Mini Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins + CNN AccentHealth

These mini blueberry muffins are filled with fun flavors and big nutrition, so pack them in your child’s lunchbox or serve them up as an after-school snack.

I love to cook for a crowd, especially when that crowd happens to be watching me on TV. For the past few years, I’ve been working with the awesome, Atlanta-based production company EverwellTV on a cooking segment called, Meal Makeovers. The segments feature all sorts of delicious recipes, and they run in thousands of doctors’ offices and health clinics nationwide. I flew to Atlanta earlier this week to tape eight new Meal Makeovers videos, and I thought it would be fun to blog about the shoot and share our recipe for Mini Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins.

Here’s the video for Mini Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins on the new Everwell MEAL MAKEOVERS YouTube channel. Feel free to subscribe and watch ALL of the videos.

It takes a lot of cooks in the kitchen to pull a shoot of this size together. Everwell had a two-camera crew “on location” in addition to a director, supervising producer, associate producer, and a food stylist and assistant. The recipes we chose for the Meal Makeovers segments—which also run on CNN’s AccentHealth network—included Crispy Shrimp, Lightened-Up 7 Layer Bars, Better Blueberry Buckle, and a bunch more.

We shoot the segments in a beautiful Atlanta kitchen, and trust me when I tell you that we take it over … and then some!

Tamie Cook Culinary Productions made sure we had the right props, cooking equipment, and ingredients required to shoot eight segments over two days. She and her assistant took over the dining room and part of the living room!

The veteran photo journalist, Ric Blackburn, was our main photographer on the shoot.

I could not resist taking this selfie with former CNN pals Robert Davis, PhD, President and Editor-in-Chef at Everwell, Mria Dangerfield, Supervising Producer at Everwell, and Ric Blackburn, freelance videographer.

These mini muffins are adorable. They’re perfect when you’re trying to keep your portions pint sized versus super sized, and kids love them for breakfast or lunch box snacks.

Mini Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins + CNN AccentHealth

 

Author: Liz

Nutrition Information

• Serves: 24

• Serving size: 2 muffins
• Calories: 170

• Fat: 7g
• Saturated fat: 0.5g
• Carbohydrates: 24g
• Sodium: 190mg
• Fiber: 1g
• Protein: 3g

Recipe type: Baked Goods

Save Print

At first glance, blueberry muffins seem pretty healthy. But the ones you find at coffee shops are often made with white sugar, white flour, and lots of butter, so there’s not much to them except for lots of fat and calories. For this makeover, I add better nutrition to morning muffins with wholesome ingredients like whole wheat flour, cornmeal, and wild blueberries.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup whole wheat flour
• ⅓ cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ⅓ cup expeller pressed canola oil
• ½ cup 1% low-fat milk
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice of half a lemon)
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest (zest of half a lemon)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup frozen or fresh wild blueberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil or coat 24 mini muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, and canola oil until well blended. Whisk in the milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Gently stir in the blueberries.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake 15 to 17 minutes, or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins and cool an additional 5 minutes before serving. When making 12 full-size muffins, bake for 20 to 23 minutes.

3.5.3226

Everyone worked hard to make my healthy food look as pretty as it is delicious!  

Tamie Cook styled my Lightened Up 7-Layer Bars. The secret ingredient in the bottom layer: Chickpeas!