Mornings are hard. Those cute little mugs that talk about how you shouldn’t talk to me before I finish my coffee? That’s spot on. My kids even joke about it….and they have learned. I can rock the late night hours, and burn the midnight oil. I’m a night owl, and married one. We are both still adjusting to the grown up way of life that demands early rising, and going to bed at a reasonable hour. Being a grown up is kind of overrated.
When my kids started school and life demanded that they be dressed, fed, and ready to be out the door at 7:45, well, it was a rough adjustment.
While I admittedly still drive through carpool in my PJ’s most mornings, I have found a few things that help our mornings run a bit smoother.
Laying clothes out the night before. Making lunches the night before. Muffins.
It seems silly that muffins can make such a difference, but they do.
My kids take FOREVER to eat cereal. Milk is everywhere, we are running late, I’m yelling about shoes and lunches…this is our cereal mornings. I only have one kid that eats cereal bars. Oatmeal takes too long. I can’t deal with flames before I have coffee which rules out eggs. Even toast and frozen waffles take forever to toast and butter.
Somewhere along the way I started making my grandma’s banana muffins. Muffin mornings were wonderful things! The container of muffins was placed on the table the night before along with juice glasses and napkins. They wondered downstairs from bed, helped themselves, ate quickly with no complaining and we were on time! There was no yelling, no whining, no dawdling or asking for help with the milk. I sipped my coffee in peace. The heavens opened and the sun shone down on muffin mornings. I mean, it’s a bit hyperbolic, but it was pretty much like that.
Muffins make mornings easier for us, so I make them.
The making part is often inconvenient, being intentional about squeezing it into my day somewhere. Sometimes I don’t Do the Hard Thing and decide oatmeal or cereal will be fine for a day. I ALWAYS REGRET SUCH MADNESS. The next day I make the muffins, because muffins help me not yell and do this raspy sigh noise I make when I’m frustrated (so I’ve been told).
Muffins are not known for their healthiness, and most muffins you buy are glorified cupcakes. Eating a glorified cupcake for breakfast is not a good idea, so I revamped my muffins.
These are our go-to basic muffins. So we don’t get bored, and because I’m kind of a nerd about seasonal eating…we change it up a bit here and there. During the summer, I made this recipe A LOT (but used coconut oil, whole wheat flour, and coconut sugar. Didn’t add nuts or fruit, often added chocolate chips. Add a little milk or yogurt if the batter seems dry with WW flour. Mini muffin tins bake for 7-8 minutes, regular sized about 15 minutes), and it was always a big hit.
But y’all, it’s fall! Beautiful, lovely, and glorious fall! In fall, we make pumpkin muffins, so that all will be good and right with the world.
These are the starring characters in my healthy pumpkin muffins. I have waxed poetic about coconut sugar (Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Coconut Sugar, 16-Ounce
This is a large recipe. It made about 4 dozen mini muffins and almost 2 dozen regular sized muffins. You can also make it into loaves, of which it will give you at least 4 mini loaves, more like 6. You probably won’t be able to use it all up before it goes bad unless you are giving it away (which I love to do!). I freeze some of it, but you may choose to only make a half batch instead. If you are giving some away, I found these fun and fancy liners at Target (most speciality cake stores have them as well), but these Regency Wraps Tulip Baking Cups, Standard, 24-Count, Brown
Pumpkin Muffins
2 cans Trader Joe’s organic pumpkin
2 cups coconut sugar
1 cup coconut oil, melted
4 eggs
1 teaspoon ginger (fresh grated is best, but the dry kind in spice section will do
3 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour/pastry whole wheat flour/freshly ground whole wheat flour (can purchase at Great Harvest)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon (depending on how strongly you like cinnamon)
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
3/4 cup buttermilk
Mini chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat over to 350 F.
Combine pumpkin and sugar in a large bowl with a blender. Slowly add the coconut oil and eggs, one at a time. Blend in the ginger. In a smaller separate bowl, mix baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves into the flour until it is well blended. Stir in half the dry mixture into the pumpkin mixture and blend well. Add the buttermilk and stir in. Add the remaining dry ingredients and chocolate chips (if you so desire) and stir until just combined. Pour into well oiled tins of choice. I used coconut spray oil. Mini muffins will take about 7 minutes to bake, regular sized muffin tins about 14, mini loaf pans about 45. Always check for doneness a minute (or 5 for the loaves) out with a cake tester.
Mornings are hard, make them a bit easier by Doing the Hard Thing and making muffins.
To keep up with posts, be sure to head over to the Facebook page and like it, or subscribe to the email list above!
This post is part of the #write31days challenge hosted by The Nester.
Click here to read all the posts in the 31 days of Doing the Hard Thing series.
