Tropical Fruit Oatmeal Muffins

I've been wanting to make oatmeal muffins, seeing as oatmeal has become one of my favorite breakfast items, as well as its health benefits. There are so many different treats and fruits that you can add to make all sorts of amazing muffins. The possibilities are endless! Anyway, I had lots of leftover dried fruit that I didn't feel like just eating so I decided to add it to muffins and it came out delicious. I found a recipe online, but it looked and sounded bland and not too healthy so I swapped out a lot of ingredients and added my own healthier alternative. Not too sweet and just right.

I'm always curious to see what the finished product looks like on the inside, or for a cake, on the side!

 Ingredients:

1 cup Almond Milk - Original Unsweetened
1 cup Quaker Oats
1 egg
1/4 cup Canola oil (or Natural Applesauce)
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Pecan Chips
1/2 cup (4oz.) Tropical Fruit dried mix [dried dates, pineapple, papaya, raisins, banana chips, coconut shavings]

Directions: [Basic directions can be found from allrecipes.com "Easy Oatmeal Muffins Recipe"]

- Preheat oven [I used a toaster oven which worked just as well] 425 F [220 C]
- Grease the muffin cups or line with paper baking cups
- In a small bowl, mix the milk and oats and soak for about 15 minutes
- In another bowl, beat egg and oil, then stir in the oatmeal mixture
- In a third larger bowl, stir the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon
- Combine wet and dry ingredients, stir
- Add vanilla extract, stir
- Add remaining ingredients - pecan chips and dried fruit mix, stir
- Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top!