I saw something the other day about poppy seed muffins, and for some reason, I started to crave them. Too bad I had no poppy seeds in the house, so I used an item I always have on hand, chia seeds! Muffins are often laden with excess fat and empty calories that don’t provide any nutritional value, so I wanted to create lemon chia seed muffins that have the flavor and texture of the good old classic without being too guilt inducing. These lemon chia seed muffins have extra fiber from the rolled oats, omega 3 fatty acids from the chia seeds, protein from Greek yogurt, and metabolism boosting lemon juice and zest.
These lemon chia seed muffins absolutely cured my craving, and they actually fill me up! When my boyfriend tried them, he didn’t know that they had been made using healthy ingredients, and he actually said they taste like cake! Score! This recipe also comes together very quickly and you most likely have all the ingredients (or most of them) in your pantry right now!
Ingredients
- zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp lemon zest)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup oat flour (rolled oats ground to flour consistency)
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbs chia seeds
- juice from 1 lemon (about 2 tbs lemon juice)
- 1/3 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
Add the lemon zest to the sugar and mix together with your hands, rubbing zest into sugar so it gets very fragrant. This will ensure that the lemon flavor permeates the entire batter.
Add in all of the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture including the chia seeds. Mix so that everything is thoroughly combined and evenly distributed. Next, mix the wet ingredients separately. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, just mixing to combine. Do not over mix.
This recipe makes 8 muffins. I would think that if you made a batch and a half of this recipe, you’d get 12, but this version makes 8, and I have not tried the extended batch to make a full dozen, so I can’t quite vouch for it.
Spray paper liners lightly with cooking spray and use a standard Ice cream scoop to evenly scoop out the muffins into each liner. Bake at 400 for 18 min and enjoy!
