Strawberry Muffins

Strawberry Muffins

I hope you are all enjoying yourselves in your kitchens this spring, cooking delicious meals with ease – and more importantly – relishing the process.

I have to be honest.... that's not always the case with my home cooking.  At time I need a little inspiration to motivate myself into the kitchen.

I find a change of season, like spring, inspires home cooking because of the availability of fresh local foods.

Strawberries are typically the first to appear at our local Farmers Market, so, in an attempt to energize home cooking this spring, here is a  strawberry recipe to try. 

Yummy Bran Muffins with Sliced Strawberries

Bran Strawberry Muffins

Here is a light, yet satisfying bran muffin. It’s super simple to make and delightfully tasty. It does call for two cups of plain yogurt, which seems like a lot, but it’s the secret to the success of these muffins. 

I added sliced strawberries on top, but you could omit that and add one cup of blueberries to the muffin batter if you prefer.

Spiced Pumpkin Muffins with Raisins

Tasty Spiced pumpkin muffins 

Here’s a simple pumpkin muffin recipe with raisins and walnuts, spiced with cinnamon, ground ginger and molasses. These pumpkin muffins are both healthy and tasty and make a great snack on the go. 

Spicy Pumpkin Muffins with Raisins

Cranberry Muffins with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Topping

Cranberry Muffins, Brown Sugar Cinnamon Topping 

Here's a delightful muffin to make! Fresh cranberries packed into a muffin topped with sugar/cinnamon which makes a perfect muffin.

Cranberry Muffins with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Topping

Yummy Cranberry Muffins!

This is a fun cranberry muffin recipe to try. They are perfect to have with your morning breakfast or on a coffee break. The sugar-cinnamon topping creates an intriguing blend of tart and sweet. These cranberry muffins are easy to make and freeze nicely.

Gingerbread Spice Muffins, Apples, Raisins, Walnuts - Dairy-Free

Dairy-Free Gingerbread Spice Muffins with Apples, Raisins and Walnuts

Here's a yummy gingerbread spice muffin with apples, raisins and walnuts! I think you’ll find the gingerbread spice in these dairy-free muffins a real delight. The muffins calls for Thompson raisins, but you could substitute Sultanas or even dried cranberries if you wish.

Ginger Squash Coconut Muffins

Squash Coconut Ginger Muffins

While making the squash coconut muffins, I became curious about pumpkin seeds. Specifically, I wondered why the pumpkins seeds we buy in the store are called pepitas and why they are green. I’ve carved many a Halloween pumpkin, and I know the seeds are white.

 So, I did a little research and learned that the pumpkins we carve have seeds with hulls, and the green pumpkins seeds we purchase in stores do not have hulls. These hulless seeds come from a pumpkin called the Styrian pumpkin. I also learned the reason they are called pepitas is because it’s Spanish for “little seeds of squash.”

Who knew?

In a stroke of serendipity, I then saw a Styrian pumpkin sitting on a table at a farmers’ market that next weekend. The farmer confirmed that they were the hulless green pumpkin seeds, and that many people didn’t know about them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t buy it because I was walking and already had an armful of food to carry on my 10-block walk home.

Pepitas  and Styrian Pumpkin

Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

Blueberry Muffins

There were an abundance of blueberries available where I live this summer, which inspired me to bake some delicious blueberry muffins. 

I usually use buttermilk in my baking recipes, and then a reader on Pinterest wrote to say she’d modified one of my recipes with sour cream. I decided to give it a try and it worked like a charm. Hence, these muffins are made with sour cream. 

Oat Bran Rhubarb Orange Muffins

Oat Bran Rhubarb Orange Muffins

 This is a nice recipe for a delightful breakfast muffin. It’s not too sweet and  has a nice blend of bran, wheat germ, oats and orange.

Delicious Rhubarb Muffin with Sugar Topping

If you have some fresh rhubarb, here is a quick and delicious rhubarb muffin recipe to bake. The sugar and cinnamon topping make it extra special. 

Dairy-Free Oatmeal Orange Muffins

A simple Oatmeal Muffins that's Dairy-Free!

I like to have muffins in the house for those mornings when I've overslept and have to hustle out the door without breakfast. This yummy, dairy-free muffin is a perfect grab-and-go snack for busy days.

Pumpkin Ginger Muffins with Walnuts and Pumpkin Seeds

Yummy Pumpkin Muffins

These delightful pumpkin muffins have the right about of ginger in them from both fresh ginger and crystallized ginger. If you're not familiar with crystallized ginger, it's thinly sliced fresh ginger cooked in a simple syrup, then dried and sprinkled with sugar. 

