Tasty and Nutritious Muffins

As all those people on the radio and TV say, most people aren't successful at changing their diets because 'diet = depravation'. Not only is it not easy to change your eating habits entirely, it certainly isn't much fun. So my take on changing our diets is to find ways to still have desserts and treats but find healthier ways to make them. They still taste great, but they're lower in overall calories and fat.

Before I get to this delicious muffin recipe, I have to share a link to the site I have been using to calculate the nutritional value of the foods I have been making. We don't use a lot of pre-packaged foods at our house, so I'm using the nutrition resources available on the web. I found one site, called SparkPeople, that not only has an excellent calculator, but it is a great place to enter, store and share recipes. You can find most of my recipes from this blog on the site (search for RoweFood), along with a whole host of other ideas from other SparkRecipes users.

    This links to the recipes page:       http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp

You don't have to be a member to use the recipe calculator, but you won't be able to save the information on the site unless you are.

Now, on to the muffins. These are Oatmeal Blueberry Pumpkinseed Muffins, made with yogurt and applesauce instead of added liquid and fat.

Oatmeal Blueberry Pumpkinseed Muffins

1 cup Flour
1 cup quick-cook Oatmeal (not instant)
1/2 cup Brown Sugar, not packed
4 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 large Egg
3 tbsp. unsweetened Apple Sauce
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt 0% fat
1/4 cup Pumpkin Seeds
1 cup Blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat the oven to 400° F and prepare muffin tins (grease with butter or use paper cups) for 12 muffins. Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl, and the egg, apple sauce, vanilla and yogurt in another. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry, add the pumpkin seeds and fold together until just moist. Then carefully fold in the blueberries until distributed but the batter is still lumpy.

Spoon into the prepared muffin tins and bake for about 14 minutes or until a tester or toothpick comes out clean. Let them rest in the pan for a couple of minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. It is best to keep these in a container in the fridge.

Nutritional Values per 1 Muffin:
118 Calories, 1.3 grams Fat, 1.4 mg Cholesterol, 24.7 grams Carbohydrates, 4.4 grams Protein.

We have found that these are a delicious alternative to bigger and more fat-laden desserts. They give a nice sweet punch as an addition to a smoothie at breakfast or as a small but satisfying dessert.