Egg & Bacon Breakfast Muffins

Yes, you read the title correctly; these muffins have bacon in them. Well, turkey bacon to be exact. Which is still bacon, which means, to me, it's evil. I have always hated the taste and smell of bacon, even as a child. My sister would chase me, as she ate bacon slices, taunting me "Come on, I know you want a bite." I had to jump on the swing set and swing to avoid her and that awful bacon aroma.

These muffins were made, out of love, for Mr.Surly. These are my second attempt. The first time I tried making them I burnt the bacon (hey, I never make the stuff). So they were just egg muffins. They are incredibly easy to make and are a great grab & go breakfast. I made them in a muffin tins, and even with cooking spray it was hard to get them out. The second time I used silicon muffin cups and it was so much easier to remove the muffins. I wish I had a silicon muffin pan but unfortunately I do not; I only have individual silicon cups which I put on a baking sheet and it worked out fine.

Coffee Cake Muffins for Two

I made these muffins when I didn't feel like making our usual Saturday breakfast. I was too tired to make anything complicated, just something easy. I had these muffins bookmarked for awhile, now I finally had the opportunity to make them. I think next time I would sprinkle some walnuts on top or add them into the batter.

These were so good, Mr.Surly was sad to discover I only made 4. So the next time I made this I tripled the recipe, put it in a loaf pan and made coffee cake bread--so freaking delicious.

Coffee Cake Muffins with Crunchy Almond Topping

A couple weekends ago Mr. Surly made a comment on how coffee cake sounded good. On weekends he likes sweets that compliment his coffee. I haven't had coffee cake in years, so I set out to make some. I knew I wanted them in cupcake form for perfect individual portions. I went onto Tasty Kitchen to view some recipes. I finally settled on this recipe as a base; of course I had to make my own tweaks.

I wanted to make a crunchy nut topping. I figured a few oxalates from the almonds wouldn't hurt me. I would rather have used walnuts instead of almonds, but I didn't have any. Without the nut topping these would have been a good low oxalate treat.

I messed up the recipe a bit, you were supposed to reserve some of the filling and use it as the topping. But my medicated brain missed that step--ooops. It didn't matter though, I made my own topping and got a few extra cupcakes from the batter.

These were delightful. A perfect accompaniment to Mr.Surly's coffee and my cappuccino. These did not last long. I think they only lasted 2 days. Which is good, since I have a list of other sweets I want to make.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins with Walnuts and Chocolate Chips

We go through a lot of bananas each week. I usually eat a banana in my oatmeal at breakfast and Mr. Surly adds a banana to his breakfast smoothie. I detest ripe bananas; I prefer to eat bananas that still have green on the tips, a bit under-ripe. As soon as any brown spots begin to appear on the banana I won’t eat it. Mr. Surly is the opposite--he likes them ripe, no trace of green. We buy our bananas a bit green, and I eat them for about 2-3 days, until there is no more green and brown spots appear; I don’t eat them at that point. Then Mr. Surly finishes off the bunch. If, by the weekend there are any left, I use them up in pancakes.

Well, this past week we ended up with almost a full bunch of overripe bananas. I was in and out of the hospital for various tests my GI doctor ordered, all of them requiring fasting. Therefore, I had to skip breakfast 3 days. As a result I was left with 5 bananas at the end of the week that were brown and dangerously close to becoming overripe; no way Mr. Surly would be able to finish them all. I decided to make some banana bread to use them up. I don’t have a favorite go-to recipe for banana bread, so I went onto Tasty Kitchen to find a highly rated recipe. I saw this was the highest rated one, and it sounded good and relatively healthy. I’m not an avid fan of banana bread (nor do I dislike it), so I can’t really say how this compares to other recipes. All I can say is that they are good; moist, light, and not overly sweet. They tasted even better the next day.

I added ground flaxseed and walnuts for fiber and omega 3’s. I love ground flaxseed; I sprinkle it on and in many things—oatmeal, pancakes, smoothies, most baked goods, etc, so I always have some in my fridge. I wish I had waited to add the chocolate chips to the muffin tins instead of the batter. I fear that the chocolate wasn’t evenly distributed among the muffins; some might have a lot, other muffins just a few. I use Ghiradelli dark chocolate bits, which are larger than chocolate chips and therefore might not disperse as evenly due to their size. If making these again, I would add the batter to the muffin tins then sprinkle an even amount of chocolate chips into each well, ensuring that all the muffins have an equal amount of chocolate (I can’t help it; I’m a Libra and I like things to be even and equal). Of course you could skip this step and simply add the batter to a loaf pan and make bread. Or even better, maybe you aren’t OCD like me and won’t be bothered by one muffin having more chocolate chips than another.