Again With The Muffins

I have been searching for a muffin recipe for a while now. All I want is something that is healthy, tastes good and isn't too hard to make. I'm either asking for too much or I just haven't found it yet. The last one I tried just didn't come out to my liking at all (even though I ADORE the blogger who posted it). Since then I've been making bran muffins using the original All Bran recipe. These are good. I use 1/2-n-1/2 whole wheat and white flour and I've been experimenting with adding ground flax seed. I also like things a teensy bit sweeter so I sprinkle a little cinnamon-sugar on top of the muffins before baking.
The bran muffins are good but I really want something with bananas in it. I have a killer banana bread recipe but it is SO not healthy and I find I am frequently in possession of browning bananas. Yesterday Kenai wanted to bake something so we tried out a recipe I found on the blog Sweet Savory Southern.

Healthy Banana Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup all purpose flour ( I used 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (you can use a combo of brown & white if you’d like)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans…whatever you prefer)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

dash or two of nutmeg

1 egg

3/4 cup skim milk

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup mashed bananas

Preheat oven to 400*

Using a whisk, combine all your dry ingredients in one bowl: whole wheat and AP flour, sugar, baking soda and powder, salt, nuts, spices).

Beat the egg lightly in a separate bowl. Whisk in milk, applesauce, vanilla to the eggs.

Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Fold bananas in.

Divide the batter among a greased or paper-lined muffin tin.

Bake for about 18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

I used 1/2-n-1/2 whole wheat and white flour since I keep it mixed that way. Now that I think about it, I don't know the actual ratio due to some mishaps involving a husband who doesn't know he shouldn't just dump expensive bags of organic flour together all willy-nilly. ANYWAY. I used 2% milk and no nuts. I didn't have nutmeg so I added an extra dash of cinnamon. I also sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top. These were done (maybe slightly too done) at 16 minutes. They came out delicious and very moist. However, they have this thin outer layer that is kind of chewy. I'm not sure why that is yet, I've had this problem with other recipes.

The baby loves the muffins (maybe a little too much). I like them aside from the slightly rubbery outside issue (it's like a skin). They were good straight from the oven but even better this morning with a little cream cheese.

Maybe I'd Want to Do It If It Weren't Called "Discipline"

Jedd and I started the Dave Ramsey program last night. I wouldn't say I'm a fan of Ramsey, he's a little too conservative about gender roles and money for my taste. But he knows his shit. Our finances are a joke. Seriously, it's ridiculous. Jedd makes a decent salary but we are always broke. We have no savings to speak of and plenty of unsecured debt. See, we really like to NOT plan for things. We like to be undisciplined in every way we can get away with. (yes, a preposition, shut up) We like to avoid planning dinner so that we have to eat out when dinner time rolls around and we realize we don't have a personal chef. We aren't *big* spenders, we might go to the mall once or twice a year for the Apple store and Godiva. We don't have expensive clothes, Jedd gets his hair cut at "Should Have Done It Your Own Self" Super Cuts. I go fancy so I only go once or twice a year. We don't have new cars, we didn't get a tv until the color went out on the old one and when we did we got it small enough that the kid at Best Buy asked if it was our "bedroom model". We got a new couch when the two-seater just wasn't enough for our family anymore and we only spent $400.
The fourth "baby step" in the program is Building Wealth. Building wealth requires discipline is what Dave Ramsey said. Discipline. Huh. I bet discipline could help us in a lot of other ways. I bet discipline would get me to the gym again. I bet it would help us be more gentle with the children. Discipline might even help me stop eating so damn much. So now there's a theme. Discipline is my theme. The conviction I talked about before requires discipline.
Now, how do you get discipline? Is it just something you decide to do? Is it a "fake it til you make it" sort of thing? It sounds hard.
I'm going to work on being disciplined with our money, with food, with exercise, with parenting and maybe with reading the (*Gulp*) Bible. Did I mention I can't remember the last time I read the Bible? Yikes. So I'm going to try this discipline thing and it's going to solve EVERYTHING!
I'll keep you posted.