Category Archives: Berries

Ideas and recipes for getting more berries into your diet

MIND diet breakfast: Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins

Berries, Recipes, Whole Grains
Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins:  Berries, especially strawberries, are one of the 10 foods that are important to eat frequently to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, according to the MIND diet.   Along with the oatmeal, a whole grain, they hit two of the important foods. I wish I had added some almonds to make it a trifecta!

I started with a recipe called Strawberry Shortcake Muffins and tweaked it just a bit.

The person who posted this recipe advised to use a silicone muffin pan or foil muffin cups rather than paper. Since I only have a 6-cup muffin pan and wasn’t very sure I would like this, I opted to cut the recipe in half and make 6 muffins. I was pleased with the result. Here’s my recipe:

Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins  – 6 servings                                PDF version

  • 1 1/4 cup Oatmeal   strawberry oatmeal muffins
  • 1 cup low fat Greek yogurt – I used strawberry, but plain would do
  • 1 Egg
  • 1/4 cup sweetener = I used Splenda granular
  • ¾ tsp Baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp Baking soda
  • 1 cup diced Strawberries, divided

Mix first 6 ingredients in blender. Fold in ¾ cup of strawberries.
Divide into 6 muffin cups (silicone or foil) and divide the ¼ cup of strawberries on top.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or so. Let cool a few minutes.
Enjoy! If you don’t eat them all, refrigerate the left-overs.

I had several reasons for wanting to try these muffins:strawberry oatmeal muffin nutrition

  1. I had been focusing on making Muffins in a Mug frequently for breakfast. Although they don’t take much to mix up, it does get old. Making muffins cuts down the workload. Making 12 at a time is even better, except that then I have to eat the same thing for at least 6 days. I think I might use this recipe again, but make half strawberry and half apple (after I buy another 6-muffin pan).
  2. The recipe is fairly low calorie – 99 calories each (according to MyFitnessPal calculator). So, I can eat 2 for breakfast and still have plenty of calories left for the day.
  3. The main ingredients are MIND diet staples. As I said above, I wished I had added almonds so they would have had 3 of the best ingredients AND a bit a crunch.
  4. This muffin recipe was intriguing because it does not include flour. I think it might be a good one to modify with several fruits or other health ingredients. I am not eating gluten-free, but the comments on the original recipe site pointed out that these muffins fit that diet also.

Changes I might make next time:

  1. Add almonds
  2. Use plain low-fat Greek yogurt. Using the strawberry-flavored kind did not seem necessary, but it was all I had.

Any other ideas on changing this one up?

If you have been following my posts, you might have noticed that I have taken a bit of a vacation from blogging. It turns out that it is more work than I thought it would be.  I also had been trying to follow the MIND diet “perfectly” so that I would get 15 points every week. That idea sort of wore out sometime before Christmas.  Now, I am just trying to do as well as I can. I think I will do the same with blogging. So, I am going to try to post once a week – or so.

Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins – MIND diet Makeover

Berries, Recipes, Whole Grains, ,

I found a recipe for Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins with Blueberries at a site called Making Healthier Decisions.  It just needed a few tweaks to make it optimal for the MIND diet.

I substituted olive oil for the vegetable oil, used all whole wheat flour instead of half white flour, and added a whole cup of blueberries (fresh, not frozen)  instead of half a cup. I also used old-fashioned oatmeal instead of quick-cooking, just because that is what I had on hand.

Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins                     PDF Version

  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1 cup oatmeal, instant or old-fashioned
  • 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12 cup muffin tin

Mix the oil, brown sugar, applesauce and egg.  Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and oatmeal.  Combine the two very gently, as little as possible. Blend in the blueberries very carefully.dipping

Use a heaping 1/4 cup ice cream  type scoop to divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

 

These are good muffins. The major change I made was using all whole wheat flour. I see that lots of recipes use the half and half way, but omitting the while flour seemed to work fine in this recipe.

The calorie count came out at 171 calories, so I can eat one for breakfast along with some additional fruit or cottage cheese. I believe I can count it as 1 of my 3 whole grain products for the day. There is only 1/12 of a cup of blueberries in each muffin, though, so I won’t be counting it as one of my berries for the week. Using olive oil will contribute to being able to say I use olive oil as my primary oil.

I do feel a little bad about the brown sugar. I hope that does not put these muffins in the Pastries and Sweets category. I guess that wouldn’t be a big problem because up to 5 of those are allowed per week.

 

4th of July – the perfect time to eat BERRIES

Berries, , ,

Berries on Dessert

Berries on Dessert

I got this photo from the Pillsbury site. I am not providing the link because I really don’t want you to go there. It is full of things that fit the AVOID category: Pastries and Sweets.

But, it gave me an idea for the 4th of July picnic I need to bring something to.  For sure, I will be using the blueberrries and strawberries. It’s what I am putting underneath that will be different. I am going to use Sugar-Free Strawberry Jello and put Strawberries in it. I have a glass 9×13 dish that will look pretty good. I am going to “frost” it with Fat-free Cool Whip. With that as a base, I will make the flag as shown in the photo (except my stripes will be strawberries because my husband hates raspberries.

Question:  I know that SF Jello and FF Cool Whip are probably not the best nutrition sources. The MIND diet does not address them specifically and I wouldn’t put them in the Pastries and Sweets category. They have served me well in my weight loss journey, so I am going to use them. The question: How do they affect the possibility of Alzheimer’s?  I will have to research that at some point.

Another thought on Blueberries and Strawberries: They are on sale quite often these days. I am going to buy up some, wash them, and put them in small zip-lock bags to freeze.