Apple Muffins #Recipe – Whole Grains

Whole grains and high-fiber foods are an important part of a heart healthy diet. You should try to eat a variety of whole-grain breads, cereals, and pastas. Some good whole grain choices are brown rice, wild rice, bulgur, barley and quinoa. You need to aim for 6 servings of grains each day, with at least 3 from whole grains.

We hadn’t eaten whole grains before we started our heart healthy diet, so I was a little wary of how they would taste.  So far, we’ve liked all the whole grains we’ve tried. This recipe for apple muffins has white whole grain flour in it, and you wouldn’t even know it’s in there!

In a small bowl, mix together the pecans, 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar and the cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk the remaining ¾ cup sugar and the oil until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla.

Whisk in the flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined. Gently stir in the apple chunks.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pecan mixture.

The apple muffins are done and are cooling on a wire rack.  They smell delicious!

Once cooled, I wrapped them individually, in plastic wrap and then put them in a gallon freezer bag, and into the freezer.  The night before we’re going to have muffins for breakfast, I take out however many muffins we need and leave them on the counter to thaw (still in their plastic wrap).