In my opinion, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and eating healthy and hearty food can sustain you through a grueling day of classes. As it so happens, muffins, quick breads, and pastries are my specialty in the kitchen. I make them in bulk, freeze them, and defrost them when I need them. These foods are easy to make ahead, and they keep well as long as you take time to package them up and store them.

This week, I’ll be going over some muffin recipes I’ve been toying with and tweaking for a few months as well as some more traditional recipes. Today and Thursday’s muffins are my personal favorites: sweet potato date muffins and whole-wheat banana chocolate chunk muffins. For Friday, I’ll be trying out [Barefoot Contessa’s Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins](http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/blueberry-coffee-cake-muffins-recipe/index.html), as featured on FoodNetwork.com.

Healthy Sweet Potato Date Muffins

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a slight obsession with sweet potatoes, and I love finding new ways to incorporate them into recipes. When I found this recipe for sweet potato date muffins on [Recipezaar.com](http://www.recipezaar.com/Really-Healthy-Really-Good-Sweet-Potato-Muffins-266142) from pastry chef Kim Boyce, I knew I had stumbled upon something absolutely scrumptious. This recipe is fairly challenging–it requires a lot of preparation and a careful attention to the sequence of steps–but the muffins are completely worth the effort.

Ingredients: 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, 1/4 cup unsalted butter, 3 tablespoons each dark brown sugar and white granulated sugar, 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 egg, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 cup chopped dried dates.

Step 1: Rinse the sweet potatoes, prick them with a fork and place them on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake them for 1 hour and 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Step 2: Once the sweet potatoes are roasted enough that they’ve started to caramelize, take them out of the oven and let them cool. After they’ve cooled, remove the skin, transfer to a medium sized bowl and mash them up.

Step 3: Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and prepare your muffin pan.

Step 4: Cream the butter and sugars together with a mixer on medium-high. This should take about 3 minutes.

Step 5: In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and set it aside.

Step 6: In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, yogurt and vanilla.

Step 7: At this point, you should have four bowls: the sweet potatoes, the creamed butter and sugar, the dry ingredients, and the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and the creamed butter and sugar to the dry ingredients in intervals with your mixer on low speed. Then gently stir in the sweet potatoes. Last, fold in the chopped dried dates

Step 8: Drop 1/2 cup portions into the muffin tin and bake for 40 minutes.