The day I realized I was eating most of my meals in my car was the day I finally admitted my life was out of balance.

But don’t worry. In the long-run, I found a different job, one that allows me to eat my meals at home with my family, and all is well. And even in the short run there was good news. Although  I couldn’t stop multi-tasking if I was going to get everything done that needed to get done, I did want to start eating better. So I started by tackling the breakfast problem.

Going through the drive-through for breakfast every morning was a dopey idea for all kinds of health and financial reasons. What I needed was a nutritious breakfast I could grab on the way out the door and eat while driving, without making a mess or endangering pedestrians. Muffins were an obvious answer, as long as I found recipes that were nutritious as well as tasty.

I ended up with a few different types that I liked, and this is one of my favorites. It’s a wonderful recipe from Southern Living. I made a couple of adaptations to make it a little healthier for breakfast, but I didn’t change much, only swapping in whole wheat pastry flour to replace the all-purpose flour, using reduced-fat 2% milk instead of whole milk, and reducing the sugar a little bit. There’s still a lot of sugar in these, so you might want to cut back some more if that’s your jam. My philosophy is that the best use of sugar is to make healthy food taste better so it’s a pleasure to eat it. And it does that nicely here.

Sweet Potato Muffins Recipe

• 2 medium sweet potatoes (1 ¾ cups)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Wash and dry the outside of each sweet potato thoroughly. Don’t peel. Wrap in aluminum foil and place on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet, then cook for 1 ½ hours. Allow to cool, then slide the skins off the potatoes–it’s so easy after they’re cooked! Discard the skins, and mash the potatoes in a bowl. Measure out 1 ¾ cup of the mashed sweet potatoes and set aside. There are other ways to cook sweet potatoes that would work for this recipe, but you can’t believe how good the roasted flavor tastes in the finished muffins. Definitely worth the prep time.

Set oven temp to 350°F. Line two standard-size 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.

• 2 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp kosher salt

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup whole milk

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, oil, and milk until well combined. Add the mashed roasted sweet potato and whisk until thoroughly incorporated into liquid ingredients.

Add dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated and no pockets of flour remain.

Divide batter among muffin cups by filling each muffin cup about two-thirds full.

Bake about 25 minutes. Makes 2 dozen muffins.

Even though I’m no longer commuting, I still love these muffins as an easy grab-and-go breakfast, even if I’m only going to my kitchen table. I hope you enjoy them too.