If you follow us on Facebook you may have seen that I am on a campaign to do better about breakfasts this school year. We have been in a bad habit of sticking with cold cereal so I am making changes to improve that!

I’m not an early morning person so I am trying to make good breakfast foods in advance that they can just pull out of the fridge or freezer every morning. I wanted to find a good hearty muffin recipe that would be more filling and breakfast-like instead of just like a cupcake-ish treat. Some of our readers suggested morning glory muffins which I had never heard of before so I googled it and found this recipe which I used and modified quite a bit. Here is what I did and the end results!

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour (I use fresh ground)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2/3 cup vegetable oil (could sub 1/2 for applesauce)
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup dehydrated carrots, soaked for an hour (about 2 cups or 4 large shredded carrots if using fresh)
1 cup shredded/grated apple (2 small apples or dehydrated apple chunks might work for this too)
1/2 cup freeze-dried fruit (I used cranberries but think blueberries would be better)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (not in original recipe but I was bribing my kids)

Optional Extras or Substitutions
1/3 cup ground flax
1/2 cup unsalted chopped nuts
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes (instead of freeze-dried fruit)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and spray your muffin pans. It makes more than a dozen muffins so plan accordingly. Exact amount depends how full you fill the tins and how many extras you included.

In a large bowl mix flour, soda, cinnamon, ginger in salt. In a medium bowl mix eggs, sugar, honey, oil, vanilla, and orange zest and juice. Add wet ingredients in to dry ingredients and mix well. Add carrots, fruit, chocolate chips, and any other optional “chunky” ingredients at the end and fold in.

Pour the batter in right to the top of the muffin tins. This baking tip was on the original recipe and it really worked! Put the muffins in the oven for five minutes then immediately lower the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for another 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. This trick makes the muffin tops puff of big initially and then everything cooks at the lower temperature. I am going to try that on all my muffin recipes in the future!

Other Breakfasts

Here is a sneak peek at some of the other breakfasts I’ve been making en masse. Follow our Facebook to see my future projects (coming up next is instant oatmeal packets!)

  

-Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net