Best breakfast muffins

1 lb sausage (hot or regular or low fat)
8 eggs
1/4 c skim milk
1/2 T veg oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375
Cook the sausage and put it in a muffin pan that has been sprayed with Pam.
Mix the eggs, milk, oil and baking powder.  Pour over the sausage
Top with cheese and bake until the egg is set

These freeze really well.  Also, they can be chopped up for an instant breakfast burrito.

Banana Raisin muffins

Cannot wait to try these with all the frozen bananas I have cluttering up my freezer!

INGREDIENTS
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup 1% milk
• 2 medium bananas, mashed (around 1 cup)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup raisins
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375º F.

2. Measure sugar, baking soda, salt and flour into a bowl. Stir well to combine ingredients.

3. Add oil, milk, mashed bananas and vanilla; mix just until flour is moistened.

4. Fold in raisins.

5. Use a non-stick muffin pan, or muffin papers. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.

6. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan right away.

Makes 6 muffins, one per serving.

Flaxseed Wheat Bran Muffins

INGREDIENTS
1 C.flaxseed ground
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C. Oat Bran
1 C. Brown sugar
2 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp. Cinnamon
1 1/2 C. shredded Carrots
2-3 Apples, cored and chopped up or shredded
1/2 C. Chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 c. Raisins (optional)
3/4 C. 2 % milk
2 Eggs, beaten
1 tsp. Vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Mix flour, flaxseed, bran, sugar and dry ingredients together. Shred carrots and apples and add these along with optional raisins and nuts to dry ingredients. Mix well. Stir together milk eggs and vanilla and stir this into batter until well moistened. Fill cupcake papers until 3.4 full and bake at 350* for 20 to 25 minutes.

Updated Review:
Made these this morning. Other than the bruise on my hand from having to chop so much stuff with my PC chopper, and having to keep fetching more carrots and apples because my little helper kept eating them all, not too hard to throw together. Neither my mom nor I could find the oat bran at the store, so I crunched up some Cracklin' Oat Bran cereal (yum!) and threw it in there.

These taste yummy, and my kids even ate them. HOWEVER, they are not big fluffy muffins like you'd see at Starbucks or somewhere--they don't rise at all (so you really don't need to stick to that 3/4 full thing), and they are pretty dark brown. So, more utilitarian than decorative.

Sausage Balls

I messed up my normal sausage ball recipe when we were getting ready for a New Years party, but when we got there, the sausage balls disappeared so quickly that I think I will keep the messed up recipe!

2 1/2 cups Bisquick (light)
1 lb. hot (as in spicy) Jimmy Dean sausage
2 lb. sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Mix these three together until well blended. Roll into balls, put on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for 20 minutes or so.

These are a great appetizer, snack, or breakfast.

Healthy breakfast option

I made my own granola (from a recipe I found) and now I eat it with some low fat vanilla yogurt and a chopped up banana or apple for a healthy start to my day.

Granola:

6 cups of oats (not the fast cooking kind--the old fashioned ones)
6 oz. of sliced almonds
6 oz. of dried apricots (chopped up)
6 oz. of dried cranberries, craisins, or cranberries mixed with raisins
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together

Melt 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
1/2 cup honey

Pour over the oat mixture and mix it together to make sure the oat mixture is all coated. Lay the oat mixture out on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 20 or 30 minutes. You can turn it once to make sure the bottom does not get too done.