Hey look, no soup! Since I had a chance to work on the blog post recipe before Friday, you get a dessert (or breakfast) instead. Yes, I just said these muffins could be dessert OR breakfast. But it isn’t healthy to eat desserts instead of breakfast, is it? Well, no. However, these muffins are not nearly the sugar-load that commercial muffins are. Seriously, look at the calories and sugar content of one of those Starbucks muffins sometime; you’ll be shocked. Homemade muffins, though, aren’t nearly so loaded (or they don’t have to be). So, while these are a tasty enough treat to serve as dessert, you don’t have to feel too bad if you eat two for breakfast on the run (as I did this morning).

You can use frozen or fresh blueberries, it won’t make much difference. If using frozen do not thaw them; it isn’t necessary and it’ll make them dribble juice in a not-so-useful way. I also suspect you could replace the blueberries with nuts and have a banana-nut muffin, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Blueberry-Banana Muffins (Yields 12-16 muffins, depending on how full your muffin cups are)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 2 large bananas)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 1/2 cup light-colored oil, such as canola
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease your muffin tin or use those paper liners.

2. Mash the banana very thoroughly with a fork in a large bowl. Add the egg, juice, honey, oil, and vanilla and mix well. I use a whisk, but you can do it with a spoon. Just make sure the egg is very well mixed up.

3. Add the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and mix well. Fold in the blueberries.

4. Fill your muffin cups about 2/3 – 3/4 of the way full. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and springy (you can also use the toothpick test, but remember that the berries will get blue juice on your toothpick no matter how done the muffin is!). Remove the baked muffins to a wire rack and let cool a little before eating (or the hot blueberries will scorch your mouth). Enjoy!