Breakfast

Blueberry Muffins!

We actually had these yesterday, but for some reason, blogger wouldn't upload the picture last night, so this morning it is! 

My journey with blueberry muffins is long one.  I remember first making them when I was in middle school.  I used one of those Martha White muffin mixes-you know the ones that have the crunchy blueberries in them.  And, you have the option of adding milk or water.  At the time I thought they were super, but over time I've evolved.  In college I used the Betty Crocker "supreme" mix that had the can of blueberries.  The box touted "real blueberries" and I thought pretty highly of myself for paying the extra $.50 for "real."  Once I got married and had kids, I bought the store bakery "gourmet" muffins.  I figured that if I didn't have the time or energy to bake my own, then at least they were store made-that's close to homemade, right? Isn't rationalization a wonderful thing?

Six years ago, when I started my in-home daycare, I vowed to make good food a priority.  I was coming from a preschool that was part of a school district.  We were served the school lunches which were lacking to say the least.  It was then that I started making a lot of food from scratch (although I didn't cook near as much from scratch as I do now).  My original blueberry muffin recipe contained white flour, sugar and vegetable oil.  The muffins that we ate today are a far cry from my original recipe.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup softened butter (real-not margarine)

1/2 cup orange juice

1 egg

1 cup frozen blueberries (I buy the big bag of frozen blueberries at Sam's)

Combine the dry ingredients.  In a separate combine the wet ingredients.  Add wet to dry and combine.  Fold in blueberries and  fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full.  This recipe makes 12, so if you have leftover batter, disperse it among the muffin cups.  Bake at 350* for approximately 20-25 minutes.

These were super yummy, but by the end of the year, I hope to have made some more changes.  I will switch out the sugar to sucanat.  I would like to find a source for organic butter, or get raw milk and make my own butter.  This summer I want to find a local you-pick berry farm and freeze enough blueberries to last through the winter.  For eggs, right now I do get farm fresh eggs, but not enough to support our heavy use of eggs.  We usually end up buying at least a dozen a week-we use between 2-4 dozen/week.

But, this journey is all about baby steps.  I'm much further ahead than I was in middle school and in a few years, I hope to be much closer to a whole foods diet than I am now.

As for the "no soda" change, I'm doing well.  My 2 year old cried the other night though because we weren't getting any more.  I didn't realize how much/often he mooched a drink from my glass.  That's definitely a prize winning parenting moment!