa flour and yogurt, but also required the melting of butter and the adding of cocoa powder. Hence: cupcake-muffins.

Blood Orange Spice Muffins

It took three batches to get these Blood Orange Spice Muffins right. It was a true exploration into the world of muffindom. What makes them tender? What makes them sweet? How can you bring out flavor and play with texture to create something wonderful, and still keep it healthy? Big questions, indeed, and with a good solid year and a half of muffin-making behind me, I decided it was time to be bold and venture where no muffin in my kitchen had gone before: an original recipe from scratch.

Mini Chocolate Doughnut Muffins

Mini Chocolate Doughnut Muffins for a snow day, that’s what these were. The kids went back to school on January 2nd, and by the 3rd they already had a day off, thanks to an insane amount of snow. We seized the moment, slept in, and then it was time for breakfast. I decided to skip the glaze so these not-unhealthy treats wouldn’t venture into dessert territory.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Bread

I devoured this loaf greedily, mostly because the soft crumb made it among the nicest baked goods ever to come out of my kitchen. It’s a little taste of what pumpkin bread heaven must be like. To quote Dale Cooper, “This must be where pies go when they die.” Trade in the pie for some cinnamon pumpkin bread and I’m right on the same page.

Healthy Banana Oat Muffins

I really have to pick up the pace on my blogging. I made these Healthy Banana Oat Muffins weeks ago, and they are SO delicious and breakfasty and good to eat that I feel like a jerk for not making them available to you sooner. A jerk, I am! But maybe this is better, a little post-Christmas healthy baked good to rescue you from cookie overdose.

Carrot Cake Muffins

Usually when I see a recipe for Carrot Cake Muffins, there’s a lot more emphasis on the cake than the carrots, which means it’s more about dessert than breakfast. (Yes, most carrot cake is so good because it’s filled with butter and sugar!) But these were also called “Healthy Applesauce Carrot Muffins”, and I knew with some slight adjustments I could do something interesting with them. And so I did. They came out great. Flavorful, fluffy, and worthy of the carrot cake name without the carrot cake decadence. The spices are balanced perfectly and these muffins make breakfast worth celebrating.

Banana Bran Muffins with Mini Chocolate Chips

These were a lovely surprise.

I hadn’t done a banana-bran combination before. Well, sort of. I’d tried these Banana-Nut Oat Bran Muffins but that was oat bran instead of wheat bran and they didn’t have real flour in them and while some people liked them, I wouldn’t make them again. So they don’t count.

But I had some brown bananas sitting around, even after making my Chai Spiced Banana Muffins, and I had a hankering for something new. I also had some buttermilk to use up, and liked that this recipe looked pretty healthy but still adaptable, plus it looked like I’d get some mini muffins out of the deal as well, which are always fun.

Chai Spiced Banana Muffins

I made the unfortunate choice of bright yellow muffin papers, which cast a bit of a sickly glow in my photos, but the muffins themselves were delicious. The chai spices combined beautifully with the banana, and the shredded coconut, while it didn’t impact the flavor much, added a soft crunch without detracting from the fluffy, moist texture.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

This edition of Baking Adventure in a Messy Kitchen will heretofore be known as. . . The Flattening.

I don’t know why these mini muffins turned out so flat. The photos on the original recipe look lovely, with tiny, cute puffy little muffins perched on a tea towel. Mine came out flat as pancakes on top, almost as if I wanted them that way. Oh wait! Yeeah, I WANTED them that way. Flat muffins. Who doesn’t want flat muffins?

Gingerbread Muffins

Cakey gingerbread muffins for breakfast? Yes!

I really was sure it was going to be one of those other recipes, and then suddenly I was standing in the kitchen looking at a gingerbread muffins recipe. How it happened, I don’t know exactly. I’m glad it did, though, because they are cakey and delicious and I feel happier when I bite into them than I did the moment before.

Spiced Honey Pumpkin Bread

If you’re looking for a decadent, sugary pumpkin bread for dessert, this isn’t it.

If you’re looking for a gently spiced, not-too-sweet pumpkin bread for breakfast or a snack that warms you up from the inside out, you’ve found it. I like this bread but given the abundance of sugar in most pumpkin-based baked goods, you do have to know before your first bite that this is going to be a little different. On its second or third day it hits a beautiful peak of flavor, when the honey and the spices and the pumpkin coalesce into smooth perfection.

Pumpkin Bran Muffins with Mini Cinnamon Chips

It was time to get back into the healthy swing, after whipping up requested decadent treats like Butterscotch Brownies and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. Still on a pumpkin kick, I went digging through my Pinterest board to see what might strike my baking fancy. Sometimes I’m in the market for a great, unique recipe, and sometimes I just want something I can play with. This one fell into the “play with” category, and play with it I did, for the betterment of muffinkind.

Espresso Spice Pumpkin Muffins, take two

It’s pumpkin season!

Okay, all the other baking blogs are way ahead of me, but I’m a bit of a late bloomer. I’m okay with that, I’ve had years to get used to it. We won’t even talk about what all the boys used to call me before I got boobs.

