More on Muffins

An easy way to make any muffin healthier is to substitute half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour. This tip comes from Food Network star Ellie Krieger, who focuses on healthy and delicious eating. Ellie notes that whole grain pastry flour is made from a tender variety of wheat which results in a much finer flour than regular whole wheat flour. Despite its lighter taste and texture it still has more nutritious value than all purpose flour. (Save time and order online pastry flour from stores like NetGrocer.com.)

I adpated one of my favorite muffin recipes with this technique and just loved the results! Check out our recipe widget for Banana Coconut Muffins. (Plus our musical slide show here on the blog!) These muffins are fast (20 minutes to assemble, 20 minutes to bake) and very easy. An added bonus is that they freeze well. Keeping with our Recession Chic theme they also make great use of the overripe bananas languishing on your counter. Shredded sweetened coconut will keep for months in the refrigerator so keep it on hand to make these fabulous morning treats whenever your bananas go bad!