On the Menu: Oatmeal Coffee Cake Muffins

As I've mentioned before, I've been trying to eat healthier. I didn't used to eat breakfast, but I found that when I didn't, I'd crave something crappy, like a donut, around midmorning. I found this recipe though Simple Food Healthy Life, and these muffins keep me so full that I'm not even that hungry by lunch time. This was the first time I've ever made a muffin.  You read that right. Cupcakes? Yes. Muffins? Nope. But I think for my first experience, they turned out pretty well.

I will say that on the original recipe, it says these are 259 calories each - which seemed like a lot. When I entered the same recipe into MyFitnessPal's calculators, it came up with around 130 calories. That seems more likely, but I suppose products vary from brand to brand. Also, this recipe is slightly adapted from the original - I used homemade unsweetened applesauce (Thanks, Mom!) instead of canola oil. I think these would be good with chunks of baked apples or raisins inside the mix as well.

Makes 9 Muffins

Topping Mixture:
• 1/3 C brown sugar
• 1/3 C old fashioned oats
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon chopped almonds

Muffin Mixture:
• 1 C old fashioned oats
• 1 C skim milk
• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 5 T unsweetened applesauce

• Preheat oven to 400°F
• Line a standard sized muffin tin with paper liners or grease with butter.
• Mix your topping mixture and set aside
• Mix the dry ingredients for the muffin mixture in a large mixing bowl
• Mix the wet ingredients for the muffin mixture in a separate bowl and add to the dry until blended. I just used a large rubber spatula.
• Fill 9 holes of the muffin tin 3/4 of the way with your muffin batter
• Sprinkle the topping mixture on top
• Bake muffins for about 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine were done after 20 minutes.