Honey Blueberry Muffins
{a small batch recipe}
Originally published August 2017
Morning rituals: coffee, breakfast, laptop. Most people vote Mondays the least cool day of the week. It means back to work, school, back to the busyness of life. I love Mondays, always have, but especially these last few years. They provide predictability & structure.
Weekends continue to be emotionally challenging, Sundays often a killer. That was always family day. Our family was my church, my devotion fiercely protecting family time. No birthday parties were attended. No plans with friends. Just us and our girls. A day to block out the world, and hit the reset button. Some weekends, I’m left with a deep loneliness, even six years later.
It’s so frustrating, this thing called grief. When do you stop missing, and start living? I’ve certainly lived a lot these last six years, and yet some moments I feel as though I’m stuck in quicksand. But I wake each day. I dig a little deeper, and brush the debris away from the beating heart I know is there, even if it doesn’t always feel like it.
Yesterday, I decided to make a new blueberry muffin recipe. Isabella said she loved them. I said, “yes, they’re very good, but not what I was hoping to make”. She said, “what’s wrong with them?” I said, “nothing, I just had something else in mind.” There’s a lesson in there, yes? It’s a fine muffin, indeed, and a fine line between settling, and realizing that even when things don’t work out as planned, there is still something to be enjoyed.
So, while these muffins didn’t hit exactly the mark I was aiming for, they are still really a lovely way to start the day. They’re light and spongy, the way those prepackaged muffins are (you know we’ve all eaten them at least once, a quick snack on the go, or maybe a guilty pleasure?), except they’re free of preservatives and made with ingredients you can actually pronounce.
You know what these Honey Blueberry Muffins are also free of?
Refined white sugar. Yep, as you might’ve guessed from their name, they’re sweetened with honey. As with all of my recipes that include honey, I use a creamy churned variety. Years ago this felt a bit inaccessible as an ingredient, but I see it everywhere now, and think it’s really worth stocking in your cupboards.
Oh, and guess what? This is a small batch recipe, too. I know, that wasn’t really a surprise, and I’m not sure six muffins count as a small batch, but since most recipes bake up a full dozen, I think I can safely say that, yes? These muffins will definitely find their way into school lunches this year, and since they stay fresh for a few days at room temperature (covered, of course), it’ll make mornings less frantic as we ease into a new schedule this year.