Recipe Review: Land O'Lakes Fall Harvest Muffins

We are no longer doing the Once A Month Cooking thing. We found that we were actually missing having fresh home cooked meals, and I was missing cooking and experimenting with different foods/recipes. The one thing we did like about it was making and freezing a bunch of muffins. Travis likes to take the muffins to work for breakfast. Enter "Once A Month Breakfast" :-)

Travis mentioned to me earlier this week that he was out of muffins and he'd like me to bake him some more. Armed with some muffin guidelines, I started my search. I first looked at an apple cinnamon muffin, and then found a cinnamon ripple muffin. Travis has told me before that too much sugary sweet early in the morning makes him feel yucky. I liked the idea of doing a fall type muffin, but wanted something that had less sugar, was healthier, and would keep him full, yet still tasted good and was satisfying. I modified my search and started looking for "healthy harvest muffins" and I found this recipe:

Fall Harvest Muffins

After getting Travis' approval of "mmmmmm!", I went to the store, got all my supplies, and came home and went to work with Penelope at my side claiming she wanted to help. Each batch makes 18 muffins, so I doubled everything so I could get 3 dozen muffins. I actually ended up with 3 1/2 dozen.

I chopped all my veggies, fruits, nuts, etc and got to work mixing the dry goods. Then I added the apples, carrots, nuts, and dried cherries. At this point, the mix got pretty thick, so I decided to use my hands to make sure I got all the flour mixed in with the yumminess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2

At this point, the batter was looking pretty good already (and smelling EVEN better!), but I still needed to add my wet ingredients to the mix. I beat my eggs, melted my butter, added my applesauce and vanilla, poured it into the mixing bowl, and stirred. I found that the batter was actually pretty soupy at this point, so I ended up adding an extra cup or so of flour to thicken it up. I put the batter in the muffin tin, and popped them in the oven. 21 minutes later, yummy muffins emerged.

Two muffins are in an oven. One says "Man, it sure is getting hot in here." The other one replies "HOLY COW! A talking muffin!!"

 

I need to mention that during this 21 minute break, Penelope helped me empty the dishwasher and then began to play on our back porch.  She apparently got tired of waiting for muffins because she laid down on the edge of her pool.

Baking muffins is tough work!

We cooled the muffins, and Penelope took a nap. Then the taste testing began. I must say, they are VERY tasty and I usually don't like muffins like this. Travis had 2 when he came home which tells me that he really likes them. And most importantly, Penelope LOVED them and ate a half one by herself!

Penny approved!

The Lowdown: A little bit of prep work involved (cutting veggies, nuts, fruit). Batter was a little runny so add some more flour. Baked in 21 minutes, and then took about 30-45 minutes to fully cool. Taste AWESOME! I give it 4 out of 5 stitches