Starting the Morning Out Right

My morning didn't start out quite so great this morning...I opened my eyes to a rainy dreary day and quickly discovered I had no voice! How in the world did this happen? I seriously considered covering my head up & going back to sleep, but I already had 2 wide eyed girls staring at me. Abby said "Mama, hurry up & get up let's fix Daddy a birthday breakfast before he gets home." To which, Lani started jumping up & down on my bed screaming "C'mon, c'mon I'll help!" They were so excited, how could I say no? I slowly made my way to the kitchen behind them with my eyes barely opened trying to decide what to fix, I wanted to fix omelets, but no that didn't satisfy my girls & I can't really win an argument with a voice that's barely a whisper now can I! They both wanted muffins, I didn't have any packages of them in the cabinet that I could quickly throw together, but I did have a recipe for apple cinnamon muffins that I had been wanting to try, so we all 3 got to working...and I must say what a mess my girlies made...we ended up with flour all over the table & one girl, spilled buttermilk & broken eggs in the floor, BUT they had fun, the mess was easily cleaned up, the muffins were delicious & memories were made...so I would say we started our morning out right after all!


Apple Cinnamon Muffins
(www.bakingbites.com)

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups diced apple

3 tbsp coarse sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and spices.

In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and egg. Whisk in melted butter, vegetable oil and vanilla. Working in two or three additions, alternately stir in flour mixture and buttermilk, ending with an addition of flour and mixing only until no streaks of flour remain visible in the batter. Stir in diced apple.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups filling each to the top, or slightly over.

In a small bowl, stir together coarse sugar and additional 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. Sprinkle generously over muffins.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.