Our Favorite Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

Recently I've been looking for ways to change up breakfast for me and Stella. Seems like we always have eggs and toast. Or Cheerios and yogurt. And I wanted to incorporate oatmeal somehow. Why? I don't know, because I felt like it sounds healthy. And she doesn't quite know how to use a spoon, aside from banging it on her tray, so she uses her hands to eat oatmeal and turns into a hot mess.

Ok, technically she's eating eggs in this picture but you get the idea. 

So Googled "oatmeal muffins" and found this recipe, it was super easy and turned out delicious. It makes a good base recipe that you can add different fruit or nuts to. I've made several different batches and Stella LOVES them! She literally devours them.

Here is the recipe with pictures the first time I made it. And just so you know I took the pictures with my phone so the quality is not the greatest. You'll also notice that my kitchen is not clean. If I waited until my kitchen was clean and took the time to stage the food as I made it, let's be honest, it would never happen. This is real life people! I'm no Pioneer Woman. I'm a mom to a toddler so I'm lucky if my kitchen is clean once a week.  

So here we go!

First, add 1 cup of almond milk to 1 cup of oatmeal and let soak while getting the rest of the ingredients ready. (I used almond but you can use regular milk too.)

Then, because I didn't have any eggs I used 1 tablespoon ground flax seed and 2-3 tablespoons of water and let that soak for a few minutes. It kinda turns sticky and paste-y. Add 1/4 cup canola oil. I should have taken a picture of that because it seemed like the flax seed mixture and oil would never mix. (Oil and water, weird.) But eventually it did mix together nicely.

In my awesome Pampered Chef bowl (that I don't know the name of) I mixed the dry ingredients; 1/4 cup white flour, 3/4 cup wheat flour (I use a mixture of white and wheat because I like the texture better if there is a little white flour added, that's just my personal preference. It's also something my mom does so I think I got that from her. It's probably just in my head. Who knows.), 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. (When I made these with apple chunks I added a smidge more cinnamon. Why? I donno, it sounded good.) Mix together well. I used a whisk to try to get rid of any clumps because I'm too lazy to dig out my sifter. 

At this point I realized I forgot to preheat my oven, so I did that. 425 degrees.

  
Then I mixed my oatmeal/milk mixture into the flax seed mixture and poured that mixture into my dry ingredient mixture and mixed until just combined. (Ever say a word so much it loses meaning. Yup, just happened.) 

Next is the part where you can get creative and add whatever goodies you like. The first time I did it I added a few handfuls of Craisins. The second time I added an apple I peeled and cut into small chucks. The third time I added Craisins and apple chucks. Whoa... getting crazy up in here!

Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins (makes about 12 muffins, depending on your goodies) and bake for 15-25 mins until a tooth pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Mine are usually good after about 18-20 mins.

I should have taken a picture of a single muffin on a pretty plate but I was too anxious and hungry so I just dug in after patiently waiting for them too cool down.

I hope you enjoy making and eating these muffins as much as Stella and I do! I'd love to hear about your go to muffin recipe or different goodies you add to this muffin recipe.