Wait, what are we talking about? Muffins! We’re talking about muffins. And these particular muffins are the ultimate breakfast, supplying you with very basic morning nutrition: wheat, fruit, dairy, and caffeine.

Apple Butter Spice Muffins

While my taste buds will never accept a muffin with fruit pieces in it — I remember trying this applesauce cake well over a year ago and not liking it — I took a risk on these apple butter muffins, intrigued.

It was a risk worth taking: the results were lovely. Spiced, flavorful, slightly sticky breakfast muffins. Welcome, fall. Welcome, change.

Maple Vanilla Muffins

I know, I know. It’s fall, and I’m supposed to be baking with pumpkin or apples, and instead I’m pretending it’s spring and making maple treats. But I got lured in by the fact that this recipe called for non-standard ingredients like vanilla bean and coconut oil, and I already had both of them on hand; I’ve come a long way from the days when I had to check to see if I had baking powder before I made anything. Plus the photos on the blog where I found this recipe are inspiringly gorgeous, making the already delicious-sounding combination completely irresistible.

Apple Cider Mini Donuts

Fall is upon us. . .at least in the mornings.

It’s been super cold here in the morning, so it’s jackets and maybe even a scarf when we leave the house, and then the heat kicks in and by afternoon everyone who isn’t in shorts feels like an idiot. So Fall is whispering at us, maybe, and when the kids went gaga over the apple cider donuts at Stew Leonard’s, I decided it was time to for the first treat of the season.

Orange Mocha Muffins

Redemption.

The last two baked goods that came out of my kitchen were substandard, for sure. Not enough flavor, heavy, arduous texture, and especially disappointing because one came right on the heels of the other. But today things turned around at last, courtesy of these lovely. fluffy, flavor-filled orange mocha muffins.

Zucchini Spice Muffins

These muffins are magical.

I don’t know who Kathie is, but I started with her recipe, played with it here and there, and created something exquisite. Everything came together in perfect balance, in both flavor and texture. I’m going to try to recreate these because I have to find out if it was a fluke or if there really is such a thing as muffin perfection.

Healthy Dark Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

This recipe called out to me but it took a while for me to heed the call.

First of all, it was based on a recipe by Marcus Samuelsson, whose memoir Yes, Chef was a recent and engaging, fascinating, inspiring, and delicious read. I’ve never tried any of his recipes before, and I had actually pinned this one a few weeks ago. But then I saw this version of it, which seemed to preserve the general nature of it but healthed it up a bit, finding alternatives to the sugar (which I would simply have reduced) as well as the oil.

Zucchini Chocolate Coconut Muffins

Pretty, they’re not.

Delicious, they are. And then some. They’re bursting with chocolate and coconut with just a touch of cinnamon, and not a whisper of zucchini hits the taste buds. Amazing.

I confess that I was very, very nervous while I was making them. I changed so many elements of this recipe that I had no idea if I was going to be elated by success or depressed by failure, and then have to go hungry as well. But sometimes a baker has to take a few chances.

Skinny Chocolate Fudge Banana Muffins

Ignore the word “skinny”. Really. Because these taste anything but skinny. They taste FAT in the most delightful way. Fat with chocolate flavor. Fat with cakey texture. Fat with desserty joy.

And yet they are skinny too. Low fat, Weight Watchers-friendly, and full of healthy ingredients like wheat germ, yogurt, bananas, and whole wheat white flour. They have chocolate chips too, of course, but that’s okay. It’s all about balance. And deliciousness. These muffins have that in abundance.

Peanut Butter Protein Muffins

I’m always looking for more peanut butter recipes; anything that focuses in on peanut butter without becoming a Weight Watchers points nightmare piques my interest. So even though these were called Peanut Butter Protein Muffins, which meant that something was being prioritized along with flavor, I gave them a shot. Peanut butter does that to me. I would follow it almost anywhere.

Zucchini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

jump to recipe Everyone loved these. I thought they were just okay, but everyone I work with went nuts for them and kept coming back to ask if there were any left long after the last one had disappeared. So I’d consider that a hit. And they’re awfully good for you. They started with zucchini. […]

Peachy Keen Muffins (with Poppy Seeds)

I had to try one more time. I want a peach muffin without peach pieces, is that so wrong?

Well, it may not be wrong, but I still haven’t achieved it. Not that these muffins are anything but sweet and delicious and good for you, they’re actually quite wonderful. Fluffy, flavorful, sweet, with a nice little crunch from the poppy seeds, a last-minute addition. And they actually do have a hint, a wee whisper, of peach taste. So while I love them and plan to make them again, they are not the peach muffin I’ve been seeking. (“These aren’t the peach muffins you’re looking for,” said the Jedi master.)

They taste damned good, though.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

I had no idea you could make cookies without flour that aren’t disgusting. Seriously! I see these recipes all the time and they make me suspicious. And I don’t have any health issues with flour or reasons to avoid it; I am more than pro-gluten, I am a gluten advocate. EAT MORE GLUTEN.

