Do You Know the Muffin Lady?????

Well today I thought Id post a recipe. Seemed simple enough, I have been debating over this past week what recipe to post. Being that its the last week of school for the year, YAY!!!!!!.

For the record I am one excited Mum. I LOVE holidays, not just sleeping in a bit, but there's no rushing, no stress, no complaining about what to put in lunch boxes, or worrying that the kids had a late night due to some event and they will be too tired the next day, and most importantly I get to spend time with my kids. Actual time, not just an hour or 2 in the morning and again at night. I get more of a chance to talk, play games, do activities and socialise with 4 or the 5 most important people in my life. I LOVE holidays, especially end of year, Christmas ones as we get a whole 6 WEEKS together.

So this last week has been a rush of family events, school concerts, town carols, skate park opening, work for hubby, school for kids. It has been chaos. So there hasn't been alot of baking, and the meals I have been cooking are simple, everyday, lots of leftovers meals. Such as sausages and salad. Nothing overly riveting, or spectacular. We had a salad platter lunch time Sunday and lived on it for lunch and dinner for 2-3 days. But that's ok, it saved wasting it and cooking when we are run off our feet.

This morning I found 3/4 of a punnet of sad looking strawberries, and in trying to start my New years resolution early of "Waste Not, Want Not" and "A Penny Saved Is a Penny Earned" I decided to make muffins. And I have to say they turned out quite well, Hubby and his work apprentice stole some on the way outta town, I got a message asking me to deliver them to a town 2 hours away LOL, so I figured
A) No one died, it was safe to then try it myself
B) Delivery that far, is so not going to happen
C) If someone not in this house enjoyed them, then obviously they are not just being nice to keep Mummy and the Mrs happy so it's worth sharing.

Chocolate Berry Muffins
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
160g margarine, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1/2 or more a punnet of strawberries chopped
extra sugar
1 cup (maybe more) choc chips

Preheat oven to 210 deg Celsius. Lightly grease muffin trays or line with paper liners.
Put strawberries and the extra sugar into a bowl, how much sugar depends on your tastes, I just sprinkled some over mixed through. You may not want sugar at all. You may like it sweeter. 
Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and mix in sugar.
Make well in center.
In a jug mix milk, egg, margarine and vanilla , pour into the muffin. Mix gently a little bit. Add choc chips and strawberries. Continue to mix gently.

THE MIX SHOULD NOT BE SMOOTH, YOU SHOULD ONLY MIX UNTIL ALL INGREDIENTS ARE JUST MOIST. THERE SHOULD BE LUMPS OF FLOUR. IT ALSO MIXES BEST WITH A WOODEN SPOON. I have no idea why it just does :)

Place ice cream scoops full of mix into muffin liners, bake in oven for 20-25 mins.

This makes about 30 muffins. I do not do over flowing muffins, these rise about even with the top of the liner. Makes it easier for my kids to handle. But please note it really does depend on what size liners and muffin trays you use. We make bit bigger than cupcake size, so that my youngest doesn't waste it, and that its more of a snack then a light meal.

Also the choc chip measurement is that way because well you can't not taste test the packet of chocolate chips, and to help keep my 2 year old happy she scored a 1/4 cup filled with them to eat etc.  I'm sure these will taste wonderful with a full packet of chips. Ditto goes for the strawberries.