Banana Blueberry Oat Muffins

With it turning cool, I've been turning to oatmeal and other warm breakfasts.  These Banana Blueberry Oat Muffins are easy to throw together.  They're filling without being too sweet.

Flourless Pumpkin Oat Muffins

Sometimes mornings are hard. While I've become so much more of a morning person over the past few years, cooking a full breakfast while having a leisurely cup of coffee is not even remotely in my weekday routine. My breakfast generally consist of a smoothie or overnight oats. Anything you can throw together quickly (or the night before). 

These muffins were very easy to throw together and, stored properly, could easily last a few days. Better yet, the recipe is so simple, you could easily put in the extra 5 minutes to bake them in the morning. They make a very filling breakfast and a great way to start the day, if I don't say so myself.

Flourless Pumpkin Oat Muffins

Makes 16

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 28-30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin
¼ cup canola oil              
2 eggs
1 ¼ cup vanilla soymilk
3 cups old fashion rolled oats2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin tin with cupcake papers
2. Combine oil, sugar, pumpkin and eggs until just combined.
3. Gently whisk in milk. 
4. Separately combine oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and fold into wet mixture. 
5. Scoop ¼ cup of batter into each liner and top with whatever goodies you'd like. Crushed macadamia nuts, sliced almonds or white chocolate chips are all delicious. 
6. Bake for 25-28 minutes. 

Hope you enjoy!

 

 

Cinnamon Raisin Granola

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I love cinnamon. Also, raisins, the original favorite dried fruit. I love mixing the combination into oatmeal and of course adding cinnamon to oatmeal raisin cookies. I’ve never tried making granola before, and couldn’t believe how easy it was. With the honey and brown sugar, this isn’t the healthiest snack, but it is very filling. I love eating it dry for a snack, or with cold milk or yogurt. With a little warm milk, this would make a great cold weather snack.

CINNAMON RAISIN GRANOLA Quick and easy homemade granola Prep time: 10 minutes Bake time:  30 minutes INGREDIENTS: 3 cups old fashion or steel cut oats 1 1/2 cup raisins 1 cup sliced or slivered almonds 1/4 cup ground flax seed 1 tbsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg a pinch of salt 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup grape seed oil (you could also use coconut or canola) 1/4 cup brown sugar DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 300F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Once again, grind the flax seed. A coffee grinder would be ideal for this, but I used a food processor/blender. It took a little more patience and stirring but still worked well. Combine the oats, raisins, almonds, flax seed, cinnamon, nutmeg and sea salt in an over-sized bowl. In a small saucepan and over medium-low heat, combine the oil, honey and brown sugar. Stir frequently until the brown sugar starts to dissolve, this should take no more than 5 minutes; do not bring to a boil. Pour the hot sugar mixture over the oat mixture and stir. This isn’t something you would need a mixer for. Just a few quick stirs to make sure everything is coated and you’re good to go. Spread the oat mixture on the parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes. After the initial 15 minutes, stir/flip/turn the granola. Check and turn the granola every 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Mine was done in 30 minutes, but I have a gas oven- which can be a little dryer of a heat. Let cool. I left mine on the cookie sheet for a few hours. NOTES: Deciding when the granola was done was probably the hardest part of this process with all the cinnamon in there. I taste tested each time I pulled the pan out and stopped when the granola started to reach a crunchy consistency.                                                                                                     Hope you Enjoy!

No Bake Energy Cookies

I've made a couple batches of these over the past week and I really like how they've turned out.  It's similar to eating cookie dough, but with a little less refined sugar. I've been enjoying them as mid-morning snacks
and they have been super filling.  Kept refrigerated, the cookies should be good up to a week.

No Bake Energy Cookies
A healthier and energy filled sweet treat

Makes about 24 cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Set Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
1 cup old fashion or steel cut oats
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup white chocolate chunks (finely chopped)
1/4 cup protein powder
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1/3 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Line a couple of large cookie sheets with parchment paper. 
2. Grind the flax seed.  A coffee grinder would be ideal for this, but I used a food processor/blender.  It took a little more patience and stirring but still worked well. 
3. Combine the oats, peanut butter, honey, flax seed, white chocolate, and protein powder. You could also add dried fruit or nuts. 
4. in a separate bowl, mix together the chopped almonds and chocolate chips
5. Roll the dough into a ball and flatten into a cookie shape. Dip into chocolate-almond mixture and place on parchment paper. 
6. refrigerate 1 hour and enjoy!

Notes: 
If the oat concoction isn't sticking together very well, try adding more peanut butter.

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Over the past few months I have developed some type of aversion to coconut, which is really unfortunate considering how much I love coconut. I typically break out on my face after eating actual coconut or drinking coconut milk (which is delicious by the way). Until this week I hadn't really had much of any issues with coconut oil unless I used mass amounts of it, but using my EOS lip balm one too many times led to another annoying reaction.  Most allergies can progressively get worse with each exposure, and while I have had no other allergy related symptoms, I think its probably best to quit while I'm ahead.  This weekend I've started cleaning coconut out of my house.  I had almost exactly 3/4 cup of coconut oil in the kitchen cabinet, and being the good decision-maker that I am, I decided to use it to make some blueberry oatmeal cookies to take to work. I have made these a few times before and really love them. Not to sound like a chubster, but eating a warm one almost feels like a hug, and it was also really hard to avoid eating this cookie dough. I’m sure this won't be my last time making these, but I may be reverting to butter in future cookie making.



Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies
A summer twist on the classic oatmeal raisin cookie

Makes 24 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
¾ cup coconut oil
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups old fashion oats
1½ cup blueberries fresh or frozen

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper. The paper isn’t completely necessary, but it is easier to get the cookies off the pan and to the cooling rack.  If you don’t use parchment paper, just be sure not to butter or grease the pan.
2.  Cream together the coconut oil and sugars on medium speed. I left the mixer going about 4 minutes. It isn’t going to look very creamy, as butter would, just make sure it is well mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla; the concoction will look something like brown sugar soup at this point.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, then slowly mix the dry mixture with the sugar mixture. 
4. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to fold in the oats and blueberries. I used frozen blueberries; making It a little easier to fold the berries in without breaking but also a little harder to mix and scoop as your dough will start to freeze if you don't work quickly enough. Don’t worry if you do break blueberries, it’s inevitable, the cookies will still be delicious. 
5. Bake for 16-20 minutes. I made some pretty large cookies, a little smaller than a golf ball when all rolled up. Because of the size and the fact that I used frozen berries, it took a little longer to bake, closer to 20 minutes. Leave the cookies on the pan for a minute or two before moving to cooling racks.  Enjoy!

*disclaimer… coconut oil melts at 76ºF. As it is summer in Alabama and I live in a very old house, it was about 77ºF-80ºF in my kitchen at the time I was baking these; do not try to combine coconut oil with any type of cold ingredients (ie. cold butter or milk). It doesn't go well.