But this recipe looked really good, despite the absence of flour, and I don’t like to give up on big ideas until I’ve given them a good go. And I don’t think these cookies are gluten-free anyway, since apparently there can be gluten in oats. Gluten schmuten, these cookies are deliciously satisfying, full of rich peanut butter flavor, and crumbly in a rather delightful way. The mini chocolate chips don’t hurt the cause either. And yet they’re still pretty good for you, or at least not terribly bad for you. That’s what makes them breakfast cookies.

Maple Oatmeal Muffins

I’m back on the healthy muffin train. I was trying to come with something new to try for breakfast when I found this gem hiding at the bottom of one of my Pinterest boards. Being Canadian, I was drawn to this one by forces beyond my control.

It’s hard to believe that all the sweetness in these muffins comes from maple syrup. They’re just sweet and dessert-y and full of flavor and still healthy, without a grain of sugar added. Maple syrup rocks. (Did I mention I’m Canadian?)

Honey Tea Bread

I’ve been wanting to try making this recipe for weeks, but first I had to use up the carrots, zucchini, and bananas that were sitting around. Finally I ran out of everything, and felt it was morally okay to proceed. (I hate wasting food, okay?)

I had a feeling this bread was going to be something special and I was right. The texture is soft and perfect, reminding me of that Chai Tea Bread I enjoy so much. And it’s sweetened with honey; not a grain of sugar passed through my hands.

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins, new & improved

I already liked my carrot oatmeal muffins. A lot. But it’s been a while since I made them, and I decided it was time to see if I could make them even better. And I did!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread (two misses and a hit)

Finally!

This delicious, satisfying chocolate zucchini bread came on the heels of two very unfortunate baking experiments, and a last-minute mishap to boot.

Failure #1: I tried to make a zucchini bread without chocolate chips or cocoa powder. Now I know that it’s possible to make a good spiced zucchini bread, but the recipe I tried did not generate one.

Peach Poppy Seed Muffins (take 2)

These look better, don’t they?

I’m still on a peach muffin mission, but before I tried a new recipe I wanted to go back to this one and get it right. That meant:

A. using properly ripened peaches
B. mixing peach puree with baking soda to get it foamy
C. not accidentally mish-moshing two recipes together

I succeeded on all three counts. These muffins came out a little fluffier, a little prettier, and a little more delicious, but I have to be honest: I still don’t really taste a whole lotta peach. Still, I’ve had trouble holding on to them, as the kids love them and so does everybody else.

Mocha Banana Bread

Love this twist on a traditional banana bread. Next time I’ll push it even more and up the cocoa powder and the espresso, but even as is it was full of flavor and made for a nice spin on a familiar treat.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

These muffins are wonderful. The amount of chocolate chips was just right, the sweetness balanced beautifully with the spices, the crumb was soft and fluffy, and the zucchini provided moisture and nutrition without ever rearing its ugly head into the flavor. A gem, this one. I feel like these muffins are helping me slowly inch towards a zucchini bread without cocoa powder. Perhaps I am beginning to understand the powers of the humble zucchini

Peach Poppy Seed Muffins (take 1)

I have been on a quest: the quest for a peach muffin. To reiterate what I’ve expressed in this blog multiple times, I do not like pieces of fruit in my baked goods. I don’t make or eat blueberry muffins, apple pies, cobblers, or cookies with raisins in them. But I love the taste of the fruit, so as long as the texture is pure crumb, I am happy.

I also love using seasonal ingredients, when I can. Last winter I specialized in Meyer lemons and blood oranges, and now it’s summer so I’ve been making zucchini chocolate treats and have been trying to do something with peaches. I love peaches! I found some lovely peach-ginger tea that worked well in muffins, but I wanted to try using fresh peaches.

One Banana Banana Bread (made with two bananas)

And then I remembered the recipe I’d seen a while back for One Banana Banana Bread. Yes! Since Pinterest finally allows you to search your own pins, it was easy enough to find the recipe, and reassure myself that all was going to go well in bananaland.

Peach Ginger Tea Muffins with Lemon

A few weeks ago, I picked up some peach-ginger tea at an interesting little spice store in Sayville. We were on our way to Fire Island, but had some time to kill before the ferry came, so we stopped in town to get some coffee (for us) and some treats (for the kids) and when I spotted the gourmet store next to it, I couldn’t resist. I’ve had it in my mind to bake with that tea for the last few weeks, but I couldn’t decide exactly how. And then I remembered my Lemon-Ginger Tea Muffins, and thought I could use that as my base.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

What to make, what to make…I really wanted to try something new with the 3 revoltingly overripe bananas in my kitchen. And I was in a hurry because I picked up a new laptop this morning so I could blog more portably, so I wanted something simple. I struck banana gold with this one, because it IS simple, and straightforward, and delicious. Perfect amount of oats, flour, and buttermilk to create a soft but solid texture, bursting with banana flavor.

