Muffins!

The problem every mother faces every school day morning, what to put in the children's lunchboxes. This morning I realised I had exhausted my supply of home baked goods (with are supplemented with a few failsafe store bought items). We are in the middle of a heatwave right now so the prospect of a full on baking session was not appealing! Also next week the temperatures are soaring again.
My solution was to mix up two batches of muffins, putting them both in the oven at the same time - one sweet and one savory.
I went for a hunt on my computers hard drive to see what I could come up with - hope you like them :)

Savoury zucchini muffins

Degree of difficulty: Medium

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 - 25 minutes

Ingredients for muffins
150 g bacon (chopped) - I used ham as I had no bacon
1 small onion (chopped) - could also use chopped leeks
1 cup of self-raising flour
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
1 teaspoon mustard (optional)
1/2 teaspoon paprika (optional)
2 cups grated zucchini (approx two small ones)
1 cup grated tasty cheese

Method:
1) Pre-heat a hot oven to 200C.
2) Saute bacon and onion in a non-stick fry pan.
3) Place flour, oil, eggs, mustard and paprika in bowl and mix.
4) Add grated cheese and zucchini to flour/oil mix and stir well.
5) Add slightly cooled bacon/onion mix to the rest of the muffin batter and stir well.
6) Spoon into non-stick muffin pans (of any size) but do not over-fill muffin pans.
7) Place in oven for 15 minutes (mini muffins), 20 minutes (cup-cake size muffins) or 25 minutes (large muffins).


My BF was my taste tester he rated them well and likened them to zucchini slice in a muffin :)

The second batch were sweet ones and I decided on this recipe as I had 3 aged bananas in my freezer :)

Banana and Choc Chip Muffins
Making muffins means days of quick snacks with no unnecessary packaging. Steph (our other resident Domestic Goddess) reckons these are fantastic. They can be frozen too, so you can make double and relax for a week or two.

2 ½ cups (375gm) self raising flour
½ cup (110gm) firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup (95gm) dark choc chips
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (3 large, very ripe bananas)
2/3 cup (160ml) buttermilk ( can use regular with a squeeze of lemon to thicken it)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
½ cup (125 ml) extra light olive oil
1)Preheat oven to 200 C or 180 C fan forced.
2)Sift flour and sugar into a large bowl.
3)Stir in chocolate chips and banana, then combined milk, eggs, essence and oil.
4)Mix till just combined.Do not over stir the mixture or your muffins will be tough and will not rise sufficiently.
5)Stir gently until barely combined.
6)Spoon into large muffin pans and bake for about 20 mins.

My children taste tested these and wanted more - I have no idea who Steph is , but i thank her anyway for her great recipe :)
Both lots were baked together in the oven in about 20 mins, so the kitchen didn't get too overheated after all.
The photo above shows them all ready to be frozen (well technically not all , what the "taste testers" didn't consume!)
Notice they they are all encased in pieces of baking paper, I prefer to do this instead of greasing the tins or buying the premade muffin cases. I just cut/tear baking paper into small squares to line my muffin tins. I found the cases were expensive and some of the muffin gets stuck to them unless you also grease them. Also I don't enjoy scrubbing burnt muffin tins (the bits that always spill when you fill them). This way I have minimal clean up, plus I just remove one from the freezer as is and insert into lunchbox paper and all (instant wrapping)!
Enjoy :)