Whole Wheat Banana-Blueberry Jumbo Muffins

I've gotten away from healthy cooking for a while. I'd been doing water aerobics and laps, and everything was just fine. But then I injured myself (it's a long story, but after a month of steroids, muscle relaxants and vicodin all is healed and I"m pain-free), and have to stop the swimming and water aerobics for a while. Following his colonoscopy last week,  Don was ordered by his doctor to start eating more fiber. He has diverticulosis, and we don't want it to turn in to diverticulitis.  So the first thing I did was get some whole wheat flour, oat bran, wheat bran, and flax.  I can make all kinds of things and add fiber to them.  We had oatmeal for breakfast two days ago - I used steel cut oats and added some diced pears and spices.  It was similar to apple pie oatmeal.  This morning I made some waffles with Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking and Pancake Mix - and added a quarter cup of wheat bran to the batter for some added fiber.  They also had some mixed berries in them, so we used less syrup than we usually do.

Speaking of syrup - I've been using sugar-free syrup for a couple of years, but have gotten tired of the taste.  Regular pancake syrup has too many carbs, so I mix the two together and just use less on my pancakes and waffles. 

Don likes to eat carbs for breakfast - but he's been loading up on empty carbs and I need to change that. One thing I'm doing is making muffins to replace the ones he ate from Costco.  The Costco ones are made with white flour and lots of fat and sugar.  I found a recipe for banana bread that I'm going to adapt for different flavors - it uses whole wheat flour, and I can mix in things like ground flax, oat bran or wheat bran, almond flour, and other things that add fiber or protein.

Today's muffins are banana-blueberry.  I'm going to Costco tomorrow, and decided to finish up a bag of blueberries that's been in the freezer forever - and buy a new one tomorrow. I also had two bananas in the freezer - I just throw them in there in their skins, and they're fine for breads once they're thawed. (Did you notice I just used there, their, and they're in the same sentence?)

Whole Wheat Banana-Blueberry Jumbo Muffins

1 stick butter, softened
1 c brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c oat bran (adds fiber and nutty texture)
1/4 c flax seeds, ground
1 c blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease and flour 6 jumbo muffin tins. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Add the bananas and eggs, beating until smooth. Add the flour, oat bran, and flax seeds, stirring until smooth. Fold in the blueberries. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, filling almost to the top. Let rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. Makes 6 jumbo muffins.