Tastes like Spring: Mini Strawberry Lemon Muffins

This is what happens when you have an itch for Spring and like to bake. It’s Mini Strawberry Lemon Muffins.

These are pretty harmless, nutrition-wise. They are tiny, like two bites. There’s fruit in them, whole wheat flour, a little bit of butter and sugar, and also a short ingredient list.

Mini Strawberry Lemon Muffins

(makes 26 mini muffins or 12 regular sized muffins)

Ingredients:

• 2 C whole wheat flour (I did regular WW and not Pastry flour this time and think it’s fine)
• 2/3 C white sugar
• 2 flax eggs (2 T flax meal + 6 T water) or sub 2 eggs
• 1/2 C Plain Greek yogurt
• 1 C almond milk
• 3 T unsalted margarine, softened
• 1 T lemon juice plus zest of one lemon
• 1 C frozen strawberries, in small pieces, not thawed
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

*many substitutions can be made, like regular milk for almond, real eggs for flax. Just use what you have!

Instructions:

• In a small bowl, combine flax plus water and let sit for 5 minutes to get gel-like.
• In a separate small bowl, combine milk, yogurt, lemon juice and butter. Add flax egg after 5 minutes
• In a larger bowl, combine dry ingredients.
• Add wet to dry and stir to combine
• Fold in strawberries.
• Spoon 1 T batter into a greased with cooking spray mini muffin tin. If you use a regular muffin tin, they will hold 2 T batter.
• Bake on 350* for about 23-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

They taste like spring. Pretty red color, hint of lemon, light and fluffy. Guilt free. It’s almost bathing suit time, but you can enjoy a muffin.

Mmmm.

Running:

Over the weekend, I had a great treadmill run. I ran 3.5 miles at good paces and walked .5. I tend to be quicker on the treadmill and have an easier time pushing myself to go faster than outside. I haven’t figured out how to speed up consistently outside and my overall pace is usually slower outside. The treadmill with its ability to control speed is good for me. Besides that, I also was very steady and felt strong in the legs for about 90% of the time. My knee started to tighten near the end, but I stopped before it got too bad. Very happy with spending more time running! I have missed it.

Amazon Shop:

I opened an Amazon shop! You will see to the right sidebar that there’s a square widget for my new Amazon shop. I have selected items that I either own or wish to own and love having in my kitchen or house. Some are books, some are kitchen or fitness related tools. I have set up a shop where you can click to see more about a product and buy directly from Amazon. I’ll add regularly when I think of products you might like too.

I always like to see what people enjoy and use frequently, so here is my list in this shop.

What flavors remind you of Spring?