A Forgotten Favorite revisited / Baking and Me???!!!

Before I post a recipe, I have a confession to make...I am a stranger to the challenges and joys of baking...until recently, my adventures in baking were limited to figuring out if the supermarket carried the mix for the baked recipe I was planning to try out...if they did not carry it...sorry!! that recipe landed in the 'forgotten recipes' folder...

But all that changed dramatically when I recently entered into the world of blogging! Just the sight of all the baked goodies made me want to rush out and go on a wild baking spree:)) But then, I hit a wall...not literally. Though, I have been known to do that on my not-so-agile (read...clumsy klutzy) days! What I mean is that, recently my husband and I decided to change our family's entire eating/food style to a healthily decadent style....well I wont get into that story now, but you can read about  it in my earlier post on the subject. So. how could I go out and exercise my passion for baking without compromising on the health aspect.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I wanted to enter whole-heartedly into the tantalising world of baked yummies but...I wanted to make sure I did not digress from Healthfully Decadent cooking...so thus began my quest for turning all the wonderful baked goods recipes into healthy ones, as far as that was possible...so when I saw this simple, tasty and healthy(!!!) recipe for muffins on the back of a cereal box(of all places!)it just called to me to be tried out!

What attracted me to these muffins was the fact that, this recipe substituted fat and butter with a wonderful combination of many flavors...the other thing was that, it reminded me of a tasty, tasty muffin that I had relished a few years back at a small coffee shop in Washington DC...my husband and I were on one of our first trips to DC after being married...the tour guide was running late one morning and instead of stopping at a regular diner or breakfast place, he just stopped at a small coffee shop and asked us to get a quick breakfast. Well, we ended up feasting on one of the best muffins I have tried...maybe it was because the muffins were so light and flavorful...maybe it was because I was looking at the world thru rainbow-colored glasses after being recently married...I dont know. But the memory of those muffins has remained with me for a while.

So, I baked those muffins based on the recipe I found on the back of the cereal box with some of my own variations, based on the flavors I remembered and ended up with a very, very tasty end-result, that was very moist because of the number of liquid ingredients!!! The best addition was the pomegrannate juice(I used POM Wonderful) which meant I could reduce the quantity of ther liquid ingredients especially the oil and plus the juice is chock-full of anti-oxidants without much sugar! See for yourself...

This recipe goes to Jagruti's Joyful Eating Whilst Traveling event and to Champa's Bake-off event.

Recipe for Muffins loaded with flavor, fruit and chocolate:-
Servings: 12 muffins
Prep time: 10-15 mins
Cook time: 15-17 mins

Ingredients:
2 cups Oat Bran cereal like Quaker(you could  also substitute with 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup oat bran cereal)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
3/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup pomegranate juice(I used the POM Wonderful brand because it has very little sugar)
2 egg whites, slightly beaten
1/4 cup honey or molasses
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
1 medium mashed ripe banana
1/4 cup white or dark chocolate chips
a little orange zest(optional, but it gives the muffins a very fresh and zingy taste)

Method:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper cups or spray the mold with some cooking spray.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add combined milk, pomegranate juice, egg whites, honey and oil. Add all the fruit and choc. chips.

Mix lightly till everything is combined...do not overmix.

Fill the prepared muffin cups till 3/4 full.

Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with some fruit jam or as is.