Buttermilk Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Flower muffin! I was out of breakfast muffins and needed to whip something together that looked easy and quick, and this fit the bill: Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins. The chocolate chips came from me. First I had to soak the oats in buttermilk for half an hour, which gave me enough time to clear some more […]

Carrot Tea Cake with Oat Crumb Topping

This tea cake is so delicious that I made another one three days after making the first one, and the only reason I waited so long is because we were away for the weekend.

The cake itself is warm with spices, and the topping adds a crunchy sweetness to every bite. It’s a magical combination. Hard to believe it starts out with something as mundane as a cup of shredded carrots.

Cinnamon Graham Banana Bread

jump to recipe I know I have a pretty good banana bread recipe, but this one is sublime. And it comes with cinnamon glaze. I’m not surprised it’s so delicious, since I found the recipe on Tutti Dolci, plus it gave me a chance to use more of the graham flour I bought a while […]

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Another win for the peanut butter team! These Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins are delicious, good for you, and hunger-satisfying in the best way.

Mini Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I thought I had the banana muffin market cornered, but these are just as good as mine and come in mini form! The recipe for these mini banana chocolate chip muffins had unusual instructions, and specific directions, and I obeyed all with success. I changed a few things in the recipe, and got great results: a moist, flavorful, fun mini muffin, popular with all who tasted.

Honey Orange Oat Bran Muffins

jump to recipe These turned out great! I could have just added some orange zest to one of my existing bran muffin recipes, but I like to keep trying new things, plus it’s been a while since I baked with oat bran instead of wheat bran. The results did not disappoint. This is a tasty […]

Honey Whole Wheat Bran Muffins

jump to recipe I already have some tried and true bran muffin recipes, but I had the itch to try something new and Nathaniel had the itch to grate nutmeg, so we scratched our itches together. While I toasted the walnuts, he got to work. (This blog doesn’t have the subtitle “in a perpetually messy […]

Peanut Butter and Banana Bread

jump to recipe This was one of those nights when I had a non-specific baking itch. I had no idea how to channel the whisking urge until I spotted the overripe bananas on the counter, then this recipe from Delish leapt out at me. Who was I to argue with a leaping recipe and some […]

Orange Oat Muffins

These muffins are such a nice little surprise!

I’ve been feeling the loss of the great blood oranges of the season, but now I know the joys of a regular (non-blood!) orange muffin too. Phew! These are lovely. Nathaniel says it’s like drinking orange juice while you’re eating a muffin, and I agree. (I think my son would be a great food critic; he told me tonight as we were watching Chopped that he’d be a good judge on that show. Given how specific his reviews of my baking are, I believe he’s right.)

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins (“Skinny”!)

I have tasted the magnificence that is a “skinny” double chocolate chip muffin, and I’ve personally witnessed all the ingredients that went into them. I alone can vouch for the seemingly impossible truth: these healthy muffins taste like decadent brownies. For real. And I’ve already made them twice, so I know it wasn’t just a fluke.

Golden Oatmeal Spice Muffins

Soft and fluffy muffins, moist without being dense, and full of the beautifully intermingled mix of the spices I’ve used, with a little sweetness from the vanilla.

Peanut Butter Bran Muffins

jump to recipe I wasn’t sure how things were going to go with these.  I got brave and decided to swap out some of the flour for wheat germ (as my current obsession dictates) and I added some vanilla, and what I ended up with, to my delight, was not only a light airy delicious […]

Wheat Germ Bread

I know, it doesn’t sound tasty, does it? Wheat Germ Bread. Wheat Germ Bread? How is a person supposed to get excited about that? Well, taste it. Because once you taste it, you’ll get it, and once you find out how easy it is to make, you’ll make it, and once you start eating it, […]

Cinnamon Molasses Muffins

jump to recipe If you like molasses, these are the muffins for you. They’re definitely a little intense. You could un-intense them successfully, I think, by substituting half the molasses for honey, but I found that people really liked the depth of flavor i these and I was surprised by how quickly they were gobbled […]

Blood Orange Wheat Germ Muffins

Blood Orange Wheat Germ Muffins. They taste SO good, full of orange flavor, contained in this wonderfully textured, soft, substantial muffiny package.

Oatmeal Cookie Muffins with Cappuccino Chips

jump to recipe Let’s just say that these live up to their name. They stick to the paper a little bit, but what’s a little paper when you’re devouring a sweet delicious healthy muffin full of cappuccino chips? A minor inconvenience. I made some modifications to the recipe, starting with replacing a little bit of […]

Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Sometimes an ingredient shortage can work in your favor. For want of a few more blood oranges, some Meyer lemons were used, and born out of the uncertainty of that unusual pairing, some poppy seeds were added. Thus, a brand new muffin emerged, and a very delicious one at that.

My intention was simply to make another batch of blood orange muffins, based on my very slight adaptation of a recipe I’ve used before. I started squeezing the blood oranges, noting how much more juice I was getting from each one since I was using a plastic juicer as opposed to just squeezing by hand. But then when I had squeezed the last one out, I looked at my measuring cup and I only had just over 3/4 of a cup. Disaster!

