“Who ate just the top of the muffin, and left the stump?”

I admit it, it is always me. Everyone else in our family eats a whole muffin at a time. I only ever seem to want half, or if the muffin is large sometimes just a quarter. Even though I reassured them I would be coming back to eat the muffin stump later or perhaps the next day, they were not happy.

“Why can’t you just eat the whole muffin? Don’t leave those stumps behind, that’s gross Mom!”

“Because I only want half. I won’t waste it. I will eat it when I want another half.”

Okay, so no one in our house liked to look at muffin stumps. I got the message loud and clear. I started slicing the muffin in half vertically instead. I assumed there would be no complaints.

“Who left half a muffin in a ziplock baggie on the cupboard?”

Wow! Who knew eating half a muffin at a time was such a crime? Who were these guys in my house who all seemed to develop muffin OCD simultaneously?

I actually stopped buying muffins because I was tired of explaining it was not necessary to eat a whole muffin at one sitting. Then this summer along came Jennifer to my rescue!

Jennifer was a new vendor at our local Farmer’s Market whose summer business project was “Playing With Food” – homemade baking with gluten-free and diabetic friendly choices including mini-muffins!

Little did Jennifer know she restored peace to muffin eating in our home. I could now eat an entire muffin with no stump or any other portion left behind to offend the muffin police.Hooray!

Over the course of the summer we tried several varieties including chai spice and cornmeal cheese, with the favourites being good ole banana chocolate chip and saskatoon berry, made with freshly picked saskatoons out of Jennifer’s backyard. Yummy!

Okay, I admit it. I could now eat more than one muffin at a time. In fact the day I brought home the saskatoon berry muffins, I am quite positive I ate the equivalent of a whole regular size muffin. Hmmm, maybe even a little more. Was just so easy to pop one of those delicious little morsels into my mouth! Fortunately no one in my family witnessed it.

Suddenly I remembered seeing a report that came out around last Halloween in which researchers concluded people who bought a bag of “mini” size chocolate bars actually consumed more calories than those who bought and ate a full-size chocolate bar. Those who ate the minis fell into the trap of ” it is just not that big, so I will have another”,  without realizing how much they actually ate.

Jennifer is done at the market for this year. Maybe I need to be done with the mini-muffins and go back to leaving stumps around for another day, muffin police be damned!

(If you would like to know more about Jennifer, an elementary teacher who loves to cook and play with food please visit her blog: “Inspired At My Island”. Her blog is filled with recipes, photos, stories about food, and food projects she has used to teach in her classroom. http://inspiredatmyisland.blogspot.ca/)