Old Friends and Berry Oat Muffins

This weekend, I welcome two very dear friends to Park City. Holly and Mandy are a bundle of memories full of wine and laughter and trouble from my twenties. We had a super fun reunion 2 ½ years ago in San Francisco (read more about that here!). Both girls have two children and have been waiting for years for me to join Club Mommy. Now that I’m, well, working on my application, so to speak, they surprised me with a joint visit to Utah to love on the Baby Bump. Neither of them has been to Casa de Howe and Mandy, who lives in Hawaii, will meet John for the first time! I’m so excited and feel so loved.

I’ve been bustling around for the past few days to prepare for houseguests- adding fresh flowers here and there, making grocery lists, researching restaurants and day spas, washing extra warm blankets for our Maui girl. My energy level is questionable these days so I’ve tried to do little things at a time, but something that always makes me feel good is being in the kitchen. I thought some home-baked muffins would be a comforting touch for our guests and have been eyeing this tasty recipe for a few weeks. So yesterday, with the blankets in the dryer and with more snow in the forecast, I did some baking.

The recipe was quick and easy to throw together and I appreciate all of the healthy tweaks to these muffins, like adding whole wheat flour, using Greek yogurt, and just a little sugar. In a big bowl, I combined all of the dry ingredients and the spices: the flours, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Anything with cinnamon and nutmeg is going to be yummy.

In a smaller bowl, I whisked together Greek yogurt, a beaten egg, and melted butter. I poured the creamy mixture into the bowl of dry stuff and mixed it by hand. The batter was pretty thick, probably thanks in part to the wheat flour, which told me these would be dense little muffins.

Last, I poured in frozen raspberries and blueberries. We always have berries in the freezer to make smoothies! I gently folded them into the batter and spooned it evenly into papered muffin tins. Before baking, I sprinkled brown sugar and some oats over each muffin.

Twenty minutes later, it smelled happy in my kitchen and the muffins had baked until a toothpick came out clean. Aren’t they beautiful? I love that you can see the berries in each muffin, and the oats on top let you know there are more inside.

As usual, I couldn’t wait to try one when it was hot out of the oven. The muffins are dense, as I thought they would be, but moist and not heavy. They are not overly sweet, which I love- the majority of the sweetness comes from the tart berries (and the extra sugar on top!). These will make a great grab-and-go healthy breakfast or a tasty afternoon snack. Any berries would be delicious in them, and you could add chopped nuts for more crunch!

This recipe is a keeper, and the muffins will be perfect to have on hand with guests in the house. I snuck another muffin this morning (blame the baby). It didn’t need warming or butter, though both of those things would only add to the deliciousness. Look at all of those vibrant berries inside!

Now, I’m off to find an extra pair of slippers for Mandy’s flip-flop toes…

Berry Oat Muffins (thank you, Joeycake!)

You’ll need:

• ¾ cup flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 6 tablespoons of butter, melted
• 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt
• 1 BIG cup of unthawed frozen berries (I used blueberries and raspberries)
• Extra brown sugar and oats for topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fill a 12-muffin tin with paper liners.

In a big bowl, combine the first nine ingredients (through nutmeg). In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, butter, and yogurt. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine. Gently fold in the berries. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle each muffin with brown sugar and a few oats before baking. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Don’t be afraid to eat one while it’s still warm, but save the rest to share with your houseguests…they’ll thank you. YUM.

Hungry for more? Check out the collection of recipes on the FOOD BLISS page. 

The New 52: A recipe for each week in 2015. In theory. 

One year ago: Onion Thyme Soup.