I didn’t want to throw away the juice, or risk having it go bad if I stored it, since I didn’t know when I’d be able to get more blood oranges. So I got creative: I decided to top off it off with Meyer lemon juice. Risky, I know. Bold, even. I am normally neither risky nor bold, but this was a baking emergency. I took out the lemons, and squeezed out enough to make a full cup of juice.

Honey Pumpkin Bran Muffins

jump to recipe I still had the white balance settings wrong for this entire batch of photos and it’s annoying me because these muffins were really delicious and you can’t even see their true beauty. Trust me, they looked lovely. I found these in the bottom depths of one of my Pinterest boards. Sometimes I […]

Banutter Bites

jump to recipe I invented these. I had some overripe bananas, which I had to protect with a label or our cleaning lady would have thrown them away: I also had an itch to do something new, a craving for peanut butter (which is really just status quo around here, “around here” being inside my […]

Pumpkin Muffins, made over and still delicious

jump to recipe I’ve made these before, but I put a spin on them this time: I wanted to know if I could make them healthier without compromising on deliciousness. And the answer: a resounding yes. I’ve been looking for a formula for a long time that would cover how to add flax and wheat […]

Coconut Banana Bread

Coconut banana bread, who knew? I had many doubts about this one as I was making it and AGAIN messed up with something egg-related (see Cocoa Banana Yogurt Muffins for another egg near miss) but but in the end, it turned out great and was also immensely popular.

Cocoa Banana Yogurt Muffins (a Laurie original)

jump to recipe Yesterday, I played with my tried-and-true banana yogurt muffin recipe to see if I could add in some cocoa powder without ruining it. I’ve also been playing with my camera. My photography class started yesterday, and I got cocky and started shooting on manual, which turned out to be something of a […]

Maple Pumpkin Mini Muffins

These have been on my to-try list for months. I’m so glad I finally made them! They taste far too delicious to be as healthy as they are, too. And the timing is good, I’m back on Weight Watchers and these puppies are only ONE P+ each. And they are treats you can have for […]

Meyer Lemon Yogurt Muffins

These were…meh. The flavor came through nicely after the muffins had been sitting for a day, and the texture settled a little, but spectacular they were not. I was going to make mini muffins as the recipe suggested, but I had these beautiful, spring-themed muffin papers that Marcie bought for me and I thought lemon […]

Oatmeal Muffins

jump to recipe These are delightful. I took a very basic, healthy recipe that I found on food.com, read the reviews, made it mine, and created deliciousness. If I achieve nothing else over the weekend, at least there’s that. I kept very little of the original, but I started out exactly as directed, by letting […]

I Miss My Yoga Teacher Muffins — Honey Sage Corn Muffins

Not only are these pretty tasty, they were made in honor of one of my yoga teachers, Nancy, who I have been missing terribly since they changed things up at the studio I go to and she doesn’t teach there anymore. I loved her class, and I miss her teaching as well as her company. […]

Carrot Bran Muffins

jump to recipe These muffins. These muffins! The fact that they are so healthy and good for you makes no sense with how delicious they taste. And I took a risk with these, changing the recipe mid-process, on a whim. A crazy, carrot- bran whim! I never knew there was such a thing. Once the […]

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Oatmeal Muffins

These muffins surprised me. The batter didn’t seem as thick as it should be, and the night I made them, I tried one and it stuck so much to the paper that it wasn’t worth the effort of prying it loose. But then I tried one the next morning for breakfast, and it was actually […]

Carrot Spice Mini Muffins

I make these carrot spice muffins pretty regularly. They’re freakishly healthy, and I say freakishly because they are just ridiculously delicious. The spices are a perfect blend with the carrot base, the texture is moist but fluffy, the turbinado sugar on top gives them an extra bite of crunchy sweetness, and they’re full of good-for-you […]

Blood Orange Muffins

I had my eye on this recipe for a few weeks before I got a chance to try it. I’d picked up a bag of blood oranges at Trader Joe’s and I knew there had to be a good recipe out there. Look at them! The recipe called for an entire cup of juice and […]

Chai Spiced Snickerdoodles

jump to recipe There were so many alluring aspects to this recipe that I just had to give it a try. I’d been to yoga, Juliet & I had already gotten haircuts, the rain was steady, and all signs pointed to cookies. We already love snickerdoodles around here (except for that first time I tried […]

Peanut Butter Bran Muffins

I never would have thought to mix peanut butter and bran, but I am in love with these muffins. I also love that they come via a blog called The Teenage Taste, written by a junior in high school. It’s a simple recipe, not particularly low in WW points (coming in at 5 because of […]

Cinnamon-Carrot Muffins

First of all, don’t make these. My friend Bridget likes them, and she has graciously volunteered to eat them, but I don’t understand why, because I don’t get any flavor out of them whatsoever. I added spices, there’s sugar in there, two cups of carrots, and I can’t fathom why they don’t taste like anything, […]

