Muffin Galore

Tired of eating whatever is on hand in the morning? I am. Breakfast is the most important meal and I rarely have time to eat a nutritious meal. I experimented buying bagels and English Muffins and eating with cheese or sugar free jams but I am pretty tired of eating everything with high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients I can't even pronounce. I then purchased healthy cookbook with several ideas for any meal - from breakfast to dinner and snacks in between. I baked two recipes and froze them in grab-and-go bags, now I am all set in the morning. One recipe was Mini-Chocolate Chip Muffin with Walnuts, the second one was an Apricot Tea Bread that I baked in muffin cups. The chocolate chip muffins tasted great but I just loved the Apricot Tea Bread. A few years ago, while on vacation in California, I had breakfast at a coffee shop in Santa Monica. I had an amazing apricot muffin with a hot cup of coffee by the beach. I tried a few recipes but they didn't taste as good as the "vacation muffin". This one however, went beyond my expectations. It will go the to beginning on my recipe binder where I keep my faves.

Apricot Tea Bread (adapted from Healthy Homestyle Cooking)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

6 ounces dried apricots (about 1 cup)

1 cup fat-free sour cream

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 egg whites

2 whole eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9" x 5" loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Snip the apricots in small pieces and drop them into the dry mixture.

In a medium bowl, whisk the other ingredients together. Fold in the pecans. Combine with the dry mixture and stir until just moistened.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the bread begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely on a rack.