Apple Granola Muffins

I love muffins, it's basically a free pass to eat cake for breakfast. So what's better than cake for breakfast? How about cake and granola. Yum! I would never have thought to put granola inside a muffin until I saw this pear granola muffin recipe, but granola really is a wonderful filling and topping for a muffin and makes them a little more breakfasty. You can choose any granola variety you like, but I would recommend one without raisins. I used special K granola. Enjoy!

Apple Granola Muffins:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup of dark brown sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp of plain greek yogurt
2 tbsp of milk
2 tbsp of butter, melted
1 cup of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of wheat flour
2 tsps of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of cinnamon
2 apples (1 granny smith, 1 gala), diced
3/4 cup of granola

Topping:
1 cup of granola
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
6 tbsp of butter, chilled

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners and lightly spray with non-stick spray. In a large bowl mix together eggs, sugar, yogurt, milk, and butter until well combined slowly mix in flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until just combined. Mix in apples and granola. Fill each muffin tin with batter approximately 3/4 full. Make topping: Mix together granola, flour, sugar and salt. Chop butter into pieces and cut into granola mixture using your hands, until clumps form. Distribute the topping over the muffins. Bake until a fork inserted comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Make 18. (adapted from Martha)

Happy Eating.

Coconut Peanut Butter Giveaway + Coconut Granola

After such a wonderful giveaway last week, my friends at Tropical Traditions, decided to host another one! Today I have a 16 oz jar of delicious coconut peanut butter to giveaway to one lucky reader. Tropical Traditions was kind enough to send me a jar of their all natural Coconut Peanut Butter to try and it is delicious. It's only got two ingredients, coconut and peanuts! I love all nut butters, but I try to stick to the all natural varieties for my snacking, and the fewer ingredients the better, so I was delighted to see only two on their label. It's amazingly smooth and creamy for a natural peanut butter and unlike most natural nut butters, you don't have to keep it in the fridge. It's very temperature sensitive, in fact when drizzled on ice cream, it forms a shell coating, like magic shell (do you remember that stuff? Yum!), it also melts beautifully. It's delicious on a PB&J plus I used it to whip up a batch of delicious Coconut Granola (I also used Tropical Tradition's Coconut Oil in this recipe too). You can order your own jar here, if you don't win the giveaway. Good Luck!

This Giveaway will be open until Wednesday, September 14th. This giveaway is open to people in the US only.

First: Like me on Facebook, follow me on twitter, or subscribe to blog (if you already do so that counts too)

Second: Follow Tropical Traditions by one of the following 3 options
Subscribe to our email Sales Newsletter here: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/subscribe_for_special_sales.cfm
follow us on Twitter @troptraditions
“Like” Tropical Traditions on Facebook (Please no, “I was sent by…” posts or posting a link to your blog, they will be removed)

Finally: Just post a comment here letting me know that you completed steps one and two and your entered.

Good Luck! My recipe for Coconut Granola is below, plus you can check out more great ways to use the peanut butter on Tropical Tradition's Recipe Page.

Coconut Granola:
1 1/2 cups of rolled oats
1/4 cup of quinoa
1/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup of almonds
1 tsp of cinnamon
2 tbsps of Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter
1 tbsp of Virgin Coconut OIl
1 tbsp of honey

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium size bowl, mix together the oats, quinoa, coconut, almonds, and cinnamon. In a small bowl put peanut butter, oil, and honey, microwave for 30 seconds, then stir together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil, and spray with non stick. Spread the granola over the sheet and bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 2 1/2 cups of granola.

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product. I was under no obligation to review it, nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review in return for the free product.

Happy Eating.