works-for-me wednesday

I used to go to McDonalds and order a Bacon Egg and Cheese McMuffin with a Sweet Tea or Burger King and order a Bacon Egg and Cheese Croissan'wich with a Mocha Joe for breakfast. Now that Nick and I are facing an increase in our property taxes (built in to our monthly mortgage payment) and a huge increase in our health insurance (that's a whole other topic for a post), we have made some changes to our daily spending habits. Because of this, we are trying to stick to a $40 a week grocery budget which includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We've been taking our leftovers to work for lunch and I've been making muffins for breakfast. It's easy to pop one in a container and take it to work. Blueberries are readily available now (remind me to get a bunch and freeze them before the season is over!) so we have been loving blueberry muffins. Bananas are really cheap when you buy them when they are so over ripe that no one else wants them. Here are two recipes that I've found on Allrecipes and adapted to our liking. I'll include the original links but post the recipes that we follow. I hope you enjoy them!

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Banana Crumb Muffins (original link)
Makes about 12 muffins.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  
• 3 medium bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• TOPPING...
  
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder salt, cinnamon,and nutmeg. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, brown sugar, egg and applesauce. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

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To Die For Blueberry Muffins (original link)
Makes about 9 muffins.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• TOPPING...
  
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

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In both recipes, we replaced the butter or oil with applesauce to keep it healthier and with more fiber. It also adds some more fruit to our diet, which doesn't hurt. The original recipe to the blueberry muffins has a different topping, but we liked the one from the banana muffins better, so we use that one as noted above.


These recipes work for me because they are yummy and more affordable than fast food breakfasts. To see what works for other bloggers, Check out works-for-me wednesday hosted by RocksInMyDryer.net.