Those of you with kids in school know how hectic mornings can be. Mom and Dad are trying to get the kids dressed and fed and the kids are trying to find time to play with every toy they own, all before it’s time to leave for school. It’s pure chaos.
In our home, we’ve come up with a method that helps us provide our kids with a good, nutritious breakfast without taking a lot of time. Before bed the night before, we pour the juice (using salvaged lids from restaurants and straws), spoon the yogurt into a bowl and pour the cereal (but not the milk). But my incredibly-picky son’s favorite part of breakfast is his muffin. He has a mini muffin every day before school. Because I’m not the picture-perfect wife and mother, I don’t make fresh muffins every morning. Rather I make healthy, filling muffins once every six weeks or so, and freeze them.
Each night when we set out breakfast, I pull one of the mini muffins out of the freezer, put it on a small plate and cover it with a bowl to keep it fresh. By morning, it is defrosted and perfect. This allows me to make big batches of muffins and use them up before they go bad. You can also defrost them in about 30 seconds in the microwave, but this takes more time (30 seconds to be exact) and it’s hard to get them defrosted evenly.
Because this is breakfast, I didn’t want to give my kids muffins loaded to sugar. Here are a few of my favorite muffin recipes. None of these are mine, but I love them just the same. I make all of these as mini muffins. I keep the cooking temperature the same, but generally cook them for 1/3-1/2 the time listed for regular-sized muffins.
Skinny Chocolate Banana Fudge Muffins from Sally’s baking addiction – I leave out the extra chocolate chips
Skinny Peanut Butter Banana Muffins from Sally’s Baking addiction – Again, i leave out the chocolate chips.
Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread from Allrecipes.com – I make this bread into muffins.
