I’ve been making shredded wheat muffins for a few years now as a way to get my son to eat healthier snacks.  This one will make the eighth variation I have put on this blog.  I haven’t made any for a couple of months and thought that maybe he just didn’t care about having them around….he hadn’t asked me to made them recently.  So I thought I would make a flavor for myself.

Aidan doesn’t usually eat bananas and I have had blackberries in the frig many times without him going near the container.  I like the flavor of them together, so I decided to make a batch.  I added vanilla yogurt  and pecans.

I’ve started buying Kashi’s Cinnamon Harvest Shredded wheat.  It has healthier sweeteners than my previous choices and Costco now carries it so I get a pretty good price.  I also like the cinnamon flavor that it adds to my baked goods.

I baked two dozen this afternoon with the hope of being able to freeze a bunch of them so I could have them for breakfast or with a light packed lunch.  I left them to cool on the rack and went to run some errands.  When Aidan got home, I told him they had bananas in them and he might not care for the flavor.  I got a typical teenage grunt for a reply.

When I got home, I asked him if he tasted one and got a big nod.  “You liked them?”  “Oh yeah” was his answer.  “They were great.. so I ate five.”  “FIVE!…FIVE!!  He just smiled.  I went upstairs to the kitchen and he was right behind me.  When I turned around, he another one already in his mouth.  “Go away!”  He did…with a big smile on his face.

 

Good thing I decided to make 2 dozen.  And my husband isn’t home yet…..

You’ll need:

This makes 2 dozen (to deal with the hungry natives)

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose unbromated flour

2 cups shredded wheat crumbs

1 1/2 Tbs baking powder (I use aluminum free)

1 tsp salt

1 cup pecan, lightly chopped

2/3 cup raw sugar

1/2 cup vanilla greek nonfat yogurt

1/3 cup fruity olive oil

2 large ripe bananas, peeled and sliced thin

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups of fresh blackberries (I tried to use the smaller berries or cut the big one in half)

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Combine the dry ingredients (including pecans) and stir.  Set aside.

In your mixer’s bowl, beat sugar, yogurt and oil together.  Add sliced bananas and mix until they break into smaller pieces.  Add eggs and milk.  Mix until will combined.  With mixer on low speed, slowly added dry ingredients and mix until uniform.  Turn off mixer.  Add berries and fold in with a spatula to keep from breaking up berries.

Use a large ice cream scoop and place batter into paper lined or silicone coated muffin tins.  Add more berries to any muffin that you think needs them (no matter how I mix these-I can never get the berries to be equally distributed).  Bake for 25 minutes until lightly browned and toothpick placed in muffin comes out clean.

Remove from tins after 5 minutes and let cool completely.  Beware of hungry teenagers, children, spouses and try to remember its important to share.  Enjoy!