Ask DJ Lyons: A Healthy way to start your day with Healthful Breakfast Muffins

Introduction: Are you striving to find tasty ways to follow the food pyramid eating plan and nurture your body with a nourishing breakfast option? After studying several muffin recipes that utilized the use of oatmeal, whole wheat flour, and apples, I started experimenting with creating a recipe of my own. In one day, I made three different batches of muffins. My third attempt yielded a breakfast muffin that I would highly recommend.

To read the introductory stories, please read:

Ask DJ Lyons: Introducing Portion Control Kid

Ask DJ Lyons: See myself as Jesus would see me

Ask DJ Lyons: Getting down to brass tacks

Imagine that there truly is an inner child living within you who urges you to organize your daily diet to fulfill the Food Pyramid plan. This inner child, known as Portion Control Kid (see the picture), wishes us to consume a healthy amount of grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, milk and milk products, and foods fitting the meat and beans category.

In my case, I have spent the last few weeks researching nutrition facts, meeting and talking with a dietician, documenting details about all the food and drinks I put in my mouth, and striving to achieve a life style change I can live with. Given that I recently recovered from breast cancer, I am very motivated to safely lose weight and to remain cancer-free for the rest of my life.

The dietician and this imaginary Portion Control Kid urge that I try to eat six meals per day rather than three. They also prefer that I try not to exceed much beyond 1600 to 1800 calories per day.

It has been quite a juggling act trying to make certain I am meeting the requirements of the food pyramid: five to six ounces of grain, one and a half cups of fruit, two to two and a half cups of vegetables, four to five teaspoons of oils, three cups of milk and milk products, and five ounces of meat and beans.

Of those categories, which of those foods do you find it easiest to consume? Which of those foods do you find the most challenging to eat?

Eating vegetables is one of the few things I could taste when going through chemo. I find that I really crave and enjoy vegetables even today. I enjoy eating fruit and meat as well. I also love drinking cappuccino’s made with milk each day. So eating enough of the foods fitting those categories is relatively easy.

Believe it or not, consuming enough grains daily is one of my more challenging categories. This is due to a few factors:

* When I went through chemo, I could NOT taste any kind of bread, pie crust, and grain. Even though I could smell it fully, it literally tasted like nothing when I put it in my mouth. Therefore, I still have not gotten back into the habit of eating much bread.

* I am one of those people who does not really care for cereal or oatmeal.

* I have always struggled in finding breakfast food that I enjoyed eating. Quite often, in the past, I would resort to eating cake for breakfast instead.

Once I fully regained full use of my taste buds after my last chemo session was completed on July 1, 2010, I have been re-exploring the world of food to see which foods I no longer care for and which foods I now enjoy.

The other day, I bought some flavored oatmeal packets, hoping I could train myself to like such a healthy breakfast food. I managed to eat two-thirds of a serving and then just could not bring myself to take another bite.

That’s when I came up with the idea of trying to make a really healthy breakfast muffin using oatmeal that would count as the equivalent of at least 2 ounces of grain out of the recommended five to six ounces per day.

The authors of MyPyramid.gov recommends that it is best to make certain that at least half the grains you consume each day be made from whole grains. So I went and purchased some whole wheat flour and began to plan out a recipe for a very healthy yet tasty breakfast muffin.

After studying multiple recipes that call for oatmeal, I created three different recipes of twelve muffins each. The first batch was somewhat tasty but still not all that pleasing to my taste buds. The second batch was a little more improved but still not quite right.

Fortunately, the third batch is a recipe I can see myself making again and again. I incorporated smells and tastes that I thought would make a tasty muffin. I used ingredients that I thought would be extra healthy as well. I will share the recipe and my thought processes below.

Flour: My first two recipes used one cup of whole wheat flour. The muffins cooked-up way too heavy. So I decided to use three-fourth of a cup of all-purpose flour plus three-fourth of a cup of whole wheat flour.

Plain Yogurt: I tried using different blends of 1% milk and fat free plain yogurt in the first two recipes. I decided to use a buttermilk powdered blend in the final recipe.

Consistent Ingredients: In all three recipes, I used two teaspoons of egg whites, two tablespoons of olive oil, one cup of oats, one-half cup of brown sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder, and ½ teaspoon of baking soda.

