5 Healthy Muffin Recipes You'll Devour All Summer Long
These to-go treats are packed with nutritious ingredients for eating in the car, at the beach or on the trail.
By Lynn Andriani
Photo: Oprah.com
A Tropical Treat No Matter Where You Are
These gluten-free, coconut-scented bites from Oprah's Food, Health and Happiness are no ordinary banana muffins. They're chock-full of good stuff: chopped pecans, grated carrots, shredded coconut and delightfully chewy pieces of dried apricot, not to mention four bananas. Instead of white flour, the recipe calls for almond flour, which is higher in fiber and protein than white flour and is lower in sugar, with a tablespoon and a half of honey serving as the only sweetener (in addition to those ripe bananas). Lemon zest gives the muffins a lovely lightness.
Get the recipe: Ime's Gluten-Free Coconut Banana Muffins
Get the recipe: Ime's Gluten-Free Coconut Banana Muffins
Photo: iStock/ManuWe
An Easy Alternative to Cereal
Until there is a foolproof way to eat a bowl of cereal on the go, these bran cereal-packed muffins will do the trick. They include three cups of the flakes, which provide plenty of fiber to keep you full until lunchtime. The recipe's other star ingredients include whole wheat flour, applesauce, plain yogurt and fresh fruit—blueberries or cherries are especially good summer picks, since they're in season.
Get the recipe: Summer Ice Box Muffins
Get the recipe: Summer Ice Box Muffins
Photo: OWN Show
The Single-Serving Muffin
Here's a clever way to make a delicious breakfast muffin when you don't want leftover muffins. Rather than using an oven, you mix all of the ingredients in a ceramic mug and pop it into a microwave. The result is a fresh, single-serve, piping-hot blueberry mug muffin—ready in three minutes—that you eat with a spoon. (For added nutrition, you can swap in whole wheat flour for half of the regular flour.)
Watch the how-to: The 3-Minute Muffin
Watch the how-to: The 3-Minute Muffin
Photo: Amy Neunsinger
The Julia Roberts-Approved Breakfast
Bananas are such a natural fit for muffins, since, in addition to imparting a subtle sweet taste, they also keep the batter moist. And we're all for adding another version of the standard to our repertoire. These tasty, nutritious banana muffins come from Julia Roberts, and are pumped up with omega-3-rich hemp hearts and flaxseed meal, plus antioxidant-filled crunchy chia seeds. Plus, they're sweetened with coconut sugar, which nicely complements the banana flavor.
Get the recipe: Julia Roberts' Banana-Hemp Heart Muffins
Get the recipe: Julia Roberts' Banana-Hemp Heart Muffins
Photo: Steve Baccon
A Lunchtime Classic, Reimagined for Mornings
These indulgent-tasting muffins might become your new go-to breakfast (slash snack, slash dessert). They're a winning combination of summer raspberries and strawberries, along with peanut butter and roasted peanuts. The gooey surprise inside: a spoonful of protein-packed peanut butter you bake right into the center of each muffin.
Get the recipe: PB&J Breakfast Muffins
Get the recipe: PB&J Breakfast Muffins
Published 07/13/2017