I hope that everyone had a great weekend! Sorry that I didn't get a post up yesterday, but I was enjoying a day off from...everything! On Saturday and Sunday, Shaun and I did lots of work around the apartment, including a complete makeover of our entryway coat closet. A few trips to Home Depot, a coat of BM's Stonington Gray, some new shelves, and we're in business for a sweet and spacious closet. Hurrah! But by Monday morn, I was pretty spent. Meanwhile, though I took the day off from life (and may have spent much of the afternoon catching up on Parenthood), I still managed to get myself in the kitchen to cook up a few things to share.
With a bag of blueberries in my freezer (I bought them fresh and then realized that I don't actually like them unless in the form of a baked good), I had a jonesing for some blueberry muffins. And to make these healthy, I changed out a slew of ingredients. While these aren't exactly a dessert muffin, they are perfect for breakfast or on-the-go and are guilt-free to boot. Oh and I almost forgot to tell you that they are virtually sugar free too!
Although we woke up to an inch of snow, I just had summer on the brain, so I brought out my sweet yellow baking cups which were not only cheery, but also mimicked the fresh lemon in the muffins. And I just love how the blueberries burst to make a pretty pattern seeping through. There's just something about lemon and berry that just reminds me of warm weather! Oh and I should mention that I'd never worked with whole wheat pastry flour before, but, while a bit grainy, they kept these muffins nice and light, rather than dense as regular ol' whole wheat flour would have.
Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Muffins
*Adapted heavily from Betty Crocker
1 tbsp Splenda brown sugar blend
3/4 C almond milk
1/4 C applesauce
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lemon, juiced and zested
1 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 C blueberries
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line your muffin tin. I also like to set out all of my ingredients.
In a large mixing bowl, lightly whisk the milk (I used almond, but any of your choice will do!), Splenda, applesauce, honey, egg, vanilla, lemon juice and zest.
With a wooden spoon, stir in the flour, baking powder and salt.
Mix until just combined. Measure out and fold in the blueberries.
Fill 12 muffin cups equally, about 3/4 full.
Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Serve and enjoy immediately (or cool on a wire rack). These are great warm with a tiny bit of light butter and/or cinnamon sugar. Though these aren't sweet in the slightest (these are healthy muffins people!), the blueberries give a burst of juicy flavor that I simply love. For a sweeter muffin, I recommend adding more Splenda blend or even a sugar topping. And to make this more decadent, substitute whole milk and oil for the almond milk and applesauce.
So there you have it. A healthy muffin that couldn't be easier to throw together. I will undoubtedly be enjoying one of these for breakfast tomorrow! So what do you think? What foods or flavors remind you of warm weather?