Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Summer. I love it. Not because school is out (but it's awesome to have built in vacation time), but because the days are long and the temps are high. While I don't love sweating, I do love not shivering and having to wear three layers everywhere. 

I also love the food of summer! Blueberries are in season and are probably my favorite fruit. Adding the lemon to these muffins makes them taste bright and summery. 

Every summer I have the same dilemma when I think of what to do with my time away from teaching. It's not something I feel I've mastered yet. I've been reading Andy Stanley's book "Ask It" with a friend from church and this last chapter challenged me with how I use my time. It came at the right time as I don't have anymore big trips planned for the summer, so I need to make the most of my day to day activities. 

Ephesians 5:15-16 "Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk - not as unwise people but as wise - making the most of the time, because the days are evil."

When I look at what matters the most in my life, the top three things are my spiritual walk, relationships, and my career. I want to invest in those areas and not waste my time on things that don't accumulate value over time. So, as I was thinking about these priorities, I realized that blogging, while a fun hobby, is not really benefitting those areas. Meaning, I'll only be posting when I feel the time allows and I have worthwhile food pictures to post:) What I should do with my love of food is invite you all over to eat the food and spend time with you face to face! So, who wants free food and conversation?!

I just counted and I've pinned over 20 recipes involving blueberries...too much? Nah. They're so tasty and pretty.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Makes 11-12 muffins. Bake time: 18-20 minutes.

• ½ cup whole wheat or white whole wheat flour
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups rolled oats
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• zest of one lemon
• juice from half a lemon
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 3/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond)
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbs light tasting oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup of blueberries, fresh is best

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray or grease with butter.
3. Combine all dry ingredients into a large bowl.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together the lemon juice, milk, egg, oil and vanilla.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until all of the ingredients are combined. If the batter seems too thick, add a couple tsp of milk. Then carefully fold in the blueberries.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups.
7. Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes until muffins have a golden edge and a toothpick comes out clean.

Almost Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

I have an eye twitch. Have you ever had one you can't get rid of? I've never had one that bugged me everyday for a week. I even looked up a couple tips for getting rid of them. One suggestion was to blink a bunch of times for 30 seconds. I'm so glad no one was around, I looked ridiculous for 30 seconds. Then another suggestion was to drink less caffeine...yeah right. I moved on quickly after that lame option. I'm trying to drink lots of water and I did my PiYo (pilates and yoga) workout so maybe those will help. We'll see. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

Anyway...I know, intriguing introduction. These muffins came first from a favorite blog of mine, Cookie and Kate. I've edited them a bit and I like them both ways. Kate uses maple syrup to sweeten the recipe but I was inspired to try molasses. You can take your pick or try both versions!

1 John 2:1-2 "...I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world."

I remember memorizing these verses back in 7th or 8th grade. Sadly, I can't recite them anymore but they are still very familiar. I learned a new word when reading them years ago. Here's the definition for that word; propitiation - "Propitiation means the turning away of wrath by an offering. In relation to soteriology, propitiation means placating or satisfying the wrath of God by the atoning sacrifice of Christ." - Ryrie

This is why Christ came to earth, it's "what Christmas is all about" to quote Linus. Christ came to be our Savior from God's just wrath. Sin must be punished, even the things we deem as little sins. Christ was willing to take that punishment for the whole world so we would be seen as innocent before God. It's amazing that Jesus did this for all of us but many reject Him. We do have to believe Him and accept that we can't earn God's favor. But we can live in gratitude, loving Him for providing the propitiation for our wrongdoing. We can love Him because He loves us. 

 I guess I'm stuck on molasses lately. It fits this time of year so well why not use the rich, spiced syrup. I'm trying to help you out with the almost healthy part. I know we all have more sweets around the house now than any other time so you shouldn't feel too bad eating these guys. That's part of why the cinnamon chips are optional. 1) there's less sugar without them and 2) they can be hard to find at some grocery stores. 

I found mine at Hy-Vee.  

Almost Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

-makes 10 muffins-

1/3 cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup molasses 

1/4 cup honey

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 cup pumpkin purée 

1/4 cup milk of choice  

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice or cloves

1¾ cups all purpose or whole wheat flour

1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup cinnamon chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325° F. I played it safe and greased my muffin tin to ensure they would come out easily.

2. In a large bowl, beat the oil, molasses, and honey together with a whisk. Add eggs, and beat well. Mix in the pumpkin purée and milk, followed by the baking soda, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice or cloves.

3. Add the flour and oats to the bowl and stir until just until combined. If you choose to add the cinnamon chips, stir in now.

4. Divide the batter evenly between the ten muffin cups. For these muffins, it’s ok to fill the cups a little higher than you normally would.
5. Bake muffins for 22 to 24 minutes or do the clean toothpick test. It's best to let them cool before removing from the tin as they are very soft. You might need to run a butter knife along the outer edge of the muffins to loosen them from the pan. Enjoy them as they are or add a little butter if you'd like.

Carrot Cake Muffins (with homemade butter)!