Chia Seed Oatmeal Wheat Germ Blueberry Muffins

Chia Seed Oatmeal Blueberry

Chia Seeds

My goal this year is to try new foods that will provide health benefits. I’ve picked chia seeds to start with. It’s a food I’ve never purchased before or eaten.

While researching chia seeds, I learned they are a staple in Latin America. This seed is from a flowering plant in the mint family and are either white or black.

Chia seeds have a lot of health benefits. They are full of fibre, which keeps our bodies regular. They also have omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are good for our hearts. Not only that, they are high in antioxidants and stop free radicals from damaging our cells, and also have some protein.

One cool thing I found out is that chia seeds do not need to be refrigerated and can last up to four years in your pantry, when if stored in a sealed container.

Chia seeds are a versatile food with no distinct flavour, so they won’t outshine other ingredients. The seeds should be added to water before eating and will become gelatinous. It’s not wise to eat them straight from the bag because that could cause tummy upsets.

So, throw them into your soups, stews, and your morning porridge. They
are also perfect in puddings and smoothies. Another suggestion is to use them in Overnight oats,  chia seed blueberry muffins and chia seed, oatmeal, coconut chocolate chip cookies.

Banana Sunflower Seed Muffins

Banana Sunflower Seed Muffins

I was all set to make pumpkin muffins for the family the other day, but then I realized I had no canned pumpkin! Dang it. 

Hunting around for Plan B I found some black frozen bananas in the freezer. Bingo! 

My husband hates to throw out black bananas, which is why there are bags and bags of them in the freezer. I’m not sure why he saves them. It’s not like he’s planning on baking pans of banana bread, because he certainly doesn’t bake…but I digress. 

I exchanged the pumpkin in the recipe for bananas, lowered the amount of sugar and added raisins. 

Here’s what I got.

Spiced Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins With Chocolate Chips

Pumpkin, Cranberry with Chocolate Chips

These pumpkin cranberry muffins have a nice blend of savoury, sweet and sour. They are spiced with ginger, cinnamon and allspice. You can use fresh or frozen cranberries. They are great for breakfast or for a snack anytime. 

Raspberry, Cornmeal Muffins

Raspberry cornmeal muffins

These raspberry, cornmeal muffins make a great snack. They have a nice blend of tart, sweet, and buttery flavour. It's an easy recipe to make and one your whole family will enjoy!

Three-Grain Muffins

Three-Grain Muffins with Wheat Bran, Oatmeal and Corn Flour

This muffin recipe has wheat bran, which is the tough outer cover of the wheat kernel and has little nutritional value. However, it is loaded with fibre, which is a good thing!

The muffins remind me of a cross between a biscuit and a muffin. They have wheat bran, oats and cornmeal and are low in sugar and fat. They’re a great snack at any time of the day. 

Banana Wheat Germ Muffins

Banana Wheat Germ Muffins are a Great Way To Use Black Bananas

I don’t know what happens in your house, but the bananas in our house often go brown, and then black. But, I hate throwing out black bananas, so I usually hide them in the freezer and forget about them. Eventually I'll stumble upon the large stash of black, frozen bananas and have to deal with them. 

Baking muffins is an easy solution. These banana muffins have wheat germ for taste and nutrition, and walnuts for crunch. Make lots and freeze the extra.

Growing Carrots To Make Carrot Muffins

Carrot Muffins

I am a fair weather gardener (is that possible?). I still have not planted my seeds (except for lettuce) because the weather is too cold, damp and miserable. Heck, we still have our furnace on! I bought the soil and the seeds awhile back but, I'm waiting for warmth. I went on Brian Minter’s (gardening expert) website and he says some things can’t go into the garden until its warm (that’s a good enough excuse for me). 

But today, (in the cold overcast skies, temp 12ºC) I am going to plant my carrots. 

Fresh carrots are awesome and I plan to make lots of carrot slaw, carrot soup, roasted carrots, and carrot muffins. In fact, I’m going to make the following muffin recipe right not to inspire me to get out the door to plant! Are you planting carrots this year?

Carrot Muffins with pineapple, raisins and spiced with ginger and cinnamon

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

In this recipe you can swap semi-sweet chocolate chips for bittersweet chocolate chips, if that’s what you have on hand. The texture is almost like a cake and goes nicely with afternoon tea. However, my hubby likes to eat them for breakfast.

Bran, Berry and Banana Muffin

Bran, Berry, and Banana Muffins

I always have black bananas hanging around the kitchen counter. Too many actually. I often freeze them which means I have black bananas everywhere! Eventually I deal with the problem and bake them...I'm sure this sounds familiar.

This recipe calls for buttermilk. If you don't have any buttermilk don't worry you can still make the muffins. What you do is add 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice into the milk before you start the recipe. When it's time to add the wet ingredients into the dry the milk will be a perfect buttermilk substitute.