Happy Sunday!
I love, love, love Sundays. Eric and I generally have a Sunday routine: church, grocery shopping, lunch, run/homework/relax, small group. But Eric was out of town this weekend for the SEC tournament, so nothing was quite normal.
First off, there was the whole time change. I decided that the best way to handle springing forward would be to just sleep as late as my body wanted. Generally, sleeping as late as I want means waking up at 7. And today was no different, but 7 was actually 8. We usually go to the 9 o’clock service at church, so after laying in bed for 15 minutes trying to decide if I really wanted to get up, it was too late to go to the regular service. So I decided to switch it up and go for a morning run.
Our Virginia half-marathon is in twelve weeks, and I want to feel really comfortable about running 13.1 miles by then. So I’m trying to get to the point where running 6 miles is easy. I’m definitely not there yet. But I ventured to the Arboretum this morning and joined a dozen other runners/walkers for my 6 mile jog. It was a wonderfully relaxing (and challenging) start to the day. But I tell you what, those hills are really tiring on the third lap around the park!
After church, I headed to the grocery store. I think today was the first time I’ve done the shopping trip on my own since we got married. It turns out that I’m a lot slower without Eric. I always try to hurry through the store when Eric is with me because he doesn’t really like grocery shopping, but I spent today perusing the aisles and comparing all the different brands and thinking of the meal possibilities. Now, when Eric and I go shopping together, we usually forget to take the reusable grocery bags. Today I remembered the bags, but forgot the grocery list. Fail. Oh, well. All the extra perusing time helped me to remember almost everything on the list.
Anyway, with the later church service and the longer grocery trip, the afternoon was almost over by the time I got home! We were supposed to have small groups tonight, where we would be eating breakfast for dinner (a personal favorite of mine), but it was canceled. Unfortunately, I had already made the muffins I was going to take. But that just means more muffins for us to eat this week!
This is one of my favorite muffin recipes. I’m a huge fan of blueberry muffins (especially my weekly Magee’s muffin), so I’ve been testing out muffin recipes for months. I’m also trying to find ways to make muffins healthier, as they are generally packed full of sugar and butter and all that yummy (and fattening) stuff. I stumbled upon this recipe a few months ago, and it has quickly become a Ringer favorite.
Blueberry-Orange Crunch Muffins
adapted from Back to the Cutting Board
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup flaxseed (grind it up in a blender)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup canola oil
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon grated orange zest (I used the zest of one orange)
1 1/2 cups blueberries
granola for topping
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat muffin pans with cooking spray (it makes about 18 muffins).
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, flax, and salt in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together egg, juice, oil, brown sugar, vanilla, and orange zest.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until moist. Fold in blueberries.
Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full and sprinkle with granola. Lightly press the granola to make it stay in place.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Cool on cooling racks. Store in an airtight container.
I think Eric likes these muffins best straight from the oven, but I like them best the next day. They are super flavorful and somewhat good for you! Plus, they combine two of my favorite foods: muffins and granola!
If you have a favorite muffin recipe, please share! We would love to try it out!
-Ally
Shelly says
Ally, PLEASE make these for next week or I don’t know what I’ll do!!
My Grandparents' Kitchen says
“Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.”
-W.C. Fields