All Hail the Muffin

These are not your ordinary muffins. Quite possibly they are not muffins at all. Actually, when I think about, I don't even know if there's a real muffin definition. Well, I didn't. I looked it up just now and learned that muffin is nothing but an American English word for a type of quick bread (is that something like quicksand?!), baked in small portions. Of course, I followed the Wiki link from muffins to quick bread... but then I also got bored of it all.

The muffins I talk about, and I am fairly sure now that I can absolutely call them that, are made in a microwave. Granted, this just has to be an American invention, but hey, all hail the muffin! Because these muffins really are good.

I found about them a couple weeks ago, or so, when a friend shared her healthy recipe find on one of the forums I go to. It was originally found on this blog, but it's been changed since... uhm, quite a few times. First my friend didn't make it the way the recipe said it should be made, and then I changed everything, too. 

I don't have any good photos, unfortunately, but since I cook these for breakfast almost every morning, and I get up at 6:30, nobody should expect me to go whip out the big Canon and start a photo session, right?

Okay, here is the deal. These guys are really reasonably healthy. They're also good for you because they're full of protein. They're also very good for me, because they make me eat healthy breakfast foods in the morning, when I normally can't stomach any of them. For a very reasonable amount of calories, there's plenty of food to be eaten. They're pretty huge, about the size of an average orange, or even bigger at times. You can eat them as is, or you can cut them in half and put a little bit of peanut butter and, say, homemade marmelade.

The first one I ever made was banana-coconut. Easy to make, done in about five minutes, including baking.

Banana - Coconut Muffin

Whip up an egg. The whole thing, even though the woman on the blog says she uses only eggwhites. Yolks are good for you. Use a fork, no need for a mixer; that'd be just way too much work for a single-serving treat, really. Grab another bowl and throw half of a normal-sized banana into it. Mash with a fork. Add 2 - 3 tablespoons of coconut flour to the mix (not the shredded sugary things from your local grocery store, but more like the real flour, or coconut flakes with absolutely nothing added). Throw in about half a teaspoon or whatever small amount of baking powder (I am laughing at the one I bought the other day: it is not GMO, it says. Abuuh?) and then also some amount of cocoa. Again, it has to be real cocoa powder, unsweetened. Stir, mix, whip, do whatever. It doesn't require a lot of work, no matter what it is. Put the whole thing (along with the bowl, yes) into your microwave and cook 2.5 to 4 minutes. Our oven is some 1300W monster, so it takes no longer than 2:30, really. Enjoy the deliciousness.

Pumpkin - Wheat Germ Muffin. With cinnamon.

It's all the same as the first one, except that here I used wheat germ instead of that coconut and pumpkin puree, instead of the banana. All of the quantities stayed roughly the same, but so far I've learned that nothing at all can go wrong with this dish. It's worked every single time so far. The pumpkin I used was Libby's pure pumpkin can and I think I packed about two tablespoons into my bowl. Add as much cinnamon as you like and also some sort of a sweetener. I've tried both brown sugar and honey so far and both work fine (I used half a spoon of sugar one time and half a spoon of honey the other time). It takes the same amount of time to cook this guy and it's really good. I've also tried adding dried cranberries and/or currant to this mix. Very good. This kind of a muffin is a lot fluffier than the previous one and there's a lot more moisture to it, too.

Apple sauce with cinnamon

My newest creation. Wheat germ, egg, cinnamon and natural apple sauce (this is basically apple puree, no sugar added). No sweeteners added at all. I did throw a few dried cranberries into this, for some good measure. Very lightweight, very airy and pretty moist, too. Tastes good.

Here are some of the poor-quality pictures I have:

The first one I ever made: banana-coconut guy.

One of the pumpkin muffins

This one I made for Derek and it was by far the least healthy of these creations. He wanted sweetness, as well as more dried fruits.