Baked Oatmeal 'Muffins'

Hi, all!  Deanna here.  I'm so excited for this new blog adventure with Sarah and all of you.  If there's one thing I spend time doing online, it's looking for recipes that are healthy and yummy, so I can't wait to see all of the new food ideas that will be born in this space!
I thought I would start off with my recipe for baked oatmeal muffins.  I am not usually a creator of recipes from scratch.  I am more of a 'find a recipe online and then change it to fit my needs' kind of gal. So when I am posting a recipe that isn't fully mine, I will also link back to where I found the original recipe.  That way, the recipe author is getting credit, and you can see both versions if you'd like to. Ok?
Ok. Let's get started!

So this recipe I would say is a rather mild flavored recipe.  If you are looking for something that smells and feels exactly like a delicious blueberry or apple cinnamon muffin but is healthy, you might be a little disappointed.  It's tasty, but it's more like baked oatmeal than a crumb-topped muffin.  Just shooting straight with you from the start.
Here's why I love this recipe, though:

Kid-friendly--my kids DEVOUR this recipe and I do mean devour.  They will eat them all day long. They will eat them in a box, they will eat them with a fox....ahem.  They will eat them here or there, they will eat them anywhere (ok, now I'm really done).
Easy and quick--a few minutes worth of effort and I am done.  All I have to do is keep remembering to take them out of the oven and put another pan in.
Healthy--my kids love these for snack too, but we also eat them for breakfast.  They feel like they are eating something other than oatmeal (which they can get tired of sometimes), but really, they are getting all the nutrition of a good ol' bowl of oatmeal and fruit, which mommy loves too.
Freezes well--I can double the recipe and keep some for that week, and freeze a whole batch of others that are easily pulled out of the freezer and used whenever we need quick breakfast.  I LOVE that.
Versatile--this recipe lends itself very well to whatever fruit or additions I have on hand, and that's perfect for us because sometimes we have blueberries, and sometimes we don't.  Sometimes we want raisins...and sometimes we don't.  This recipe works with whatever you want to add, which makes it a great base recipe in my book.

So without further ado:

BAKED OATMEAL MUFFINS

(original recipe found HERE)

makes 20+ muffins

3 eggs

1 t. pure vanilla extract

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup natural sugar (brown sugar works too!)

1 ripe banana, sliced and quartered

1 cup fruit/additions of your choice (blueberry, apples, nuts, raisins, mini chocolate chips...we change it up often)

5 cups old fashioned oats (we use GF oats)

1 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup ground flax

1-2 T. cinnamon (based on your preference)

2 1/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350.  

Mix eggs, vanilla, applesauce and sugar together in a large bowl.  Add banana and fruit (sometimes I add more than 1 cup if it looks like it needs more additions)

In a separate medium bowl, mix oats, salt, baking powder, flax, and cinnamon.  

Dump dry ingredients into the wet and mix well.  

Pour in milk and stir to combine.  

Scoop into muffin tins (use paper muffin cups!).   These won't rise a ton, so don't worry about filling your cups almost to the top.  Bake 35-45 minutes or until lightly browned.  

Cool completely before eating (the paper will stick while they are still warm--once they are cool, they will peel much more cleanly!)

This recipe is very forgiving, so I do play with it a little each time.  If it looks too wet, I add a few more oats.  If it looks too dry, I may add a little milk.  If you like it sweet, add a little more sugar.  I cut ours down because my kids don't miss it and we generally try to avoid sugar when we can.  If you add the full amount of sugar, you will want to increase your milk to 2 1/2 cups.

Let us know how they turn out (and if you have any creative additions to share, we want to hear those too!)