Berry, Berry Good

Saturday morning I got up bright and early to tidy up the kitchen and get to work on some breakfast. I found a nice new blog this week, Checkered Napkins, and discovered a nice new muffin recipe through it. I was pretty excited to try this muffin recipe out because it made good use of the white whole wheat flour I have had since my unsuccessful attempt at baking bread. I've also never done anything with fresh blueberries, but they are one of Josh's favorite things. It was really nice to be able to tell him when he got up that there were blueberry muffins in the oven.

100% Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
Recipe from Checkered Napkins; Makes 1 dozen
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups white whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries (frozen will work too)

• Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Mix together dry ingredients and lemon zest. In another small bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Make a well in the dry and add the wet. Stir until just combined. The batter should be thick but still wet. Add a little more milk if it seems too dry. Stir in blueberries, and divide among muffin cups.
• Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes.

My notes: These muffins aren't overly sweet, allowing you to taste more of the lemon and blueberry. White whole wheat is a fabulous flour because you are getting all the nutritional value, without the often overpowering flavor of whole grains. I think I'll be making some more of these very soon.

Sunday morning I wanted to have a nice smoothie. I hadn't made smoothies before, but had been thinking about them for quite awhile, ever since I saw them showing different smoothie ideas on Real Simple. I went with the basic smoothie recipe, adjusting for what I had on hand. And I enjoyed it with the muffins I made the morning before.

Raspberry Banana Smoothie

1/2 cup orange juice
1 banana
1 cup frozen raspberries

Put all ingredients in blender, juice first. Blend for 1 minute and serve. Makes 2 small or 1 large smoothie.