Mini pancakes, small omelette, bacon, onion garnish.
Breakfast for lunch is a common bento right now – most mornings I make a mini omelette and put it in Madeleine’s bento. It’s also not uncommon to find one or more of the following: pancakes, bacon, muffins, cereal (Mini Wheats, Cheerios), strawberries (not in season right now), green grapes, mini bagel, nuts (walnuts) granola or homemade granola bars with peanut butter and chocolate chips.
These savory muffins are inspired by Cheddar, pancetta, and spring onion muffins in the August 2010 Delicious magazine that I picked up when we were in the UK. The concept, combined with the magic of Michael Ruhlman’s book Ratio, has created this new MHC muffin.
I’ve been looking for new options for the lunchboxes / bentos for this coming year, and this may well be part of the rotation, especially because they can be frozen. I like make ahead foods; it makes preparing bentos that much easier.
Today’s baking takes my favorite Sugar Topped Blueberry Muffins recipe and breaks it down into even smaller portions making for a great little sweet with coffee at breakfast, or as a snack. By using the mini muffin pans, each muffin comes out to about 50 calories – that’s a load of fresh fruit flavor filled muffin for the calories.
When spooning the batter into the muffin tins, fill them a scant 2/3 full and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the tops become golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
I’m excited that I found actual Michigan blueberries in the grocery; they were extra plump!
~Enjoy!
This Old Fashioned Banana Muffin recipe is one that has been in our family at least 3 generations and I while I could likely mix these from memory I frequently pull out the recipe -- mostly for the sake of nostalgia. Interestingly, the recipe as I have it written contains no mixing directions, oven temperature or cooking time. It's handwritten (more accurately, scribbled) in short abbreviation style on a crinkled pink envelope sent from a magazine I haven't read since college. There are scrawls and scratches on the right hand side that faintly show the ratio when one has 8 bananas. The envelope/recipe is splattered in 3 places and at the top of the paper is a 2 line Christmas list for my Dad.
