GO! Muffins

I used to have trouble doing what needed to be done. I shirked responsibility, only to face the cold, hard consequences later on. I'd procrastinate. I'd excuse myself. I'd do anything I could to put off what was expected of me.

And then I made these muffins.

These muffins are delicious, they are expeditious, and they give meek persons extrordinary bravado. In short, these muffins have fruit, vegetable, protein, fiber, natural sugars, and a homebaked goodness even a swarthy port floozy would settle down for. After eating one Sunday morning, I got my career best in the 3-mile dash around my neighborhood. Who knows, maybe they will make you a better person, too.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 1/2 tablespoons soy protein powder (or egg equivalent like Ener-G or flaxseed meal)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup apple butter
1 cup carrot matchsticks
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup water
1 can (6 ounces) pineapple juice
1 cup raisins
1 cup sunflower seeds
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice (not in ingredients picture)















Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Peel the carrot and cut it into matchsticks. Put the carrot matchsticks into a little container with the 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1 cup of water. Put the container in the fridge while you take care of the other steps.















Mix the flour, bran, baking soda, baking powder, and protein powder in a bowl.















Add the cinnamon, allspice, raisins, sunflower seeds, pineapple juice, and apple butter (basically everything else except the carrot/lemon juice mixture).















Mix everything up a bit, and then add the carrot/lemon juice mixture. It's going to foam up a bit; that's the lemon juice reacting with the baking powder. It's just like the 5th grade science fair!















Mix everything up well and spoon it into greased muffin pans.















Bake the muffins in the 325-degree oven for about 35-40 minutes. When they are done, let them cool off before you take them out of the pan. If you try to take the muffins out of the pan when they are still warm, they are more able to fall apart.















Variations:
Any kind of nut or berry is good with this recipe.
If you don't like apple butter, 1/3 cup canola oil can be a good substitute.
Orange juice can be substituted for pineapple if that is all you have.
The protein powder is basically used as a binding agent in this recipe, so any type of egg equivalent is an acceptable substitution. I used protein powder only because I was trying to make a "energy" muffin. Let the record show that I succeeded, hands down.