I'm pretty stinking excited about this one! Two new recipes and they are both great! That's meant to be props to the food, not me. I didn't create the recipes sadly. These muffins are pretty healthy and the butter is super simple. This should provide you breakfast for a few days if you can limit yourself to one a day. 

Luke 18 tells the account of a blind man whom Jesus heals. It was fun to read and picture the man's personality. He is blind but hears that Jesus is in the crowd near him so he calls out to Jesus. He is shushed by those around him but he keeps calling out. Jesus responds to him by asking what he can do for the man. They man wants to see, of course, and Jesus grants him sight because of his faith. 

The man was persistent and then shows gratitude by following Jesus and worshiping him. His testimony was striking enough to cause others to praise God as well. 

His testimony was the most challenging to me. I would love to see improvement on my part when it comes to talking about what God has done for me.

These are true muffins, not "healthy cupcakes". Most muffins I see are loaded with sugar and should be eaten for dessert. These are sweetened with honey and applesauce.

Mine made 11 muffins. Some were pretty tall so I could have done a better job of distributing the batter...

Do I seem more intellectual with books in the background?! That'd be great, but they are my roommate's. She is an English teacher so of the 378 books in our apartment, about 27 are mine. 

The butter maker

Don't worry, these muffins can stand alone (the muffin stands alone, the muffin stands alone, hi ho the derry oh, the muffin...yeah you get it).

But what better opportunity to use my new butter maker! A fellow teacher got this for me as a birthday present back in May and I haven't used it until today. It's so easy, I'm excited to try different flavors now.

Cinnamon Nutmeg Butter

There is no churning here! Just add 1 cup of room temperature heavy whipping cream to the jar, add extras for your flavor, and shake for about 3-4 minutes. You will see the butter separate from the buttermilk and that's when you can strain off the liquid. Rinse the butter with water and you're done!

Carrot Cake Muffins with Cinnamon Nutmeg Butter

1 cup whole wheat flour 

1/2 cup white whole wheat

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup finely shredded carrots (about 2-3 medium carrots)

Preheat the oven to 350° F and grease a muffin tin.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.

Make a small well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter, honey, egg, vanilla, and applesauce. Stir ingredients together until just combined and there are still some spots of flour remaining.

Fold in the shredded carrots just until combined (don't overmix or the muffins will be dense).

Pour the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 18-20 minutes.

The Butter:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Pour whipping cream into the jar (you can use a mason jar) and let sit until it is room temperature. Once the cream is at room temperature, add your spices and shake the jar for 3-4 minutes. You will see the butter begin to form and separate from the milk. Now strain out the milk from the butter and rinse with water. Once the liquid is strained out place the butter in the fridge or just spread it on your tasty muffins!

Banana Oat Muffins

I actually had a request for this! I had a little ego boost when a friend asked for a recipe! So this is for you Laura and I hope you like them. I have a few other healthy oat muffin varieties I want to try as well. These will be gone soon, as I have no guilt eating them!

Made exactly 12 perfect muffins.

Hopefully you don't pay enough attention to notice my tortoise-like pace through my Bible reading. There are times I can plow through a few chapters and days I'm so distracted I can hardly finish one. I'm almost done with 2 Chronicles! I've enjoyed it as it recaps the kings of Judah, the good and the terrible ones.
Hezekiah was an honorable King. I love reading about him and wondering what it would be like to have a leader over the nation who was as devoted to God as Hezekiah. He did get fall into a prideful attitude but was sincerely humbled and repentant as God caused him to become sick. Humility is key for all believers, not just leaders. Pride gets in my way often but God is not shy about putting us in our place!

This Ninja is a life saver!

I'm a huge fan of how stinking easy these were to make! Not a long list of strange ingredients and no pile of dirty dishes. 

Just toss it all in there.

I made these during a nasty little storm yesterday. My only fear was that we'd have a tornado warning and I'd have to go downstairs while these burned up in the oven. Fortunately, that did not happen! We just had flash flooding and high winds.

Coconut oil also works as a thermometer.

I wanted to show you this because it makes me laugh. You know what season it is by the state of your coconut oil. In winter, it's white and solid but come summer humidity, it's clear and melted. 

No, there is not coconut oil in this recipe but I use it to grease my muffin tin! In this state, I used a basting brush but in winter I just use my fingers.

Fuzzy...but so good! (the pic is fuzzy, not the muffin)

Banana Oat Muffins

source: http://www.runningwithspoons.com/2014/06/24/banana-oat-greek-yogurt-muffins/

1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 ripe bananas
2 eggs
2 cups rolled oats (old fashioned or quick)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

1. Preheat oven to 400° F and grease muffin tin with coconut oil or other oil spray of choice.

2. Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor except the chocolate chips. Blend to desired texture. I think she (original blogger) blended her to a smoother consistency but I like the texture of the oats so mine are more...I don't know, oaty...

3. Stir in chocolate chips or sprinkle on top of each muffin once you have poured the mix into the tins.

4. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and place in the oven for 14-16 minutes. (I know that's a weird time. She says 15-20 but mine were done at 14, so it just depends on your oven.)