Oatmeal Tea Bread II

It’s a bit of an odd concoction, but I love it. It’s a hearty, oaty bread, with a lot of sweetness, so it fills you up and feels healthy but dessert-ish at the same time. It’s an odd combination, though, and this is one of the few times that I’m eating more of it than […]

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Definitely make this. Perfect texture, deep, tangy lemon flavor with just the right amount of sweetness, and it’s not even bad for you? A win all around, And I like recipes that get very specific about when to put in which ingredients, and what to do after that, and how slowly or quickly to do […]

Wholesome Oat Muffins

Get aboard the muffin transport! You won’t regret it. jump to recipe I should have made these muffins instead of last night’s disasters, but we have them now, so the muffin balance has been restored. These are delicious and the recipe seems to lend itself to adding different spices, sugars, or bonus ingredients. The process […]

Basic Corn Muffins

I finally did it! After nothing but corn muffin failure, I found a recipe that works, is easy to make, tastes great, and doesn’t require butter to make it special. Dave made pulled pork for dinner and they are providing a perfect match. I started by dumping yellow cornmeal into my yellow mixing bowl and […]

Cinnamon Honey Oat Muffins

jump to recipe If an oatmeal cookie came down to earth disguised as a muffin, this is what it would taste like. I don’t know why I made the cookie come from outer space. Just live with it. These muffins are delicious, filling, and both breakfasty and desserty at the same time. Maybe they DID […]

Peanut Butter and Banana Quick Bread

I love peanut butter.

This quick bread brought out the best of the peanut butter & banana combination, and didn’t break the Weight Watchers bank along the way. It’s long gone, but looking at this picture as I type, I wish I were eating it right now.

Meyer Lemon Tea Bread

This lemon tea bread took some doing. It’s not that it was hard to make, it’s that I had one of those rare, completely unnecessary baking disasters, and I wasn’t able to pull it together enough to give it another try until the next day. I’m glad I did, though; it was completely worth it. […]

Chai Tea Bread

jump to recipe This is a keeper. It was easy to make, didn’t take long, and tastes just wonderful, with a soft fluffy crumb and a mix of spices that come together beautifully and provides an array of flavors for your taste buds to savor. I did make a few changes, and I didn’t bother […]

Baked Apple Cider Donuts

A donut pan is one of those things I’ve been dismissing. You can’t own every specialty pan there is, not in a kitchen like mine, which is already bursting at the seams. There’s no room at the inn.  Plus we already have that cute mini donut maker that Jenny gave us, so why would I […]

Cheerios Banana Muffins

What a fun surprise these Cheerios Banana Muffins turned out to be! I had no idea you could crush Cheerios and bake them into muffins. Pinterest proves its worth yet again.

Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread

jump to recipe I am am finally baking again. I was down & out with the flu for a few days and as much as that sucked, it gave the bananas time to get ripe and disgusting, and it gave me…well, it gave me no joy. But this banana bread did. It’s an unusual recipe, […]

Flax Banana Yogurt Muffins

The name says it all. They’re not called Fluffy Banana Muffins or Breakfast Banana Muffin or Delicious Banana Muffins, they’re called Flax Banana Yogurt Muffins. They taste good, they’re okay and pack a lot of flavor, but they taste healthy. Too much flax, no doubt. I don’t even want to post the recipe, really, since […]

Honey Oat Quick Bread

jump to recipe Yesterday I was poking around the web looking for quick bread recipes, and came across this one. I liked the look of it, I liked the ingredients, but most of all, the reviews were almost all glowing. A few people had some trouble with texture, but the vast majority of people who […]

Carrot Spice Muffins

The other night I wanted to make something healthy. I always want it to be delicious, but I wanted to contrast the chocolate buttercream frostings and cheesecakes as of late, and I wanted to try something new. That’s how I found myself making Carrot Spice Muffins. And I’ll tell you right now to read on, because they are not only good for you, they’re super delicious. I’m eating one right now and it’s healthy enough for breakfast but tastes like dessert. Awesome.

Whole Grain Nutella Swirl Banana Muffins

People went NUTS over these. I made some mistakes along the way and had to improvise, and wasn’t even sure they were going to turn out okay. But not only did they turn out fine, they turned out delicious, and I have never had raves like this before. I think the word (and the substance) […]

Vanilla Chai Muffins

Muffin redemption has arrived. I haven’t blogged my last two experiments because I just wasn’t happy with them. It started on Saturday, when I was very excited to make Rocky Road Muffins. And don’t they look good? Sadly, they were not so good. I thought they were too dense, too hard, the chocolate was too […]

Spiced Pumpkin Bran Muffins

jump to recipe I’m always on the lookout for more healthy muffin recipes, since that’s what I have for breakfast every day. Well now I have a new one to add to the collection. We went apple picking today, and you’d think I’d be baking something with apples, but I don’t actually LIKE baked apples, […]

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread (Lightened Up)

I finally did something with those brown bananas that have been sitting on the counter for days, disgusting all of us. Or maybe just me. I don’t know. I find them disgusting! But I’d seen this lightened-up version of cinnamon swirl banana bread a while ago and wanted to try it out. Its time had come.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Muffins

