Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins

The week is almost half over, hooray! Not that I want time to go faster, it’s just that I really look forward to the weekends nowadays. Jason and I have been trying to save some $$ by packing a lunch to work instead of eating out. It going OK, but Jason especially gets very underwhelmed by packing a lunch and really gets tired of it quickly.

I decided it was time to make us a healthy treat to help kick those lunches to a more exciting level. Nothing can really replace the fun of eating out (we’re kind of restaurant junkies…), but delicious, fresh, homemade treats at least make for a good distraction.

I adapted this recipe from one on Epicurious. If you didn’t already know, I LOVE Epicurious. I trust the recipes there even more than I do the ones on allrecipes.com or food.com or even foodnetwork.com. Recipes from magazines through Epicurious like Gourmet and Bon Apetit just NEVER let you down. Even if there are only a few reviews on something, you can pretty much trust that it’s still an awesome recipe. I highly recommend the website for recipes, and the iPhone app is fantastic too. These muffins that I were inspired by one of their recipes are packed with nutrition, and they also happen to be just very tasty muffins. They’re dairy free to boot, which is pretty hard to believe with the way they taste! These are definitely going onto my favorites list.

Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins (adapted from recipe in November 2010 Bon Apetit)

• 2 1/3 c. quick-cooking oats
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 c. lightly packed light brown sugar
• 2 T. wheat germ
• 1 T. ground flax
• 2 t. ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 t. baking soda
• 3/4 t. salt
• 1 c. vanilla soymilk (or cow’s milk)
• 1/2 c. vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1/3 c. hot water
• 1 1/2 c. fresh blueberries

-Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

-Add the soymilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla, and mix on medium speed until well combined.

-Add hot water and mix again until combined. Let sit on the counter for 5 minutes.

-Fold the blueberries into the batter with a rubber spatula.

-Liberally grease a jumbo muffin tin and use a 1/2 c. measure to spoon the dough into the pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the muffins are brown on top and done in the center (use a toothpick to test).

-Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

-Flip muffins out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.

-Grab and enjoy! Makes 8 delicious jumbo muffins.

They are so light and soft for having so much whole grain! And they are just sweet enough to taste totally indulgent, especially with the fresh blueberries.

I also wanted to tell you guys that I joined Pinterest! My friend Emily turned me on to it, and I can tell I’m going to have fun with it already. It’s a social networking type site where you basically “pin” (share) images from around the web (or your own) that inspire you/that you really enjoy for whatever reason. It’s really fun, you should make an account even if you’re not a blogger!

It’s such a cute idea! Mine is still very new but it will be growing for sure. I don’t think it’s huge in the food blogger world, but there are some big bloggers who have awesome Pinterest accounts, like Sherry from Young House Love (I heart that blog! Makes me want to do home improvement and have a baby girl! 🙂 ).

I’m off to enjoy what little of the night there is left. Thanks for reading!

-Lauren