Blueberry Greek Yogurt Chia Seed Muffins!

Well isn't that a mouthful?
If you didn't know, two of my favorite things in life are greek yogurt and blueberries! I work at a preschool where we serve these two things to the kids on a daily basis and I am constantly stealing their snack from them. Just call me the blueberry monster! The idea for these muffins all started with  my poor sweet mother making a grocery run for me after work one day. Unfortunately, my mother was in a rush and did not pay close attention to which yogurt she was buying and purchased the 0% Fat Plain Okios Greek Yogurt instead of Vanilla the sweater and smoother cousin to Plain.

When she first brought it home I tried to make it work. I added sugar, honey, cereal, granola...I even resorted to mixing in my own vanilla extract but to no avail, it was still disgusting and I found myself added more and more sugar to what was originally supposed to be a healthy breakfast alternative. That being said, I did not want to WASTE my mothers hard earned money by trashing it, so I did what any good baker does and repurposed it!
I searched the web for a recipe that combines blueberries and yogurt into a muffin and came across a delicious recipe by BakerbyNature! The best part about her ingredients is that is contains absolutely no butter or preservatives. see orinial recipie >>> here.
But I still flt it needed something more to make this a true breakfast muffin and voila the chia seed greek blueberry muffin was born. I tweaked and changed the recipe along the way to compenstate for the added thickness of the chia seeds and created an entirely new batch of muffins! The batter for these babies was so delicious that my mother a di devoured it while I cleaned up the kitchen and my dog stole the spoon! (I got it back).

These muffins are healthy which means that they are not as sickeningly sweet as the store bought brands but they definitely taste better. They are tick and fluffy! THEY ONLY MAKE 12 MUFFINS. If you start to fill the cups and feel like you have a lot of batter left don't worry, let the batter sit in the cups for a minute or two to settle then top them off. Remember that these are muffins not cupcakes you WANT them to spill over to create those beautiful muffin tops!

And lastly, because they have no preservatives what so ever besides natural bacteria they need to be frozen to last. They can freeze up to four days but obviously taste better fresh. When you warm them up I suggest popping them in a toaster or convectional oven for about 4 minutes then following that up by zapping them in the microwave for 25 seconds to loosen up the middle. I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as me and my family have been enjoying them all week!

Recipe:

Prep Time: 25 min Cook Time: 25 min  Yield: 12 muffins  Calories: 300

INGREDIENTS 

• 3 cups of all purpose flour.
  
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp. brown sugar
  
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
  
• 1 1/2 tbsp. Chia Seeds (Can be subbed for Poppy seeds)
• 1 cup 0% fat Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 cup Milk (I use Horizon Organic 2%)
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 cup of blueberries 

 

Instructions

1. Pre heat your oven to 400 degrees
   
2. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside
3. In a large bowl mix all of your dry ingredients together. (Flour, sugar, BP, BS, cinnamon and Chia seeds)
4. In a medium sized bowl whisk your Yogurt, milk, vanilla extract, honey and eggs together until fully combined.
5. Slowly mix your yogurt mixture into your dry ingredients until all flour disappears and batter forms. Do not over mix. The batter should be thick enough to hold but smooth enough to pour.
6. Slowly and gently use a spatula to fold in your blueberries. You do not want these to burst until they are in the over.
7. Divide the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups.
8. Place the muffins in the oven for 18 minutes on 400 then reduce to 375 for 7 minutes.
9. When the muffins have become slightly golden on the edges, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the tins.
10. Enjoy!