Off the Needles: Healthier Blueberry Muffins

I've been searching for the perfect "healthy" muffin recipe. By "healthy" I mean one with less butter, oil, sugar, etc., but not NONE. Because I enjoy flavor. Muffins are still muffins--they should taste good and not resemble a hockey puck. On the other hand, I enjoy baking and do so frequently, and we can't be eating muffins loaded with butter and sugar on a daily basis. We need to save those kinds of baked goods for special occasions. Or at least Saturdays.

I wasn't finding much middle ground between sugar-bomb and hockey puck until I stumbled across this recipe looking for "oatmeal blueberry muffins" on Pinterest. I was doubtful because it has both Greek yogurt and applesauce, but no oil, which is usually a red flag. But the pictures looked like real muffins (the "healthy" ones usually have suspiciously smooth surfaces, no texture), so I decided to go for it. 

And they turned out quite nicely! A bit denser than traditional muffins and certainly not as sweet, but flavorful, with nice texture. I threw in a couple tablespoons of slivered almonds, and if I'd been thinking, I would've also swapped half the vanilla extract for almond extract. I bet a little lemon zest would be good too. I used whole wheat flour like the recipe calls for, but if you don't love the taste, you could try half whole wheat, half white. And I didn't measure my blueberries--I never measure things like berries, chocolate chips, etc., I just keep tossing them in until it looks like enough. My little helper even threw a few in before he decided to focus solely on eating them himself. 

I will definitely be making these again when we need a healthier version of one of our favorite treats. Enjoy!