One of my passions, no, it is more... a road to bliss in my life is to cook and makeover recipes. Creating healthy delicious food from recipes that might not be very good for the body. I also love being able to use what I have on hand to make what I want to eat, like right now! When I was little my amazing super-mom had a muffin recipe she would make that I simply loved. This recipe had been handed down like so many other precious delicious recipes from my Grandma. The batter would last for what seemed like forever in the refrigerator and any time we wanted we could make tasty warm muffins, "Snap!" just like that! So when my mom would get up for work, she could have a warm breakfast on the table and still get all four of us out the door on time. Simply amazing!

My quest to re-do recipes finally extended to her refrigerator bran muffins and after much experimentation I have found the magic to make these muffins into nutrition packed cakey goodness. They are great for breakfast and are wonderful in a lunch box or along with soup for dinner.

It is a snowy cold beautiful day here in Colorado. The kids are home for a good old fashion snow day which in my mind means baking and playing in the snow. When I asked them what they wanted to bake today they said, "Muffins!" Also, I am working a bit extra next week so I know that having muffin batter in the fridge ready to go at moments notice will ease my stress. Win, win right?

The Old Recipe:

2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 c. shortening
5 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 cups Kellog All Bran
2 cups Nabisco 100% All Bran (no longer available) I used All Bran Buds
2 cups boiling water
4 eggs
1 quart of Buttermilk
5 cups of flour
2 to 3 cups of goodies like raisins, blueberries and nuts

Pour boiling water over All Bran Buds, (if you choose to use these). Set aside. Cream shortening and sugar. Add beaten eggs and milk to mixture. Add Kellog All Bran, flour, soda, salt and baking power. Fold in soaked Nabisco. Add goodies. Bake 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. Refrigerate remaining batter up to 6 weeks in covered dish. . .enjoy.

I never keep the batter around for a full 6 weeks. Honestly, it just kinda freaks me out. But if we still haven't eaten all the muffins after a week or so, I bake-off the rest of the batter and freeze the muffins.

The New Recipe:

1 3/4 cups sucanat
1 cup butter or coconut oil or applesauce
5 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 to 2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
4 cups Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Cereal
2 cups oat bran (I got this in the bulk grain section at Vitamin Cottage)
2 cups boiling water
4 eggs
1 quart of Buttermilk
5 cups of whole wheat flour or a mix of your favorite whole grain flours. I also like to replace a 1/2 cup of flour with hemp protein powder.
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
2 to 3 cups of goodies like raisins, blueberries and nuts

Same method as above: Pour boiling water over oat bran. Set aside. Cream butter/coconut oil/applesauce and sugar. Add beaten eggs and milk to mixture. Add Ezekiel, flour, soda, salt and baking power. Fold in soaked oat bran and ground flax seeds. Add goodies! Bake 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. Refrigerate remaining batter up to 6 weeks in covered dish. . .enjoy.

Sucanat is an unrefined sugar made from sugar cane juice. "It is an excellent source of iron, calcium, vitamin B6, potassium and chromium, which helps balance blood sugar." from Wholesome Sweetners I like the idea of using something like this when I bake.