April 16, 2007

A Frugal Breakfast - Whip Up A Homemade Muffin

By Dana Joseph

One way we save money on breakfast food is by making our own muffins. If you’ve browsed your bakery lately you know what I mean about the high prices for a pack of muffins. If your home is like ours, they don’t last very long either. I’ve found that making my own muffins saves quite a bit of money. To get ideas for muffins, browse the local bakery department at a grocery store to see what they are baking; then head on home and mix up a batch of your own. I’ll make several batches of muffins on the weekend and freeze them for use later in the week for either breakfast or as a snack. Muffins made at home are healthier too because you can control the amount of sugar, fat, and processed ingredients. Here are some helpful tips for making homemade muffins:

1. Collect muffin recipes. Start a collection of muffin recipes. Look at the back of cereal boxes, in the food section of your newspaper, or in your grocery store’s coupon book. All are great sources of new recipes. Make it a habit to try new recipes out. Keep the ones you like and store them in a binder for future use.

2. Cook several batches of the same type of muffin at one time. It is easy to make 2 batches of muffins at the same time. You’ll need to have 2 muffin trays to do this. I just double the recipe and bake all 24 muffins at the same time. Then after cooling, I put the second batch into freezer bags. This allows me to quickly build up a freezer supply.

3. Thaw the muffins by taking them out of the freezer the night before. In the morning, they will be ready to go. If you forget to take them out to defrost, don’t worry. Just wrap them in a paper towel (one per muffin) and pop them in the microwave for a few seconds. If you are packing these muffins for lunch, just pop them into the lunch box and they’ll be ready to eat by lunch time.

To help start your recipe collection, I’ve listed some muffin recipes from across the internet. Happy baking!

1. Apple Pie Spice Muffins: These apple pie spice muffins are an all time favorite in my house. I love the way their aroma permeates the kitchen!

2. Carrot Raisin Muffins: Always a great combination, these carrot raisin muffins are healthy too.

3. Zucchini Carrot Muffins: A great way to get extra vegetables in your diet.

4. Apple Oatmeal Muffins: A traditional favorite of mine with the flavor of apples and oatmeal.

5. Blueberry Muffins: These are extremely good.

6. Apple Walnut Muffins: This includes bananas, maple syrup, apples, and walnuts for a delicious tasting muffin that is more like dessert.

7. Rasberry Streusal Muffins: Featuring rasberries and a great streusal topping. Yum!

8. Bran Muffins: A healthy great tasting bran muffin.

9. Breakfast Corn Muffins: An easy to make corn bread muffin recipe.

10. Pumpkin Muffins: A great pumpkin muffin recipe with spices and raisins.

11. Pineapple Muffins: Delicious pineapple muffins with ginger and brown sugar.

12. Apricot Muffins: A great tasting muffin featuring buttermilk and apricots.

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2 Responses to “A Frugal Breakfast - Whip Up A Homemade Muffin”

Tom Says:
April 16th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Just stumbled upon your site. It has some great ideas about cheaper living. I have a frugal website and blog if you are interested in link exchange email me. Great job on the site.
Nathaniel Says:
April 16th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I LOVE MUFFINS!

I’m going to give the carrot raisin, bran, and pumpkin recipes a try.