My little guy turned one last week and so we’re back after a long weekend of action-packed 1st birthday festivities! One thing for sure, this kid loves food, he eats anything I put in front of him. Yesterday he tried out tomatoes, cucumbers and kiwi, smacking after every bite he popped in his mouth.

His birthday breakfast was a huge blueberry muffin, which was shoved almost entirely whole into his mouth. Hope you enjoy as much as he did!

Recipe:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup canola oil

1 egg

1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

In a large bowl combine all flour, baking powder, salt and sugar then make a well in the center of the mixture.

In a small bowl combine buttermilk, egg and oil. Pour mixture into the well and then gently fold wet and dry ingredients together until just blended. Do not overstir or muffins will be dense.

Gently fold in blueberries. Then drop batter into muffin cups filled 2/3 full. I like to sprinkle about a half teaspoon of raw sugar on top of each muffin before baking for a crunchy, sweet crust on top.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Makes about 15 muffins.

Notes:

These muffins freeze really well. Just double the recipe and store half in the freezer for later.

I like to use the foil muffin cups that don’t require using a muffin pan so there’s no mess to clean-up.

Elaine had a million dollar idea when she became obsessed with muffin tops on an episode of Seinfeld. She insisted that you had to bake the whole muffin and break the top off the stump to get the muffin top. Little did she know that muffin tops would take on a whole new meaning.

A few years ago I mentioned that my jeans were giving me a muffin top and one of my male friends gave me bewildered look. I had to explain just exactly what that was – you see the jean makers of the world got together with the personal trainers of the world and came up with the crazy idea to sell really low-rise  jeans. The result, no matter how flat of a stomach you have those low riders are gonna push that extra fluff right up over that waistband!

So muffin top and all, I decided to make a healthy muffin that won’t add too much fluff to the waistline!

Recipe:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup oatmeal (quick cook oats), rough cut in a blender

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

1/4 cup applesauce, no sugar added

1/4 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

3 bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a blender or food processor, pulse oatmeal a few times for a rough cut – not to0 fine. Combine flours, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, mash bananas. Then add the egg, sugar, buttermilk, applesauce, oil, vanilla and stir together.

Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together. Do not over stir.

Fill muffin cups and bake for 18-20 minutes. This will make 12-15 medium-sized muffins.

Notes:

I made extra-large muffins using Panettone paper baking molds from Sur La Table. The cook time for an extra-large muffin will be about 20-25 minutes.

When I punched in this recipe to My food diary’s recipe builder. The calorie count per muffin was around 170 calories with 5 grams of fat.