Rise & Shine Coffee Oatmeal Muffins

Lately, my teenage daughter has been enjoying these muffins for breakfast and (frequent LOL) snacks throughout the day. We homeschool, so grazing during the day is happily welcomed. You might notice that the plate of coffee oatmeal muffins is short of a dozen...I had to take the photo fast, as the number was diminishing rapidly as soon as they came out of the oven!

We tinkered with this recipe several times and now find them to be just 'perfect'...healthy enough to feel good about eating, and tasty enough that we don't think we'll ever get tired of them!

Rise & Shine Coffee Oatmeal Muffins

3 heaping Tablespoons of instant coffee powder (we use decaf)
1 cup hot brewed coffee or hot water
1/4 cup dry powdered milk
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
2/3 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vinegar
1/3 cup sourdough starter (can omit this if you don't have starter)
1 1/3 cups white flour
2/3 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cups oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips

Dissolve the milk and coffee powders in hot coffee or hot water. Beat together the eggs, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, vinegar, yogurt, butter, oatmeal, and sourdough starter. Add the coffee mixture. Mix well, and mix in the flours and chocolate chips.

Fill paper cupcake liners in standard size muffin pan about 2/3 full. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. Makes about 20-22 muffins.

We have made these as peanut butter oatmeal muffins also, by exchanging peanut butter for the yogurt, and omitting the coffee and sourdough starter. Those were wonderful also, but not as addictively yummy as these : )

Extremely Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies : )

My daughter and I love to fool around in the kitchen, just putting together ingredients and proportions that sort of feel right, to see how they turn out. We made these cookies last week, and oh, my! They were so good, with just the right amount of chewiness. We actually wrote this one down so we could do it again : )

Extremely Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup Sucanat
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
3/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cup unbleached flour
1 12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream the butter, brown sugar, Sucanat, and vanilla; beat the eggs and add the eggs and yogurt to the other ingredients; mix in the leavening, oatmeal, and flour; stir in chocolate chips. Place well-rounded tablespoonsful on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes. This recipe only made 36 cookies, so we plan to double it next time.