Chicky Muffins

Chicky is my Aussie friend (AKA Clarissa), and this recipe came from her experiments in healthy eating. Two teeny muffins make a great filling breakfast. They are high in fiber and very low in fat. Clarissa's are even healthier than mine, because I use the whole egg, but she uses just the egg white.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup shredded or flaked coconut
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons Splenda Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons splenda
1 egg
1/3 cup nonfat milk
cooking spray or mini muffin cups.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray, or line with muffin cup papers.
Combine all ingredients. Divide into 12 mini muffin cups.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
Cool on wire racks.

Banana Streusel Muffins

I've always been a big fan of banana nut bread, but when I needed to whip up a dessert for a recent potluck, I spied the very ripe bananas sitting on the counter and decided they needed to become a sweet, rather than a bread. I found a recipe for banana streusel muffins on food.com and altered it to create the recipe below.

Ingredients:
Muffins:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 bananas mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Topping:

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees
2. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with paper liners. I wanted bite size treats, so I used 36 mini muffin cups (without nuts, probably just 30-32).
3. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. In another bowl (or stand mixer bowl), beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Add nuts if desired.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture.
6. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins. be sure to only fill cups 2/3 full. You need room to place the topping or it will fall off the muffin and caramelize the pan!
7. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour and cinnamon.
8. Add melted butter and stir until well blended.
9. Spoon evenly over muffins.
10. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!