A Love/Hate Relationship or Yummy Weekday Morning Muffins

I am mostly a morning person. I like the sunrise, I like morning light coming into my room, I like breakfast food, and I love coffee. What I do not like is the getting up part. I like being up, but pulling myself out of bed in the dark to go to work is pretty much the toughest thing I do, ever. Just ask my dear sweet boyfriend who coaxes me out of bed three or four mornings a week. I am a bad getter upper.

But, once I am up, I like to eat a good breakfast. I am a firm believer that breakfast is the most important, and perhaps the best, meal of the day.

It's a bit tough to eat a good breakfast if you have to be at work early in the morning. But if I don't have a good breakfast I really don't feel so good around 10am, so I've come up with a few standbys. Oatmeal is great but does get boring after a while. A peanut butter and jelly is good, too, but also gets a bit old. And I'm not 10 anymore. My favorite combo is a bready product, some yogurt, and some fruit. I can eat it in stages and it fills me up. And it's easy to vary so it doesn't get boring.

So I want to share one of my favorite bready morning eats. I love muffins, but most have too much sugar in them and are made with white flour--not very good for you and not very filling.

These muffins are made with whole grains, high in protein, and really tasty. The batter is forgiving so it is easy to add anything you want. Here is the version I am baking right now.

High Protein Buttermilk Muffins adapted from a Deborah Madison recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour *
1 cup quinoa flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
some cinnamon
some ground ginger
some ground cloves
one apple, finely chopped.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter your muffin tins. Mix dry ingredients and spices in one bowl and wet ingredients in another, then combine, being careful not to over mix. Batter will be lumpy and uneven--this is fine. Add chopped apples and mix just to combine. Bake in the upper third of the oven for about 25 minutes.

You could also nuts, dried fruits, citrus zest, chocolate chips, whatever you want.

These are delicious and filling, and perfect to take to work.

*I loooooove whole wheat pastry flour. It is delicious. It does not have the heavy, dry taste that regular whole wheat flour has in sweet baked goods. Many people can't tell the difference in taste between all purpose white flour and whole wheat pastry flour. If you are unsure, use a mixture of white flour and whole wheat pastry flour to see if you like it. I love it! Love it love it love it!