Blueberry Oat Muffins

For the past few months, Mr. Vittles and I have been on a house hunt.

And so far, the process of becoming a home-owner has been exhilarating, frustrating, and terrifying all at the same time.

I have literally memorized the MLS listings in our price range and geographical area, yet they all start to run together after a while.

This past week, we set out to visiting 7 houses we'd seen online and wanted to drive by.  As we were on our way to the third one, Mr. Vittles kept commenting about how familiar everything seemed.  We had looked at other homes in the neighborhood so I thought nothing of it - until we pulled up to the house and realized we had already looked at it in December, and crossed it off the list.

Whoops.  My bad.

We've had one house in mind, though, from the very beginning.  And I think negotiations are finally about to wind down, and (barring any serious issues) the house will likely be ours!

YAY!!

Owning a home has actually been our goal for years, but with Mr. Vittles' job as an assistant golf course superintendent, it was very likely that we'd have to move for him to be promoted to running his own course.  But we had no idea when he'd be able to move up, or (worse yet) where that would be.

Then this fall, he had an opportunity to become a partner with his brother & father in a construction business, and ultimately decided it was time to leave the industry he worked in for 13 years.  Everything has been going really well with their company, and we finally have the stability we needed to start putting down some roots.

For me the move is bittersweet, though.  While I am thrilled at the prospect of owning a home, I'm also sad to leave the house & neighborhood we live in now.

I am also pretty bummed about moving, in & of itself... once again.  We're hoping this is our last move for while, but since graduating college seven years ago this will be my fifth time moving.  And Mr. V has the same amount under his belt, if not more.

It's basically just one giant, exhausting game of Tetris and I am not looking forward to it in the least.

Still, the bright side is that you typically shed a lot of unwanted or unneeded items (we already have 8 huge shopping bags of stuff to donate to Goodwill).

You also inevitably eat way less, because you are so busy there's hardly time to concern yourself with petty things like hunger except for extreme situations.

And then... there's the workout.  Scrubbing down both the house you're in and the house you're moving to.  Lifting boxes. Going up & down stairs. Standing for hours on end, fitting items into boxes, then fitting those boxes into vehicles. (See? It's Tetris, I'm telling you.)

Our move last February came at a rough time, though - I was recovering from foot surgery on both feet.  So a lot of the work fell on my poor hubby, and yet I still pushed the envelope more than I should have.

(When my doctor & physical therapist told me to 'take it easy for a while' I'm thinking they probably didn't mean 'move everything you own into a house with 3 floors & a basement'?)

But this time I will be ready.

This time I will not wimp out on Mr. Vittles.

My feet are fine, I'm feeling energized, and this week I'll be eating these healthier, whole grain blueberry muffins instead of dark chocolate cupcakes with strawberry buttercream.

Yep.

That's me.

Super duper health-conscious.

...

Ah, who am I kidding?  Next week I'll be back to my old tricks, I'm sure.

(In fact, today's post would have been very un-healthy, had a recipe I was working on not backfired on me!)

But in the meantime, we can all have a slight reprieve from my usual.

My landlord said these were some of the best blueberry muffins he had ever tasted (thank you, Warren!), so despite the 'healthier' take, I think you will still enjoy them :)

Blueberry Oat Muffins

1 C. old-fashioned oats
1 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 C. whole wheat flour
1/2 C. packed brown sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
1 large egg
1 C. + 2 T. low-fat buttermilk
1/4 C. canola oil
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 C. blueberries, rinsed & dried
granulated sugar, for sprinkling (optional but recommended)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray, or line with paper liners.

Place oats in a food processor, and pulse until finely ground.  Add flours, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, & nutmeg- pulse to combine.  Empty dry ingredients into a large bowl.

In small bowl, whisk egg, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.  Add to flour mixture and stir just until flour is moistened.  Fold in berries.

Spoon batter into muffin-pan cups (I like to use a large cookie scoop to divide batter evenly) and sprinkle tops with a little granulated sugar.  Bake 23 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of muffins comes out clean. Cool briefly in pan, then transfer to wire rack; serve warm, or cool to serve later.  Makes 12 muffins.

Recipe Adapted from Delish (Originally from Good Housekeeping)