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Let’s get one thing straight — foods are neither intrinsically “good” nor “bad” — it’s all about context. Eating too much of a so-called “healthy” item at the expense of a well-balanced diet can be problematic, just as occasionally eating what many describe as “junk” food might be beneficial if it helps prevents binges or keeps morale high.

In reality, all food exists on a spectrum. When you’re trying to eat well, maybe lose some weight, it’s really about trying to make “better” choices along that spectrum. So that’s why I call this my “better” blueberry muffin.

A typical blueberry muffin would run around 200 calories, with 5 grams of fat, 3 grams of protein, 30 carbs, and 15 grams of sugar. My “better” version comes in at 94 calories, 1 gram of fat, 6 grams of protein, 15 complex (slow-burning) carbs, and just 7 grams of sugar. How is this accomplished? By a series of small changes: replacing the all-purpose flour with a combination of oats, whole wheat flour and pea protein. Replacing the granulated sugar with maple syrup, and replacing the oil and butter with non-fat Greek yogurt and no-sugar added applesauce.

Is it a “healthy” or “good” muffin? No. There’s really no such thing. But if you’re choosing between a regular blueberry muffin and this version, this one is better on that food spectrum. And hopefully you’ll agree it doesn’t sacrifice taste or texture. So in that regard, hopefully you’ll give it a try!

Ingredients (Yields 18 muffins)

• 1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 scoops Naked Pea protein powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup no-sugar added applesauce
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 tbsp turbinado sugar

Equipment Check

Despite the relatively long list of ingredients, this is a simple and quick recipe to make. Before you start, you’ll want a pair of muffin pans (12 muffin capacity), a large mixing bowl and a medium mixing bowl. It would also be quite useful to have a whisk on hand, as well as a mixing spoon. That’s really it!

Start with the Dry Ingredients

To begin with, in your large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients – the oats, the whole wheat flour, the pea protein, the baking soda and the salt. Mix until well combined. Next add your blueberries to this mix. If you need to wash them first, make sure to get them dry (or essentially dry) before adding them to the mix. You don’t want added liquid.

Gently toss the blueberries into the dry mix until they get a light coating of dry ingredients (mainly the flour) on them. This is prevent them all from sinking to the bottom of your muffins when baking. Once done, set the large bowl aside.

Next Up – Wet Ingredients

In your second bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Begin with the two eggs. Before adding anything else, gently whisk the eggs until well blended. Then add the remaining wet ingredients – the Greek yogurt, the almond milk, the vanilla extract, the applesauce and the maple syrup and whisk together until the mixture is smooth. It should have the appearance of a pancake batter.

Batter Up!

Next, pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently stir together until completely combined. Make sure to get all the way to the bottom of the bowl so that there are no pockets of dry ingredients remaining. The batter should be sticky and loose but not runny if properly combined.

Let’s Bake!

Preheat your oven (or ovens if you choose) to 375 degrees F. As for preparing your muffin tins I’ve gone about this both ways. The first few times I made these, I used paper muffin cups. They’re obviously easier for clean up, but the downside is I found that occasionally the muffin would stick to the paper when trying to take it out. I finally decided to, instead, simply coat my muffin tins with cooking spray (using a paper towel to make sure it was evenly applied) at it worked quiet well.

One final note on this topic. When using the paper muffin cups I consistently got a yield of one additional muffin – 19 muffins rather than 18 muffins without the cups. So be aware if you go that route.

Whichever method you use, once the batter is evenly divided in the trays, I divide one tablespoon of turbinado sugar up as I sprinkle it on top of the muffins. You certainly can leave this step out if you like, but I believe this small amount lends itself to that “muffin top” texture we’ve all come to expect.

Timing-wise, the muffins tend to take around 15 minutes to cook. I normally rotate the pans after about 10 minutes, and start testing them around 12 minutes. When a cake tester comes out clean in the middle of the muffins, I pull them out.

Let the muffins rest for a minute or so that they will pull away from the tins, and then pop them out and let them cool. Because they have fresh fruit, if you don’t refrigerate them they’ll only be good for a 2-3 days (depending on the weather). If you do refrigerate them, they should last for 6-7 days.