Best Whole Foods Breakfast: Banana Poppy Seed Muffins

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This poppy seed muffin recipe is a great way to get a variety of whole foods into your diet.

Makes 1 dozen regular-size, 6 to 8 giant, or 3 to 4 dozen mini muffins
If possible, use an organic lemon in this recipe because you’ll be using the zest as well as the juice.


  • 3/4
    cup oat bran
  • 1 cup nonfat milk

  • 1/2
    cup mashed ripe banana
  • Zest and juice of 1 medium-size lemon
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 egg

  • 3/4
    cup flour
  • 1
    1/2
      teaspoons baking powder

  • 1/4
    teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/4
    teaspoon salt

  • 1/4
    cup poppy seeds

  • 2/3
    cup chopped prunes, dried apricots or raisins
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Oil a muffin pan or line with paper muffin cups.
  2. Put the bran in a bowl and stir in the milk. Add the mashed banana and set aside.
  3. Scrub the lemon, dry it, and grate the zest fine. Add it to the bran mixture. Squeeze the lemon, then add the lemon juice, oil, sugar, and the egg to the bran.
  4. Sift the dry ingredients together, stir them into the bran mixture, then beat until the ingredients are just mixed. Fold in the poppy seeds and chopped fruit.
  5. Spoon the batter immediately into prepared muffin cups, scooping some fruit from the bottom of the bowl each time (it has a tendency to settle quickly). Bake until golden, about 18 to 25 minutes for mini muffins, 30 to 35 minutes for regular, or 40 to 50 minutes for large muffins. Remove from the tin and cool on a rack. To freeze, wrap in double freezer bags. To serve after freezing, thaw for about 30 minutes. Warm in oven if desired.

Nutritional contents per regular-size muffin: Calories 146; Total fat 4.7 g; Saturated fat 0.8 g; Cholesterol 20 mg; Sodium 141 mg; Total carbohydrate 22 g; Protein 4 g.


Cornelia Carlson holds a doctorate in biochemistry and is an avid grower and user of herbs. She is the author of The Practically Meatless Gourmet (Berkley, 1996). She writes from her home in Tucson, Arizona.

Click here for the original article, Best Whole Foods Breakfast.

  • Published on Feb 25, 2010
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