Every baker has found him/herself with awkward amounts of ingredients left over. A 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips, a 1/2 cup of coconut, a handful of pecans… no one wants to throw this stuff away because it’s expensive, but how do you use it up in something you’d actually want to eat? Most of the time I make cookies out of my odds and ends, but yesterday morning we found ourselves with some brown bananas, a little bit of pecan, some coconut and not much else. It was 7am and Tony was off skateboarding so Teno and I made these Kitchen Sink Muffins- they have a bit of everything, but we didn’t have to go buy anything new.

It’s a basic recipe, and you can substitute whatever you have lying around for the ingredients I used here.

For the muffins we used:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (1/2 of this measurement could be subt. with whole wheat flour)
• 1 cup sugar (I was tempted to use up some honey powder here, but wanted to keep these totally vegan)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 1/2 Tbs flax seed meal + 3 Tbs water
• 1/4 cup + 2Tbs soy milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup mashed bananas (one large banana)
• 1/2 cup diced bananas
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup granola (or granola-like cereal)
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• Additional granola or coconut for top, optional

Then you:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease one muffin pan. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the canola oil and blend.

In a small bowl, beat together the flax seed meal and water- it will get thick and gooey. Mix this with the soy milk, vanilla and mashed bananas and add it to the flour mixture. Mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl – do not over mix.

Fold in the diced bananas, pecans, granola and coconut into the batter. Spoon batter into pan, filling each cup to the top. Sprinkle tops with additional granola or coconut if desired. Bake 20-25 minuted or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly and remove from pan.

Teno and I ate these the next day (today) toasted with raspberry preserves and they were even better than they were yesterday. Yesterday Tony ate five of them for lunch.