Blueberry and Lemon Muffins- Scrumptious!

I. am. in. love. with these muffins. My mouth is watering just thinking about them again. I got these out of a cookbook that I just bought, it's called Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld. I changed it up a bit, and I am so glad I did, they turned out wonderfully!

Here's the recipe.

1/2 c back brown sugar

4 Tbsp margarine or butter

1 c lowfat plain yogurt

1 c blueberries

1/2 c applesauce

1 lg egg

2 tsp pure lemon extract

1 tsp grated lemon zest

2 cups flour (I did half of this with whole wheat flour, 

      and the other half with all purpose, 

      to make it just that much more healthy)

1/4 c flaxseed meal

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

 1/2 tsp salt-I actually omitted the salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, use non-stick spray on your muffin tin, or use muffin wrappers. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and the margarine together, stir in the yogur, blueberries, applesauce, egg, lemon extract, and lemon zest. Add the flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir just to comine, do not overmix- the batter should be lumpy. Divide batter into the muffin cups, bake until tops of muffins are lightly browned and center is baked through, about 13-16 minutes, let muffins cool. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for 2 days (or if your me, it took me about 5 days to eat these... they were just fine) or wrap individually and freeze for up to one month.

I am going to make them again tomorrow. These have jumped to the top of my favorite list, and if you know me, I am a muffin lovin' girl, so that's sayin' something! Enjoy!

Tasty-not-go-to-Wasty Banana Bread

Banana bread, where to start? Delicious, moist, succulent, a piece of heaven. A few words to describe this recipe for banana bread. You may ask, "What's the difference?" I'll answer, "The streusel, my dear, the streusel." It makes it just absolutely delectable.  This recipe calls for walnuts in the bread, and the topping. I hate nuts, so I never put them in. This recipe comes from my Better Homes and Garden book.

2 c all-purpose flour               2 eggs, beaten 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder        1 1/2 c mashed, ripe banana (about 5 med)

1/2 tsp baking soda                1 C sugar

1/4 tsp salt                               1/2 c cooking oil, or melted butter or margarine

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon     1/4 chopped walnuts *optional

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg          1 recipe streusel nut topping *optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease bottom and sides of your bread pan, set aside. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

In a medium bow combine, eggs, banana, sugar, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy) Fold in walnuts. Spoon batter into prepare pan, if desired, sprinkle Streusel-Nut Topping over batter in pans.

Bake for 55-60 minutes for a larger pan, or 40-45 a smaller one, or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, remove from pan. Cool completely on rack. Wrap; store overnight before slicing.

Streusel-Nut Topping: In a small bowl combine 1/4 c brown sugar and 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour. Using a pastry blender, cut in 2 Tablespoons buter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, Stir in 1/3 c chopped walnuts.

Make sure to start out with brown-ish bananas, it tastes
way better if they are over-ripe.

This is what the streusel topping should look like.

Wonderful. Perfectly browned.