To wing it or to follow a recipe, this is the question. When I was growing up in Portland, Oregon in the 1970’s, the fifth of five kids in an under-paid college professor’s motley family, I learned to do both, sometimes at the same time. I remember cooking with my sister 
One reason innovation is a prized cooking strategy of mine is that I grew up in that family. My mom was a homemaker, my dad didn’t make a lot of money and there were five kids. You made do. You learned to substitute. No white flour left? Let’s use all whole wheat flour! Not enough whole wheat? Let’s fill in with oats! No regular oats? Let’s try quick cooking oats! The beauty of this was not only that you learned something about food and how it works, but it was a great opportunity to develop your ability to display grace under fire. The fire came from struggling parents who supported their children’s creative endeavors, but couldn’t help notice their depleted stores after our masterpieces came out of the oven, and from siblings who heard someone was making cookies only to find that the term did not quite describe what was on offer as a result. Grace under fire meant coming up with responses like, “It’s supposed to look like that,” and “It’s healthier that way,” and “Just scrape off the bottom part, use a sharper knife!”
Another reason I value innovation in the kitchen is that I grew up with that mother. My mother was an amazing cook, a wizard who could feed a family of 7 on next to nothing. A common dinner when I was little and we were pretty poor was creamed eggs on toast. Give my mom a half loaf of stale bread, 3 hard boiled eggs, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons butter, 3 cups milk, a 25 cent bag of peas and a can of pears and voila! Dinner for 7. Toast on the plate, slices of boiled egg on the toast, creamy béchamel sauce on that, side of peas and pears for dessert. In addition to making a filling meal for pennies, she could also make dinner, and make it well, with whatever was on hand. With no money to go to the store, she got good at it, honing her skills I imagine in the leanest days before pay day, and with never a hint that she was anything but having a ball doing so. I think of her as the original upon which they later based those cooking challenges for nascent chefs on TV. Ready? You have one acorn squash, a half a cantaloupe, a half pound of bacon, a cup of milk, a cup of cornmeal, and a can of kidney beans. Go! She could make dinner out of anything. It seemed that she could make dinner out of nothing but smoke and a few laughs.
I like to think I picked up some of that while getting in her way in the kitchen. I hope so. Early in my cooking career, I know I held recipe-following in low esteem. I had to learn that following a recipe precisely can be a wonderful thing, putting you in touch with the mind and intention of the cook who crafted it in the same way that reading fine literature puts you in touch with the mind of the author. But with that lesson under my belt, I still defend my right to innovate, sometimes wildly, using recipes as a springboard from which I bounce with happy abandon.
Here is an offering for you loosely based on the banana bread recipe on the back of the Kellogg’s All-Bran cereal box. Just about everything here is a substitution except the All-Bran, the bananas and the leavening. I made these this morning and believe they are the best bran muffins I have ever made. They are low gluten and get their sweetness from sources other than white sugar. If you make them, feel free to make innovations of your own.
Wing It Banana Bran Muffins
Makes 36 muffins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Prepare muffin tins by adding muffin papers or spreading coconut oil in each cup
1 cup Pamela’s Gluten Free Baking and Pancake Mix
½ cup Almond flour
½ cup Bob’s Red Mill Oat Bran hot cereal, dry
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups All-Bran cereal
2 cups mashed ripe banana
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
¼ cup shredded sweet potato (or use carrot)
1 cup Ricotta cheese
½ cup date syrup (or use honey)
3/4 cup + unsweetened applesauce (or as much as needed to make the final mix moist)
½ cup + coconut oil softened (plus enough to oil muffin cups if you choose)
Instructions
- Whisk eggs until mixed. Add mashed bananas and vanilla.
- Add All-Bran cereal and sweet potato. Stir well. Set aside at least 5 min while cereal softens.
- In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients (almond flour, oat bran, baking mix, baking powder, baking soda, salt, walnuts, turmeric, cinnamon and nutmeg). Mix well and set aside.
- In a third bowl (sorry) combine coconut oil and date syrup. Mix well.
- To the All-Bran bowl, add the Ricotta cheese, ¾ cup of applesauce, and the oil and syrup mixture. Mix well.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. Mix well. If the final mixture doesn’t seem moist enough, you can add more applesauce.
- Spoon final mixture into the muffin cups, spreading evenly into the 36 cups.
- Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes
- Serve warm from the oven!