Fruit, Veggies, and Salt: I added chopped-up apples to all three recipes. In the final two versions, since I added chopped-up carrots, which tends to be salty, I reduced the one-half teaspoon of sea salt to one-fourth teaspoon instead.

Vanilla Extract: I started out with only adding one teaspoon of vanilla extract. In my final recipe, I decided two teaspoons would be better.

Spices: In my first recipe, I only added cinnamon. By the third recipe, I decided to include cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.

So, with no further ado, I present to you my new co-creation called Apple Carrot Oatmeal Muffins that is only 155 calories per muffin. On the food pyramid, it will count as two ounces of grains as well as give you a bit of vegetables, fruits, milk products, and oils. If you wanted to add some foods from the meat and beans category and don’t mind a few extra calories, you could choose to add some nuts as well. I may do that in the future. In that case, it would partially fulfill every category of the food pyramid. Your inner child named Portion Control Kid will be so pleased.

Dry Ingredients:

* ¾ cup all-purpose flour = 330 calories

* ¾ cup whole wheat flour = 300 calories
* 1 cup quick oats = 300 calories
* 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar = 360 calories
* 1 1/2 tsp baking powder = 4 calories
* 2 tsp cinnamon = 12 calories
* 1/2 tsp baking soda = 0 calories
* 1/4 tsp sea salt = 0 calories
* 1/2 tsp nutmeg = 6 calories
* 1/2 tsp ginger = 3 calories
* 1/2 tsp cloves = 3 calories

Wet Ingredients:

* 2 tbsp buttermilk powdered blend + ½ cup water = 40 calories

* 4 tsp Just Whites + ¼ cup water = 20 calories

* 2 tsp vanilla extract = 24 calories

* 2 tbsp olive oil = 240 calories

Add last:

* 2 medium-size apples chopped up in a food processor = 163 calories
* 10 large size baby carrots chopped up in a food processor = 50 calories

Cooking Instructions:

This recipe makes 12 muffins.

* Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl.
* Mix wet ingredients together in another bowl.
* Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.

* Stir in apples and carrots.

* Spray muffin tin with cooking oil.
* Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Since I like my muffins well-done, thirty minutes worked out best for me.

When you add up the calories in all ingredients used, this will add up to 1855 calories. Since the recipe makes twelve one-muffin servings, that translates to 155 calories per muffin.

You can eat the muffin plain or slice it open, spritz with zero calorie butter spray, sprinkle with ground cinnamon, and broil it until crispy around the edges. When it first came out of the oven, I enjoyed eating it plain. The following morning, I enjoyed the latter suggestion.

You can eat this breakfast with water, a glass of juice, hot tea, or coffee. Once again, it depends on your portion control strategy for the day. Personally, I enjoy drinking ice water at every meal.

Recipe Calculator on Spark People.com

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp

Typing in the ingredients into the Recipe Calculator on Spark People.com, I discover that each muffin contains the following:

3.1 grams of total fat.

0.4 mg of cholesterol

196.2 mg of sodium

38.0 grams of total carbohydrates

3.6 grams of dietary fiber

12.8 grams of sugars

182.1 mg potassium

4.0 grams of protein

37.8% Vitamin B-12

2.3% Vitamin B-6

4.4% Vitamin C

0.0% Vitamin D

2.3% Vitamin E

7.3% Calcium

6.9% Copper

3.7% Folate

7.0% Iron

8.0% Magnesium

42.9% Manganese

1.9% Niacin

2.8 % Pantothenic Acid

10.8% Phosprhorus

2.8% Riboflavin

4.7% Selenium

8.0% Thiamin

4.4% Zinc

My dietician shared a great new resource with me put together by UDSA. You can find out lots of helpful information about your food choices using this Nutrient Data Laboratory.

USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory

http://nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory

My Food-A-Pedia

Spark Recipes Calculator

How to Exercise in 30 Minutes or Less by Leigh Crews

My Pyramid.gov – Steps to a Healthier You

What happens to food you eat?

Get the Dish: A Visual Guide to Food Portions

Calculate your Body Mass Index

Explore the Food Guide Pyramid