muffins

Popeye Muffins

Yes, these are GREEN muffins! Made with spinach and bananas, sure to please even the pickiest eater. Feel free to call them whatever you want. I chose Popeye because, well… he eats spinach 🙂 But if you make these during Christmas, they can be Grinch muffins, or during St. Pat’s they can be Shamrock, etc. Both my 3 year old son and my husband enjoyed these. I had a bag of spinach that I needed to use up. And I’m just not a salad person. So naturally I found a way to bake with them! Go start your ovens and make these perfect snack!

What you will need:

8 cupcake liners

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1 banana, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 3 large handfuls of baby spinach

Note: This is half the recipe and made 8 muffins. Feel free to double it if you need more! Oh, and there are no eggs 😉

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a blender (I used a Magic Bullet), blend oil, milk and spinach until there are no chunks. Pour into the dry ingredients and add the mashed banana and vanilla. Stir until combined.

Pour into liners about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 16-18 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

I love always having a fresh, baked good in the house. And when I decided to bake something today, I didn’t want anything sweet. Surprise! These muffins are a perfect snack or breakfast, especially if you have picky toddlers in your house (like I do). It’s cold here in Chicago and I did’t want to go to the store, so, I went with what I had in my pantry. Oatmeal and raisins came to my rescue! These muffins even have a little cinnamon crunch topping that you don’t HAVE to make, but it gives these guys some extra flavor. So, here we go! Let’s go bake some muffins…

What you will need:

Muffin pan, greased or lined with paper cups

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup old-fashioned oats (quick oats can also be used)
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk

For the cinnamon topping:

2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted butter

Tip: This recipe is so versatile! Feel free to add or substitute any of the ingredients. Example: Use dried cranberries in place of the raisins, or add chocolate chips 🙂

Preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in oats and raisins.

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, beaten egg and milk. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until combined. Fill the prepared muffin pan about 2/3 full of batter.

In another small bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the cinnamon topping. Sprinkle evenly over the muffins.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove muffins from pan and cool on wire rack. Enjoy warm with butter!

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Super Easy Banana Muffins

I know I’ve made banana muffins before, but this recipe is so easy, hardly any ingedients and you will have all of them on hand. Husband is watching football (Go Bears!), child is sleeping, there’s a load of laundry going… what’s a lady to do? Bake of course! I need to make a baking supply run so I did not have much. I had exactly 2 very ripe bananas so muffins are what came to mind. Here is how to make these guys…

What you will need:

Muffin tin sprayed with non-stick spray

For the batter:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl peel bananas and smush with a fork. In another larger bowl, mix together bananas, eggs and oil. Pour into dry ingredients and mix well. Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool on wire rack and enjoy!

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Oatmeal Banana Muffins

If you read my blog or follow me on Facebook, you know that I’m a runner. I love to run! But after a hard 6 miles, I need to replenish my muscles. This muffin is the perfect solution. Oatmeal fills you up and bananas are sweet and the perfect after-workout food. The recipe for these is super easy, too, so if you do not like to bake or don’t bake often, try this one. It’s a great (kid friendly), healthy breakfast. So let’s get started…

What you will need:

Muffin tin

For the batter:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed, ripe bananas
(Feel free to add mini chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, or anything else to make these extra tasty!)

To make the batter:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs and bananas and mix well. With a large spoon, mix in the flour mixture until just combined.

Spray muffin tin with a non-stick spray. Pour batter in about half full. Bake for about 17 minutes, until the tops of the muffins bounce back when pressed.

Remove muffins and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Banana Bread Muffins with Chocolate Buttercream

Who says you can’t put frosting on muffins? If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you know I just got piping bags and decorating tips from Wilton! I couldn’t wait to use them. I wanted to make a cake but since I would be the only one eating it, I decided to make muffins instead. And these are more like banana cake muffins, anyway. Plus, chocolate buttercream is super tasty and easy and I figured, hey, that would go good together 🙂 If you do not want to make the buttercream, you don’t need to. The muffins are very delicious on their own.  So let’s bake…

What you will need:

Muffin tin lined or sprayed
Tip: If spraying with a non-stick spray, do so just before pouring the batter in. This will prevent it from pooling at the bottom.

For the banana bread:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup milk

For the chocolate buttercream:

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
Piping bag (optional)
Decorating tip (optional) I used a Wilton 1M

To make the banana bread muffins:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

In another large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs and mix until well incorporated.

Peel the bananas and place them in a bowl. Mash well with a fork. Add them to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add half of the milk and another 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix. Then add the rest of the milk and flour and mix until combined.

Scoop batter evenly into prepared pan about half full. Bake for 14-16 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing them and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream:

Look at me piping! Bad picture but so exciting 🙂

In a large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat butter until smooth and creamy. Slowly add in the cocoa powder and beat until incorporated. Add vanilla and the powdered sugar slowly. Beat in milk as needed (depending on how thick you want it) and mix until you get the desired consistency.

Frost the muffins once they are cooled. You can pipe, like I did, or just use a knife or spatula. Enjoy!

Made 17 muffins and more than enough buttercream.

Mini Sweet Corn Bread Muffins Recipe

I love summer, I love barbecues, I love being outside, I love boats, I love drinking! I get all of those things, plus more, at my brother-in-laws lake house today! Yay! I am bringing these corn bread muffins and lemon squares and sangria. Life. Is. Good. These are the perfect thing to bring to a barbecue because everyone loves them, they are easy to make, and they are a perfect finger food. Just grab and go, no utensils required. Here’s how it is done…

What you will need:

Greased mini muffin tin

1 1/4 cups yellow cake mix (about 9 oz.)
1 package (8.5 ounces) corn bread/muffin mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

To make the batter:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, sift together the mixes. In a small bowl, stir together the eggs, water, milk and oil. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until moistened. Fill prepared muffin tin about half full. Bake for about 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes before taking muffins out. Best served warm. Enjoy!

Yield: 24 mini muffins

Just Add Water

Mini Blueberry Muffins! With a special added touch from yours truly. I normally do not buy pre-packaged mixes, they do not taste as good as homemade (obviously). But I did this for my husbands work and I said I would blog about it. And let me just say, super easy! Anybody can do this and Krusteaz is a great product to start with if you’re looking to get your feet wet in the baking world. If you decide to get this mix, do not get fat free. The taste is just not the same. But, as the title of this post says, you only need water. If you get the non-fat free version, you need eggs and vegetable oil. Just a thought. The recipe is on the box, but I added some lemon zest and a lemon glaze to make it my own. Here we go…

What you will need:

24 count mini muffin pan
24 muffin liners (optional)

For the muffins:

Krusteaz Wild Blueberry Muffin Mix
1 cup water
Zest from one lemon (optional)

For the glaze: (optional)

1 cup powdered sugar
About 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

To make the muffins:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Line muffin pan with liners or spray with non-stick spray, set aside. Drain and rinse blueberries. Don’t worry, they come in the box! Set these aside as well.

In a large bowl, stir together muffin mix and cup of water until combined. Gently fold in blueberries and zest of 1 lemon. Tip: If making the glaze, keep this lemon handy.

Evenly divide the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Bake for about 12 minutes. Carefully remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

To make the glaze:

In a medium sized bowl, stir together powdered sugar and lemon juice. To make it simple, you could just use the spoon and drizzle glaze over the cooled muffins. Or, to be fancy like me (haha), put a ziplock bag with the corner down inside a drinking glass. Then, pour the glaze inside. Twist the top of the bag so nothing will leak out and cut the corner of the bag. Voila! A makeshift pastry bag. Squeeze glaze over tops of muffins. Enjoy!