Thnx Pinterest

We had a snow week last week and I started to run low on food & energy, luckily these Oatmeal Muffin Cakes from Pinterest were the perfect solution!  I made a combination of mini muffins with raisins and regular muffins with chocolate chips.

Inspiration:

Loved:

• Low Carb, Low Sugar yet still Yummy – it really is amazing how good these muffins taste based on the healthy ingredient list
• Easy – Only 7 ingredients (banana, baking soda, vanilla, almond milk, oatmeal, eggs, chocolate chips), no fancy mixing required and easy substitutions (note: I used pumpkin rather than banana and 1% milk rather than almond milk and raisins instead of chocolate chips).  The recipe and instructions can be found on greenlitebites.com 

Learned:

• Conversion for mashed bananas – approximately 1/2 cup = 3 mashed bananas
• Pumpkin is a great substitute for banana – No bananas and snowbound, I decided to try with pumpkin puree which worked great!
• Try with peanut butter – My little man hasn’t tried peanuts yet, but once he does I think I will try making these with PB for a little variation
• Got Oat Bran? (Maybe from a failed attempt of the Dukan Diet?)  After the first batch disappeared in less than 24 hours, I ended up making a second batch.  I ran out of Oatmeal so instead used Oat Bran.  They were heavier and not quite as good but still considerably better than anything else I’ve attempted with Oat Bran!  Ideally, I think 2 cups of Oatmeal and 1 cup of Oat Bran would be best if you want to use Oat Bran.
• Water for even cooking – because I used half the batter for mini muffin/cakes I didn’t have enough batter for the whole muffin tin.  To make sure that the muffins cooked evenly I used my Mum’s trick – fill the empty spots 1/4 full with water

Thnx:

• Mum – for your cooking tips & letting me play restaurant a million times when I was a kid.  You helped give me a love of cooking & taught me to experiment in the kitchen.
• Thanks @greenlitebites for the great recipe
• Thanks Pinterest for all the inspiring ideas. Not on Pinterest? Send me an e-mail thnxpinterest@hotmail.com and I’ll send you an invite (if you sign up for an invite on the site it will take a while).

Next Up:

I’m really excited about my next two blog posts – coming by the end of January!  One is a guest blogger with some serious cooking skills & the other is my Thnx Pinterest & You: January project.