Hearty Oat and Fruit Muffins: When your voice changes
Come the tween years - and if you have a daughter, possibly earlier, your voice begins to take on a different quality. It's the voice that has a bit of steel to it, the one that needs to set boundaries, make rules and uphold them, and the one that responds when the boundaries and rules are being pushed and broken. There is resolve in the voice, and although the voice sounds different, it still originates from that same place, a place of love and adoration of the child/tween/teen in front of you, but it never can go back to the voice that you had when your baby really was a baby.
I'm sad to say that my voice is permanently changed. I can't even get it back for my adorable nieces and nephews - they are forced to listen and respond to the tween voice that I've got going on and try as I might to tap into that mom that used to have babies, when I speak to them it doesn't come out. And again, this is not to say that I do not love those munchkins, but it is just to say that when you're a parent, you change as your children get older.
Blogging also has changed, now that the kids are older. I have a dramatically reduced amount of time: kids go to bed later, and I'm more exhausted at the end of the day from wrangling lessons, schedules, rides, practices and homework. I don't have the words in my head to express the mental challenges of raising young women, for whom I have huge dreams, but who are stymied and challenged by the surrounding social behaviors that their mother personally finds unacceptable. (texting, social media, dressing in short skirts, forgetting to do homework, being rude to adults, not making eye contact, to list just a few of our daily battles.)
Motherhood is a lot of colors, a lot of flavors and a lot of stages, and I guess I'm in the one that doesn't give me the freedom to write in the same way as I used to. But I will say that I'm still cooking and baking, as it is a role I can't escape, and in the cooking and baking I still find some pleasure, especially when the kids enjoy what comes out of my kitchen. This oat muffin is a current running favorite in our house with all its textures and flavors, and because of the carrots and apples, comes together in a moist and delicious muffin. The shredding of the apples and carrots may seem a bit time consuming, but the extra 5 minutes of work produces a muffin that is moist and satisfying.
Hearty Fruit and Oat Muffins
Makes 12 regular sized muffins
Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal, pulsed in food processor, or 1 cup oat flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup coconut milk, almond milk, or regular milk (depending on your allergy needs)
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup mild vegetable oil (or coconut oil)
2 large eggs
1 cup grated/shredded carrots
¾ cup grated apple
½ cup dried cranberries or raisins
½ cup shredded coconut
Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease pan well.
In a small bowl whisk together flour, oatmeal flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a larger bowl, mix together milk, brown sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, carrots, apple, cranberries and coconut. Carefully add flour mixture into wet mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
Divide batter among 12 muffin cups. Bake for 22-25 minutes. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and serve warm or room temperature. Store in a tightly sealed container at room temperature for 3 days.
Printable recipe
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