Friday, March 18, 2011

Oat Bran-Applesauce Mini Muffins

The Lenten season is well underway, and that means different things for me today than it did when I was a kid. Growing up, my family and I always observed Lent and the traditional rules of not eating meat on Fridays and giving something up for the 40-day period. Some people gave up candy or ice cream or whatever, but in my family, we always gave up eating between meals. 40 days of no snacks also pretty much meant 40 days of no candy since it wasn’t easy to pass off a pile of jolly ranchers as dessert. These days, things have changed. I don’t eat much meat in the first place, so telling myself I’m not going to eat meat but will eat fish on a Friday doesn’t mean much. Also, since the real idea is to simplify and be a little less decadent, sitting down to a meal of lobster just because it’s Friday is missing the point. As for not eating between meals, I let that go years ago when I couldn’t determine what might be a meal and what might be a snack depending on what I was doing each day. So, I just give up popcorn which kills me every year because I have a serious popcorn problem. And, rather than focusing solely on giving something up, I like to take on something good as well. This year, I’m cooking even more vegetables than usual and spending even more time with my healthy eating types of cookbooks. I recently picked up a copy of Power Foods which showcases 38 of the big players among nutrition-packed fruits, vegetables, proteins, and grains with recipes for every meal of the day as well as snacks. So far, I’ve only cooked from the breakfast chapter, but I see many healthy dishes for Lent and the rest of the year coming from these pages.

The little, oat bran-applesauce muffins looked like a perfect way to have a healthy, grab-and-go breakfast on hand. They’re mini muffins, so you can have one for a tiny breakfast if you’re not that hungry or grab a few on a morning when you need more energy. With no refined sugar, they’re sweetened only with applesauce, dates, and some honey. They were made by reducing applesauce with chopped, pitted dates to cook off some liquid while plumping the dates. Once cool, that mixture was combined with wheat bran, buttermilk, one egg, two tablespoons of honey, some grated fresh ginger, and vanilla. The dry ingredients were whisked together, and those were flour, ground flaxseed, baking soda, salt, ground allspice, and rolled oats. The dry ingredients were stirred into the applesauce mixture, the mini muffin cups were filled, and the muffins baked for about 20 minutes.

The ginger and allspice smelled lovely as the muffins baked, and I thought those flavors were even better after the muffins had sat for a day. Yes, they do contain wheat bran and flaxseed and no actual sugar, but the dates and applesauce give them sweetness and keep the texture very tender. I have several other pages in the book marked, and I predict it will still be getting a lot of use beyond these 40 days.


25 comments:

  1. Those muffins look so good. Now that I know what apple sauce is I must try and recreate them.

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  2. I eat all bran for breakfast regularly, and I save the little crunched up bits at the bottom of the box for just such a recipe. I'm going to need to get ahold of that book.
    Have a wonderful weekend.
    *kisses* HH

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  3. Gorgeous muffins! They look so moist and soft.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  4. I can almost smell how fragrant these must be when they come out of the oven, what with the spices and lovely ginger.

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  5. These are so adorable, and sound so wholesome! Great idea!

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  6. they are with dates.. really little, cute and delicious

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  7. this mini-muffin has some gigantic flavors!

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  8. My kids and neighbor loved the apple muffins I made a while back; now these mini beauties would be so popular with them as well. On the to-do list!

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  9. That's a perfect little muffin, Lisa. Great to find some ginger in the recipe!
    I am not familiar with that book, but I'm going to look into it.

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  10. What a great little muffin - love the dates and apple combination. These are now on my list of great things to make. Have a great weekend!!!

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  11. You have truly have embraced the spirit of Lent, and I can tell that you have benefitted from the 40 day 'cleansing' period. These oat bran apple sauce muffins look totally yummy and full of goodness!

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  12. Using apple sauce lately in baked goods has been the go to trick. Such a quick and easy way to add moisture, flavor and keep it healthy.

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  13. These little muffins look tasty! I love the addition of ginger. I don't observe Lent as I don't do deprivation well. I always fall off the wagon and binge out on whatever I was trying to abstain from. I've learned that moderation is my best practice. But good for you folks who have more discipline!

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  14. I call them "one-mouth-muffins"! These are much easier to enjoy on-the-go, no crumbs!

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  15. No snacks sounds really hard! These muffins look so perfect - wish I had one right now!

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  16. Lovely flavours! I can imagine how good it smelt when baking!

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  17. Haven't made oat bran muffins in such a long time. My mom used to make them every week for my husband (can you say "spoiled"??)

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  18. Perfectly healthy and scrumptious muffins!

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  19. These muffins look wonderful. Thanks for posting the recipe.

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  20. These are the perfect proof that healthy food does NOT equal boring or tasteless! Thanks for pointing out the book, it's going on my list.

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  21. Not sure how I missed these gems the other day! I bet these smelled heavenly when they were baking. I use dates alot but not in a muffin before--perfect sweetness for them.

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  22. i suspect i could sit down at my computer with a basket of these in arms reach and have them magically disappear before i stood up again. awesome treat. :)

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  23. These are just chock full of goodness at every turn! I love how healthy they are!

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  24. Oh these are cute and I like the apple date combo, and mostly the ginger you have used! I am so ginger crazy, and love it paired with the apple and oats.

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