Cranberry Banana Coconut Muffins

These muffins pack so much into your breakfast: bright red tart cranberries, sweet chunks of banana, tender coconut, and ground flax seeds.

I actually adapted this recipe from the base in these apple muffins.  It's a great base for a lot of different fruit combinations.  This one, I'll confess, is sort of the random bits lying around my house: bananas getting too ripe in the fruit basket, some frozen cranberries, half a bag of shredded coconut, and a half-zested orange.  I think that some of my favorite foods come about from cleaning out the fridge.  There is something so joyful in having such a bounty of leftover bits and pieces, and being able to whip up amazing muffins or a great soup or stock with them.

If you want to clean out your own fridge -- keep the wet and dry ingredients the same, and just add in 2 cups of fruit and an optional 1/2 cup of nuts.

Cranberry Banana Coconut Muffins
yields 12 muffins
recipe adapted from The Simple Art of Eating Well

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup frozen or fresh cranberries (not thawed, if frozen)
1 cup chopped ripe banana (about 2)
2/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 tsp orange zest

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degress Fahrenheit, and coat the cups of a muffin pan with cooking spray.
2. Whisk together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
3.Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, brown sugar, melted butter, canola oil, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients in the large bowl.  Stir in the wet mix, until well combined.  Do not overmix.
5. Add in the cranberries, banana, coconut, and orange zest. Stir until combined.
6. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, until each is 3/4 full.
7. Bake for 22 - 25 minutes, until golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted to the center of a muffin come out dry.