These are wonderful. Fluffy light texture, deep rich espresso-pumpkin flavor, just delightful. Sophisticated, ever so slightly, but definitely a treat and a reasonably healthy one at tha

Low Fat Pumpkin Gingerbread

Last night I was looking for something I could eat in quantity. I knew I’d be on a post-Homeland food rampage so I made something that wouldn’t break the Weight Watchers Points Plus bank if I ate a large amount of it, and that’s how I found this recipe for pumpkin gingerbread. I also figured […]

Gingery Carrot Tea Cake With Cinnamon Glaze

jump to recipe I’ve made this before, sort of, but today I changed the recipe, used a new pan to make things pretty, and took the glaze from one dessert to add to it, skipping the frosting. We have company coming, and we’ve actually been talking about having these guys over for years. Literally. Years! […]

Banana, Peanut Butter, and Honey Muffins

jump to recipe Finally! I am always looking at recipes that involve peanut butter, are low in points, and healthy enough for breakfast, but usually they involve some sort of Epicurean compromise. But my quest is over. I have found them! These banana, peanut butter, and honey muffins are delicious, in a no-caveats-needed way. Bursting […]

Healthy Breakfast Cookies

I made these healthy breakfast cookies in BC when we were visiting Mom, and I’ve been wanting to make them again ever since, this time with cinnamon chips. I ended up making one other change by accident, and I think it made them even better.

Banana Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal Singles

This has been a very strange evening. I don’t usually skip ahead to the end of my baking tales, but really, I was ready to give up on these weird oatmeal singles muffiny thingles completely, until Dave and Nathaniel each gobbled one up with glee. And then about ten minutes later, when I asked Dave […]

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

Yesterday was a clunky day. So while these were in the oven, I was increasingly convinced that I was making clunky muffins as well. I liked the idea of cinnamon roll muffins made of healthy ingredients and low in fat, but wasn’t sure these were it. I waited until this morning for a proper breakfast […]

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

I’ve been wanting to make these for days. Peanut butter, banana, oatmeal, all in a low-point, low-fat, healthy muffin? Sold. I had some icky brown bananas ready, too. The only reason I had to wait an extra day was because I spent Tuesday night making Snickerdoodle Mini Loaves for Miff’s birthday. By Wednesday I was […]

Wheat Germ And Molasses Bread

Oh fine, you might not think that sounds appealing. But it does to me. I’ve been wanting to try another recipe with wheat germ ever since I made those breakfast cookies in BC, and I love the flavor of molasses, and the picture on the recipe just looked very delicious to me. Look at it. […]

Low Fat Chocolate Zucchini Cake (fail)

Things don’t always go well in baking. Sometimes, you just learn about what doesn’t work, and move on. And that’s today’s lesson. Oops. I didn’t bake last night, I went to some crazy “Restore The Core” class instead. It wasn’t exactly a mistake, but I won’t be going back. I felt good for having done […]

Healthy Gingerbread Muffins

jump to recipe This looked simple enough, and very delicious, but I may have screwed it up by using the wrong kind of sugar. I’m going to taste one of these muffins when I finish writing this up and then we’ll all know. If I did screw it up, I’m going to make them again; […]

Breakfast Bran Muffins

I haven’t made bran muffins in a long time, and I found this nice, low-fat, healthy, and flexible recipe on Pinterest, so I whipped them together last night. I have to say, I’m very, very happy with the results. I do love a good bran muffin, and these have an unusually light texture, with a nice flavor that you can adjust based on your own tastes. I have big plans for these muffins. Plus, they were sort of fun to make.

Low Fat Pumpkin Muffins

jump to recipe We came home after a beautiful weekend in Fire Island to a muffin-less house; well, it wasn’t supposed to be muffinless, but the banana muffins I made did not survive their weekend abandonment. I’d made another batch at the same time and brought it to Fire Island, and those were still fine […]

Healthy Pumpkin Bread With Cinnamon Chips

Dave looked at me like I was crazy when he saw me standing in front of a counter full of ingredients, and I don’t blame him. Every afternoon I get this lightheadedness and feel dizzy, and the feeling extends well into the evening, and yet there I was, setting up mixing bowls and measuring cups. […]

Baking in BC: Healthy Breakfast Cookies

We were still in BC and my baking urges were not yet satisfied. The mocha cake was delicious but pure dessert, and the banana muffins were delicious but routine, so I found something that was new but not terribly decadent and it had been on my list to try for a while: Healthy Breakfast Cookies. […]

Baking in BC: Banana Muffins With Peanut Butter Chips

I had to make my famous original Banana Yogurt Muffins in BC once I saw Mom’s potato masher. “Do you have a potato masher, by any chance?” “I do, but it’s not a very good one. It has a penguin handle and it’s in the drawer.” Okay, Mom? That’s not a penguin. I think it’s […]

