Oat Bran Raspberry Muffins (for a slim-down snack!)

Easy Healthy Muffins

As our own Jon Yaneff discovered this month in a food showdown, McDonald’s muffins actually ranked worse for your health than donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. Neither is all that healthy for you, but if you’re like me, having a baked snack with your mid-morning coffee or tea is one of those enjoyable moments I look forward to each day.

Especially if you wake up to the scent of fresh baked goods, hot out of the oven, which is a regular occurrence when I stay over at my parents’ house—my mom is quite the baker!

See: Showdown: Muffin vs. Donut

But as we often say, when it comes to food, it’s best to make it yourself, from scratch, using healthy, whole ingredients—organic is a plus. So how, you might ask, is it possible to make a muffin—that seems to be worse than a sugary donut—that’s healthy? By stocking it full of healthy ingredients, of course. And while the McDonald’s muffin can help you put on the pounds, this healthy muffin recipe can help you get bikini-ready when paired with a healthy diet.

What’s so great about these muffins? They feature fresh in-season raspberries and fiber-packed oat bran. The benefits of fresh raspberries are extensive, but the weight loss benefits are what reign supreme here when combined with oat bran. There are eight grams of fiber (a third of your recommended daily intake) in just one cup of raspberries, which come in at a low 64 calories per cup. Add to that the 5.7 grams of fiber found in a cup of oat bran, and these muffins become a hunger-crushing, sweet snack to help keep you on the beach-body track. If you want to up the fiber content even more, you can either add some ground flaxseed to the batter or sprinkle it on the top of each muffin before baking.

Finally, oat bran helps to improve long-term blood sugar levels, making this snack a good choice for diabetics (just sub out the honey for your sweetener of choice), while the high potassium content in raspberries helps stabilize healthy blood pressure, a bonus for those at risk of cardiovascular disease.

Makes 12 small muffins.

Sources:
Sarao, C., “Benefits of Raspberries,” LIVESTRONG.COM website; http://www.livestrong.com/article/419257-benefits-of-raspberries/, last accessed June 24, 2014.
Carter, D., “The Benefits of Oat Bran,” LIVESTRONG.COM website; http://www.livestrong.com/article/352095-the-benefits-of-oat-bran/, last accessed June 24, 2014.