Oatmeal Banana cups with chocolate chips

I found this recipe over at Green Lite Bites, and had to try it out.

Ingredients
3 mashed bananas
1 cup vanilla Almond milk (I used skim because that's what I had)
2 eggs
1 tbsp Baking powder
3 cups (240g) Old Fashion or Rolled Oats
1 tsp vanilla extract (I bumped this up to 1.5 since I was using boring milk)
3 tbsp (42g) mini chocolate chips (I used regular, because that's what I had in the apt.)

(I also added about a tbs of splenda, again, because of the boring milk. Next time, I'd use brown sugar instead, and maybe a touch of cinnamon too.)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix all ingredients except the chocolate chips together, and let sit while you prepare the muffin pans.
Spray a muffin pan and/or liners with with non-stick spray.
Stir the chocolate chips into the oatmeal batter. (Instead, I didn't mix them in, and sprinkled them on top after I filled the cups with the chocolate-less batter.)
Divide batter into 15 muffin cups. They should be just about filled.
Bake 20-30 minutes, you’ll see the edges just starting to brown and they will be firm to the touch.

The Verdict

These guys are very filling, but they seemed a little flavorless and overly banana-y to me. Next time, I'd probably throw in the brown sugar and cinnamon, and use smaller bananas (mine were kinda huge). I might even try it with some sort of dried fruit mixed in to up the sweet factor - maybe raisins or cherries or apricots. But, all in all, it's a super-hearty breakfast, and I feel a little better because there is fruit involved and because there are so few ingredients (and none that required going to the store).

Hungry Girl 200 under 200 Blueberry Muffins

I've been meaning to try this recipe out for a while now. I finally tried it, and I'm glad I did. It was easy to make, and the muffins were great. I loved everything about it except for blueberries. I now think that all muffin recipes should include syrup. Amazing. I think I managed to end up with sour berries. Blergh. Now I'm kinda sad that I started with a double batch and spoiled it all. :(




Edited: I tried this again, with frozen blueberries this time it was much better. But it still had a bit of an unexpected, hard-to-place after taste. It faded after the first day or two, or maybe I got used to it. Also, I think that a normal batch of six is perfect for eating for up without having to freeze any. Which is pretty much perfect in so many ways.


I did notice that in order to get the recommended number of muffins, I had to fill each muffin tin to just over full. Thankfully, wheat flour doesn't rise much, so they didn't overflow, but instead look like pretty, substantial muffins.

Hungry Girl Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup light vanilla soymilk
1/4 cup sugar-free pancake syrup
1/4 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Original Egg Beaters)
1/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
3 tbsp. brown sugar (not packed)
2 tbsp. light whipped butter or light buttery spread, room temperature
2 tbsp. no-sugar-added applesauce (get Mott's Blueberry Delight if you can find it!)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt


Directions:


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, Splenda, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Mix well.
In a separate, large mixing bowl, combine soymilk, syrup, egg substitute, butter, applesauce, and vanilla extract.
Using an electric mixer or a whisk, mix until thoroughly blended. (Don't worry if butter bits do not break up completely.)
Add dry ingredients from the first mixing bowl to the mixture in the large one.
Mix until completely blended.
Then fold in the blueberries.
Line a 6-cup muffin pan (or half a 12-cup pan) with baking liners and/or spray with nonstick spray.
Evenly distribute batter among the 6 cups.
Place in the oven and bake for about 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Enjoy!


MAKES 6 SERVINGS


Serving Size: 1 muffin

Calories: 137
Fat: 2.25g
Sodium: 269mg
Carbs: 26.5g
Fiber: 3g
Sugars: 7.5g
Protein: 4g

POINTS® value 2*

Wedding cupcake test 1

I'm planning to make three kinds of cupcakes for the wedding: perfect party cake, red velvet, and classic yellow with chocolate frosting. I've made perfect party cake before, and even made it as cupcakes for another friend's wedding, so I'm not worried about that one. I'm not sure of the other two recipes though, so I'm trying some out.

First, I tried this yellow cake recipe from bakerella. She said it was super-moist, so I'm not sure what I did wrong. Mine came out really dry. I wonder if it has something to do with the altitude up here? Or maybe it's just the trouble or translating to cupcakes?

I tried this one with a malted chocolate butter cream. Of course, now I can't remember where I got the recipe for the icing. Probably from Dorie or from BH&G. It was interesting, but I think I'll stick to a more traditional recipe for the wedding.

I am really happy with the way that the chocolates turned out though. It was super-easy to make them using Wilton melts, and they were surprisingly tasty too!