Breakfast is a downfall for many people trying to live a healthier lifestyle. With so many fast food places offering burritos, biscuits, sausage, ham, bacon, eggs in all shapes and sizes, many people are foregoing cooking in the morning and just driving through for their breakfast.

Since our goal should be to change our eating habits, not continually be on a diet, it’s time to find a breakfast that you can have on hand every morning. And while some would say to you that you should stop every morning and enjoy your breakfast and start you day off pleasantly, I would say that it is all I can do to make myself get out of the bed on the second snooze alarm, so breakfast on-the-go appeals to me.

To me the solution here is muffins, and they need to be ones that all age groups will eat. First of all you can bake these on the weekend and store them individually in the refrigerator or freezer. The bran muffin recipe takes this ease to a new level; it can be made and stored in the refrigerator and you can bake just the number of muffins you need every morning. Don’t be put off by all the ingredients in this first recipe, I promise it is worth the effort. Another benefit is that it is sweet enough with the fruit in it that you do not need any type of jelly on it. This recipe has dried cranberries in it, because I don’t like raisins so I always swap these out.

 

Morning glory muffins

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups peeled and grated carrots

1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and grated

1/2 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup wheat germ

3 large eggs

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup orange juice

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cups and lightly spray the insides of the papers. In a small bowl, barely cover the cranberries with hot water, and set them aside to soak. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, spices and salt. Stir in the grated carrots, apple, coconut, nuts and wheat germ. Stir this around so they are dusted with the flour — this helps prevent them from all sinking to the bottom of the muffin cup. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla and orange juice. Add your liquid to the dry mix and stir just until evenly moistened. Drain your cranberries and stir them in.

Divide the batter among the paper cups in the prepared pan. Bake the muffins for 25 to 28 minutes, until they’re nicely domed and a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the inner muffins comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then turn out of pans to finish cooling. Wrap any leftovers airtight, and store at room temperature for several days or freeze for longer storage.

 

Bran muffins

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup Kellogg’s All-Bran cereal

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg

1 1/4 cups

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups Kellogg’s All-Bran cereal

In a small mixing bowl, pour the boiling water over the half cup of cereal. When this mixture has cooled, mix in the vegetable oil and egg.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the cranberries.

Combine the buttermilk and brown sugar, and stir into the dry ingredients. Stir in remaining dry cereal, then the softened bran mixture. Cover the batter and refrigerate it overnight.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F for 15 minutes. Line a 12-muffin tin with papers, and lightly spray the insides of the papers.

Stir the batter once or twice, then scoop a heaping 1/4-cup of batter into each prepared muffin cup. If you aren’t making all 12 at one time, place a inch of water in the muffin tins that you aren’t using. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan. You can store this batter in the refrigerator for one week.

(A half cup of chopped crystallized ginger is really good in this recipe.)

 

Christina Hall writes a food column for The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at christina.hall@natchezdemocrat.com.