Fruit & Nut Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup old fashioned oats
3/4 cup mixed dried fruit
1/3 cup quartered, skin-on almonds
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line or grease and flour one 12 well muffin tin. In a medium bowl, whisk together the spices, flour, baking soda, sugar, baking powder and oats. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together the egg, oil and buttermilk. After it is thoroughly mixed, pour in the dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Fold in the fruit and nuts. Divide evenly among 12 muffin wells. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the center muffin comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack, serve.

My thoughts:

This morning felt nearly fall-like so I was inspired to make these appropriately autumnal muffins. You can use any dried fruit you'd enjoy but I used an "antioxidant blend" that included blueberries, tart cherries, cranberries and plums. I like that blend a lot because it isn't overly sweet and cheaper than buying all of those fruits individually and mixing them myself. Anyway, the mixture of fruits added a lot of flavor to these hearty muffins and the almonds added a bit of crunch. As an added bonus, they were super quick to make, from raw ingredients to fully cooked muffin took only 30 minutes. You can't beat that for a homemade breakfast!