MUFFIN TOPS AND PANCAKE BOTTOMS

I never was much of a breakfast eater but it has been said time and again that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  I was always smart enough to figure out that fat-filled pancakes, biscuits, sausages and bacon and definitely Cinnabon sugary cinnamon rolls oozing with icing just don't add up to a good breakfast.  I think the point is that morning meals are essential for revving your metabolism and kick-starting your calorie burn, but chowing down on a fat and calorie-laden breakfast from the local fast food chain doesn't cut it. Research shows that people who ate a BIG morning meal consumed an extra 400 calories a day... hence setting themselves up for muffin tops and pancake bottoms.

But then again I wasn't that smart.  I just love muffins and I started eating the muffin tops from the The Second Cup.  Sometimes I graduated to the whole muffin.  Recently, they came up with a deal to go with my morning latte.  For 99 cents I could get a muffin with the latte.  They were slightly smaller than the ones they usually sell so I was thinking it was A-okay to eat one for breakfast.  My favourite was the morning glory muffin with oranges, carrots and sunflower seeds on the top.  It sounded pretty healthy to me but now I am not sure.  Sadly, Prevention magazine said that muffins are calorie sinkholes. The Starbucks Zucchini-Walnut muffin seems healthy enough, boasting both zucchini and walnuts but we are told not to be fooled by the veggie-based name.  It has close to 500 calories and 28 grams of fat. 

After reading these statistics today, I decided to make mini banana muffins.  I had done that before but somehow it got away from me when the freezer ran dry of home-baked minis.  I figure they are 1 to 2 points each.  While shopping today at the grocery store, I flipped over the containers of mini muffins in the bakery department to see what these store-bought muffins contained compared to the big ones offered at the coffee houses.  I was pleased to see that store-bought mini carrot muffins only contained 160 calories for 3 muffins.  Once I bought them and took them home I put the information through the Weight Watchers calculator.  It turns out they were only 1 point each.  They were fresh and didn't have the preservatives the Weight Watchers packaged products do to ensure their shelf life.  These were pretty good both taste wise and weight watching wise.

Anyway, back to the kitchen.  It takes a little more work but I found Norene Gilletz's book on the Food Processor Bible and found there are some delicious low-fat, low-cal and nutritious recipes that could be made in a snap. As busy as I was today I managed to make 48 banana muffins that were mixed in the food processor that came out great.  Then I was on a roll.  I made salmon patties like you have never seen before that had 2 and 1/2 cups of corn flakes, a carrot and a whole onion and 1/4 cup of fresh dill.  They were really tasty and they were all mixed in the food processor.

So I am saying good-bye for now to bought muffin tops so I can get rid of the muffin tops around my waist.  As for pancakes, they are much smaller and less caloric when made at home.  No matter how much weight I lose, I will never have a flat pancake bottom.  Genetically, I have a black person's butt even though I am totally white.  However, I am sure my butt will look better without eating pancakes and muffins out.