Banana Peanut Butter Chip Oatmeal Bread

(Yes, that top one has a slice taken out of it already.) It was supposed to be Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bread, but I’m still holding on to the perhaps groundless hope that Juliet will actually eat some of this. And we all know she doesn’t eat chocolate, unless it comes in a wrapper from […]

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I decided there were more chocolate zucchini recipes out there worth trying. So I tried one. I admit I am a little distracted today. In addition, we had our summer outing at work today, so I spent the afternoon on a boat cruising around Manhattan. It was actually quite lovely, with wonderful views of the […]

Coconut Baked Oatmeal

I wanted to make something relatively healthy, but I’m really tired too, so it was time to try Coconut Baked Oatmeal. I pinned the recipe after we devoured the Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal from the same site (Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures), and it’s an easy recipe for the exhausted. You just put it all in a […]

Secretly Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

As Nathaniel & Juliet would sing, “It’s the final countdown…” All week I have been using my colleagues at work as guinea pigs. They tasted, they described, they compared and contrasted. They weighed the issues: kids have to like them, they can’t be too messy, they need to appeal to the widest variety of tastes, […]

Secretly Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes With Greek Yogurt Frosting

read about Night 1 read about Night 2 Tonight was the last night of true experimentation. Whatever I make tomorrow goes to the kids at St. Philip’s Academy for Read It All Up®, and that’s that. But tonight I went back to the site where I found the extremely delicious recipe for Secretly Healthy Chocolate […]

Read It All Up Test Night 2: Pumpkin Cupcakes

(with Chocolate Pumpkin Frosting) read about Night 1 Now I really do feel like Annie in The Bake Shop Ghost. I’m trying one recipe after another, trying to find the magical one that will strike just the right note for Read It All Up®. I think tomorrow’s recipe is going to be the big winner, […]

Read It All Up Test Night 1: Chocolate-Zucchini Muffins

This is going to be a week of experimentation. My friend Carol and I have started up a non-profit called Read It All Up®, which is all about combining our mutual love for reading and food into a way to get kids to love reading at a very early age. You can see more on […]

Experiments In Zucchini: Secretly Healthy Chocolate Cake

Most people who know me know of my hatred of cooked vegetables. Unless you count corn and potatoes, which are more like starches, I don’t eat any cooked vegetables at all, ever. Oh, Dave sometimes purees some carrots and sneaks them into the spaghetti sauce, and I make carrot oatmeal muffins, but that’s really as […]

Buttermilk Bran Muffins

jump to recipe I was planning on making carrot oatmeal muffins tonight, since I’ve run out of breakfast muffins, but then I was poking around in the Epicurious iPad app today and saw a buttermilk bran muffin recipe that looked like it was worth a try. When I got home, I asked Nathaniel which one […]

Whole Grain Thin And Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

(some with cinnamon chips) Another great Pinterest find. I tried really hard not to bake for Robin & James, because they don’t want to be loaded up with baked goods, but I couldn’t help myself. Despite the fun of annoying Robin with the word “muffins” as much as possible, I opted for cookies, since I’d […]

Mini Pumpkin Bran Muffins With Chocolate Chips

jump to recipe I am still a little surprised at the deliciousness of these. I had some pumpkin to use up, I bought some wheat bran I wanted to try out, and I had the urge to prepare something healthy, and I think I hit the jackpot with this recipe, which is pretty good for […]

Pumpkin Muffins With Sugar On Top

jump to recipe I had Greek yogurt to use up, and I wanted to try something new, and I wanted to keep myself busy and distracted. The result? Pumpkin muffins. I started with whole wheat white flour, then whisked in baking soda, baking powder, and salt. I threw in more cinnamon than the recipe called […]

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

I had one last burst of energy today so I made something healthy that turned out to be delightfully delicious, and not, you know, delicious enough just because they’re good for you. Carrot Oatmeal Muffins! Also they were very easy to make! First I got to break out my new peeler on the carrot. Cool little […]

Juliet Makes Banana Muffins

Tonight I got Juliet to help with the baking. Step one was to get her to stop stacking up all the supplies. (Note the baking powder on top of the salt. I’d already removed the peanut butter jar and the baking soda but she started rebuilding the minute I turned my back.) I think the […]

Spiced Yogurt Muffins

jump to recipe I love these muffins. I’ve made them before, but I change things up just a little bit each time I make them. An actual, real chef even ate one of them and didn’t pass out or spit it out or yell at me or anything…I think he even said they were good. […]

Quaker Oat Bran Muffins With Spices

(and Egg Accidents) I ate the last of the banana muffins for breakfast today. And I need breakfast tomorrow. Bran muffins it is. This recipe isn’t even on Pinterest, because it’s on the back of the Quaker Oat Bran box…at least that’s where it starts. But that’s just the foundation. It gets a lot more […]

Banana Yogurt Muffins

(a Laurie original) I made these again last night for two reasons. Reason #1: I had two of these. They were gigantic! And getting browner by the second. Reason #2: I wanted to see if the gloriousness of the first batch was a fluke. I put dry ingredients together: whole wheat white flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, […]