Not Doing Donuts

Last year, I initiated a dangerous, difficult to change tradition on co-op days. Frustrated with trying to get out the door on time...which was becoming me badgering my children to the point of at least one of the three of us leaving in tears...I decided we needed a different system. Now, we *do* get our backpacks ready the night before, but we were still struggling with being out the door at 9:15. I had just read Have a New Kid by Friday, and decided I needed a natural consequence. So in a flash of brilliance, I made the following statement.

At 9:00, I'm getting in the van and going up the corner to Speedway for Krispy Kreme donuts. Any child who is ready to go to co-op may put their backpacks and lunchboxes in the van and join me. Any child who is not ready does not get to go on the donut run. The van will return to the house after the donut run and pick up any stragglers IN WHATEVER STATE of readiness they have achieved, and then we will all proceed to co-op.

We went from being one of the last families to arrive to being one of the first families to arrive on a consistent basis.

Now, its co-op again. Children are asking if the donut policy is still in place. Last week we got donuts. After a summer without donuts, I ate half of one donut and felt nauseous from how sickly sweet it was. I can't in good conscious give my children these donuts full of way too much sugar and empty of any redeeming nutritional value...not on a weekly basis anyway.

In a moment of desperation, I decided I will make delicious homemade apple cinnamon muffins as our Monday morning treat. I don't know how this applies to leaving on time, but I have to have something other than the donuts as a treat. So, I hopped online, found a recipe, and whipped up a batch of muffins. (I did have one moment of panic when I realized I had dumped a quarter teaspoon of ground cumin in the muffins and not the ground cinnamon I had reached for, but I quickly spooned out the cumin and no harm was done.)

I have just eaten the first muffin. My children are not going to accept these as a donut alternative. They are, sadly, very bland. They needed more apples, more cinnamon, more something.

Here's the recipe, unmodified:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400.
In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together egg, butter, honey, and buttermilk.
Pour into flour mixture, stirring just until moistened and blended. [At this point, I added 1/2 cup finely chopped apples.]
Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin [sprayed], filling cups [nearly] to the top.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.

When they came out of the oven, they did not have that cinnamony-goodness smell going for them, so I sprinkled the top of them with a cinnamon-sugar mixture. That helped some, but not much. I think I should have doubled the amount of cinnamon and the number of apple pieces I put into them. Maybe I should have added 1/4 tsp of vanilla too.

But what am I going to do for a co-op treat tomorrow morning?