Oatmeal flax seed meal muffins (a.k.a. Meal in a Muffin)

Oatmeal Flax Muffins (a.k.a. Meal in a Muffin)

Plus a little lesson about flax seeds and flax meal. Bonus!

Adapted from Bob's Red Mill Bran Flax Muffins

Yield: 21 muffins; 3 points each muffin

I call these "Meal in a Muffin" because they include all of the food groups, including chocolate!!


I adapted these muffins from the Bran Flax Muffin recipe on the back of Bob's Red Mill Organic Flax Seed Meal package. Flax seed meal is really just flax seeds that are ground up very finely. I tried making my own flax seed meal a while back from whole flax seeds with no success. I ran some whole flax seeds in my food processor for a very long time and wound up with really scraped up, but still whole, seeds.


Why the flax seed meal? Why not just eat the seeds whole? Well, flax seeds are very good for you (see the product details section of the Flax Seed Meal link above), but if eaten whole, they pass straight through without being digested. So their benefits are literally being flushed down the toilet. The meal is digested by your body and you can reap the great benefits of these wonderful tiny brown seeds. Ok, ok... now on to the receipe!


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups white flour (Bob calls for whole wheat, but I think it might make the muffins too dense)
• 3/4 cup flax seed meal
• 3/4 cup rolled oats (Bob calls for oat bran cereal, but rolled oats work just as well)
• 1/2 cup sugar (Bob calls for 1 full cup of brown sugar)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 medium/large carrots, shredded (I use the food processor's shredding blade for ease)
• 2 medium apples, cored and shredded (Again, I use the food processor. Bob's recipe calls for the apples to be peeled, but I don't do that. It takes too much time and the peel of the apple has a lot of good nutrients that I don't want to miss out on!)
• 1/2 cup baking chocolate chips (I use these in place of the 1 cup of raisins)
• 3/4 cup chopped almonds (Bob calls for 1 full cup)
• 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (Bob calls for 3/4 cup of milk, but I like using yogurt for some of the milk)
• 1/4 cup 2% milk
• 2 large eggs, beaten (though if using a KitchenAid mixer, you don't need to pre-beat the eggs).
• 1 tsp vanilla
  

Directions

• Mix together flour, Bob's Red Mill Flaxseed Meal, oat meal, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
• Stir in carrots, apples, chocolate chips and nuts.
• Add yogurt, milk, eggs and vanilla.
• Mix until ingredients are moistened. DO NOT OVER MIX.
• Fill muffin cups using a 1/4 cup measuring cup.
• For a gourmet look, sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a small amount of dry rolled oats.
• Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes.
• Yields 21 muffins (Bob's recipe reads that it yields 15. I don't think I fill the muffin cups as full as Bob does.)