A Healthy Start to the Day

Banana Muffins with Cinnamon Granola Topping
Cook's notes: The inspiration for creating this recipe came from some friends who recently visited me at the lake. We had a surplus of yogurt, ripe bananas and a box of granola. 

So when I was gifted with this festive spatula gift I knew it was a sign: time to bake. 
The recipe would have to healthy with these ingredients. So I made Banana Yogurt Muffins with Cinnamon Granola Topping. It is an original recipe. 
The addition of using Saigon cinnamon adds an element of intense flavor without any extra calories to the banana batter and the crunchy granola topping. YUM YUM!
i would like to add that this would be an easy recipe for kids to try their hand at baking. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granola
• 1 tsp. Saigon cinnamon
• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1 TB. baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda 
• 1/4 tsp. salt 
• 1 tsp. Saigon cinnamon
• 1 cup mashed ripe banana (1 large banana)
• 1/4 cup white sugar 
• 1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
• 1 large egg 
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. 
• Mix granola with 1 tsp. Saigon cinnamon and set aside.
• Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1 tsp. cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, beat together mashed banana, sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir in the yogurt . Stir banana mixture into flour until just combined. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. 
• Sprinkle each muffin with 1 TB. granola mixture.
• Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool before serving.

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A June Night

by Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American poet born in New York City. She is best known for "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883; its lines appear inscribed on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty installed in 1903, a decade and a half after Lazarus's death.

Ten o'clock: the broken moon
Hangs not yet a half hour high,
Yellow as a shield of brass,
In the dewy air of June,
Poised between the vaulted sky
And the ocean's liquid glass.

Earth lies in the shadow still;
Low black bushes, trees, and lawn
Night's ambrosial dews absorb;
Through the foliage creeps a thrill,
Whispering of yon spectral dawn
And the hidden climbing orb.

Higher, higher, gathering light,
Veiling with a golden gauze
All the trembling atmosphere,
See, the rayless disk grows white!
Hark, the glittering billows pause!

Faint, far sounds possess the ear.
Elves on such a night as this
Spin their rings upon the grass;
On the beach the water-fay
Greets her lover with a kiss;
Through the air swift spirits pass,
Laugh, caress, and float away.

Shut thy lids and thou shalt see
Angel faces wreathed with light,
Mystic forms long vanished hence.
Ah, too fine, too rare, they be
For the grosser mortal sight,
And they foil our waking sense.

Yet we feel them floating near,
Know that we are not alone,
Though our open eyes behold
Nothing save the moon's bright sphere,
In the vacant heavens shown,
And the ocean's path of gold.