Recipe of the Week - Cinnamon Puffs

We are big fans of breakfast-for-dinner at our house. Especially when it's cold out! Because of our schedules we don't get to share breakfast together often in the morning. Many times we will whip up a morning favorite on a Saturday night. To me, breakfast isn't breakfast without a bread product. While I love pancakes and waffles, I am either eating cold waffles or standing by the skillet/waffle iron while my family eats. Either way, it's not ideal. My favorite solution to this is either cinnamon rolls or muffins. I thought I would share my favorite muffin recipe with you all. Some people call these doughnut muffins, but growing up we called them cinnamon puffs.(Note: These are NOT healthy, but every once in a while it's ok to splurge!)

Cinnamon Puffs: ½ cup shortening ½ cup sugar 1 egg 1 ½ cup flour 1 ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp nutmeg ½ cup milk

Cream sugar and shortening until smooth. Beat in egg. Stir in dry ingredients alternately with milk. Put in greased muffin pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Topping: 1 ½ cup sugar 1 tsp cinnamon ½ cup melted butter

Mix cinnamon and sugar. Dip muffin in melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Recipe of the Week - Mini Pancake Muffins for Toddlers

My 13 month old daughter has become a bit of a picky eater and has been going through spurts of not wanting to feed herself. What a little weirdo, right? Anyway. She's really active and a little skinny in my opinion (the pediatrician says she's just fine, thankfully) so I've been searching for some new toddler-friendly recipes to use to ensure she's getting enough in that skinny belly. Breakfast is generally the meal she's a pro at, so I decided to find a fun breakfast-esque snack that she could enjoy with just about any meal. I looked on a few 'baby food' websites and blogs and finally, because we all know it's like an online Bible for moms, found a great recipe on PINTEREST! With a name like "mini banana pancake muffins" you really can't go wrong, right?

So, I gave them a shot and my daughter went nuts for them. In fact, she totally poo poo'd her scrambled eggs (a normal favorite) and hopped on the pancake muffin train! She loves these little guys, and so do I! They are super easy to make, super easy to tweak (use your kid's favorite fruit), and super easy to store in large batches.

Here's the recipe from Once A Month Mom.

• 1 cup complete pancake mix (the “just add water” kind)
• 2/3 cup water
• 2/3 cup syrup
• 1 whole banana, sliced and quartered

Now, when I first saw the ingredients and quantities, I was a little shocked that there was so much syrup so I did a little tweaking of my own to start in an attempt to make them less sugary. I basically halved the amount of syrup and added more water.

You mix all the ingredients together, fill your greased mini muffin pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until they are golden brown. They turned out great with my small change and after letting them cool slightly I was able to pop them in a large tupperware container and freeze them for an easy go-to snack.

They turned out so great (and were such a hit with the little one) that I immediately made another batch using peaches instead of bananas. Still great!

In my third attempt I tried switching things up a little more and I knocked down the syrup even more - about 1/8 cup. I used the same amount of water and pancake mix, but added some sugar free applesauce to make up for the missing sweetness from the syrup. Then I used assorted fruit including strawberries, raspberries, mango, and pineapple. The batter looked great but once I took them out of the oven and let them cool a bit they sank in the middle slightly. I think if I added more pancake mix and left them in the oven for a few extra minutes they would have turned out perfectly.

Do you have any other great breakfast/snack ideas that are easy to make and modify based on your child's taste? Please share in the comments below, or let us know how these turned out when you made them at home!