HealthIER Quick Blueberry Muffins

As soon as I saw the awesome looking blueberries at the grocery store I knew I wanted to make muffins this weekend.  I also love putting them in fruit salad that I'll be making later today and in yogurt in the mornings, but I do love an occasional splurge with muffins on the weekends!

I woke up and knew I didn't have a lot of time before I had to meet a friend of mine for a 5 mile run this morning.  I don't have a lot of special ingredients in my pantry to make the more elaborate awesome sounding recipes I see on Pinterest. But I also wanted to make them a little healthier than standard, from the mix muffins. 

I had some bisquick mix (which isn't the best stuff ever, but it is quick!!!) so I looked up a recipe for blueberry muffins with that mix. 

Here's the recipe listed on the Betty Crocker website: 

I knew I could do better than that, so I started making a few substitutions. I swapped Splenda for the sugar, I only used one tbsp oil and used Whole Flax Meal for the other (the box says to use 3 tbsp flax meal for every 1 tbsp oil or butter, so thats what I did).  I also put the tiniest bit of almond extract and a quick splash of orange juice (which also helped to add moisture since the flax meal doesn't add any). 

It was a long 15 minute wait for these to get done, but SOOOO worth it!! 

Curious about how I did with swapping out ingredients and the effect on the nutrition facts, I went to 

the Calorie Count website and typed in the ingredients.  They immediately spit out the nutrition facts.  Here is the original recipe from the Betty Crocker Website:

And here's the updated version with the swap:  

Its not a huge huge change, but you notice  you get .8g extra protein, .8g less fat, .6g more fiber per serving for the exact same calories, and when you can make that change, why not??  Again, its not mind blowing, and I'm not saying these are now HEALTHY, but they are little better than the original, and still quick and easy using ingredients you probably have in your cabinet!! 

When I get back from my run I'll make my fruit salad to take to a birthday picnic with grapes, blueberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and bananas!!

Have a great day everyone!!