Bran Muffins. Yes, Bran.

I've been on a quest to use everything in the pantry, fridge, and freezer (at least within reason), and have been pretty proud of my efforts so far! Last night was a good example - we had some bean/corn/ground beef mixture leftover from the previous night's burritos, a little cheddar cheese, and some corn tortillas that had been hanging around for months and months. So I made a layered casserole with those ingredients and an extra can of kidney beans and some rice cooked in chicken broth. YUM! Served it with a little plain coleslaw with raisins and toasted almonds (the cabbage needed to be used and the almonds were from a breakfast dish a few days before). Ok, so it's not complicated, but it used up lots of leftovers and was a good reminder for me that you can make a casserole out of just about anything.

Last week I made two new recipes for Rio's going-away daycare party - both of them turned out great. The egg "muffins", in particular, were pretty easy and could definitely be prepped the night before. The guys LOVED them.

Baby Bran Muffin Recipe

These bran muffins are delicious hot out of the oven with a touch of butter and sprinkled with a few grains of salt. Also good cooled with a smear of cream cheese! Not nearly as dry and yucky as most healthy bran muffins are.

2 cups white whole wheat flour OR stone ground whole wheat flour VG note: I just used regular whole wheat
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons raw natural cane sugar OR brown sugar
2 cups full fat yogurt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup of add-ins of your choice - raisins, chopped dried fruit, nuts, etc (optional). VG note: I used raisins only.

Preheat oven to 425F degrees, racks in the middle.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, wheat bran, salt, baking soda and sugar.

Beat together the yogurt, egg, honey, and butter in a second larger bowl. Add the dry ingredients and fold in until everything comes together. Fold in any optional add-ins, raisins, nuts, and the like. Resist overmixing.

Either grease a mini-muffin tin with butter or line the tin with small muffin papers. Fill each 3/4 full. Bake 10 -15 minutes, until muffins are golden on top and cooked through. You can also make larger muffins in a standard size muffin pan with this batter, you just need to bake them about 5 minutes longer.

Makes about two dozen tiny bran muffins or one dozen larger ones. VG note: This recipe actually made about 4 dozen mini muffins for me!

Broccoli Cheddar and Sausage Egg Muffin Pull-A-Parts

6 Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits (from can, 8 count)
Pinches of kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

2 Cups cooked broccoli florets, cut up into small pieces (I steamed them for 4-5 min)
1/2+ Cup cooked sausage links, cut up (more if you want)

5 eggs
4 Tablespoons milk
Pinches of kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese (more if you want)

Cholulla hot sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Cut each biscuit into 8 triangles and place 5 into each muffin tin. Lightly sprinkle each biscuit cup with salt and pepper. You might have a biscuit left over. You could probably also make these as mini muffins or in those texas-sized muffin pans, but just adjust so you have enough filling to come about 2/3 up each muffin cup (higher for minis).

2. Sprinkle broccoli and sausage evenly over each biscuit filled muffin cup.

3. Place eggs, milk, salt and pepper into a mixing bowl. Whisk until well combined. Pour evenly over each cup. With a fork make sure eggs get to the bottom and around each piece of biscuit. Top each with sprinkles of cheddar cheese and bake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from center of biscuits and cheese is golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from muffin cup. Remove and arrange onto serving plate. If you like it spicy serve with a nice hot sauce like Cholulla, it’s wonderful!! Pull them apart with your fingers or cut with a fork. Enjoy.