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   
• 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:

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.