Spiced Banana Oat Muffins

I started this blog with the intent of discussing and sharing multiple facets of my life, and so far it's pretty much only been about music and practicing. I've been wanting to branch out and bring other topics into the mix but wasn't sure where to begin - until yesterday when I finally started cooking at home again. Since we're a vegan household, all of the recipes I post will be vegan, BUT you don't have to make them vegan if you don't want. We use almond milk and soy butter, but you can certainly use regular dairy if you want!

I'm going to start with Spiced Banana Bread. The recipe I use is based on this one. I've increased the milk slightly since I've added the grains. The vinegar helps make the bread more moist. I decided to add it to the banana bread after I saw it in few vegan cake recipes. You may also want to use 3/4 cup sugar, if you want it a little sweeter.

1/3 c. margarine, softened

1/2  c. sugar

2 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 mashed bananas

3/4 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. allspice

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

2/3 c. assorted grains (oatmeal, plain granola, etc.)
1 tsp. white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix margarine and sugar in a large bowl.

Sift in the flour and spices, mix well.

Add liquid ingredients and grains and mix well.

Pour into greased muffin pan...

and bake for 45 minutes!

The recipe makes about 18 muffins, depending on what size you make the muffins. As you can tell, six of them have a little streusel-esque topping (melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, milk, wheat germ and granola). I don't know what the proportions I used were, I'll get that later. Here's a shot of the delectable finished product:

For the 'grains,' I use a mix of oatmeal, wheat germ, granola, whatever I have or want to put in. You can even use nuts if you want - I once made a banana bread with cashews in it that was pretty yummy. For this one I used these 'nutty nuggets' that I found in the cereal aisle of Kroger when we lived in WV. I thought they would be nice to mix with bran cereal for a tasty breakfast, but no. Just, no. They have NO flavor, are incredibly hard - not crunchy, just hard, and just suck. However, they work great in baked goods, so it's not a total waste!

Also, about the bananas. We always have bananas around for breakfast and snacks, but sometimes they go bad before we eat them. When they do, I just throw them in the freezer. Most people already know that, you probably do too. Now you know twice. You're welcome.

Hope you try these out and enjoy them!