Hello year 2011! Hope you had a blast wherever you were on New Year’s eve – flows of cocktails, canapes, fireworks and most importantly with people whom you care very much.

As you may notice, a brand new year calls for a brand new look for my blog. What do you think of its new look? I’m vying for black blue grey-and-white meets ice cream parlour chic. 🙂

I spent New Year’s eve at home with my beloved and my old pal, Adam, watching Sydney fireworks on telly. A pretty calm and quiet night for me, actually. That said, this was what I needed after the busy Christmas celebration plus we have been driving back and forth from Orange to Bathurst (about 40 minutes each way) looking for a house for the past weeks.

After staying one year in Orange, it’s time for us (myself and my beloved) to move again. As we all can agree that it’s never fun to move. The thought of packing and unpacking shudders me but my pressing issue at the moment is to find a decent accommodation. It has been difficult due to the competition in the rental market nowadays but I’m optimistic and fingers crossed, we’ll find something soon before our current lease ends in a couple of weeks’ time.

Anyway, house hunting story aside, January is the perfect time to cleanse our diet. Translation: a much needed break from my excessive butter consumption from Christmas all the way through to New Year. One of my long list of New Year resolutions is to stay healthy. I suspect this may be on everyone’s list of resolutions too, eh? 😛 Anyway, what a better way to start my New Year with this wholesome muffins to start my day (worth noting this is my first time putting the word “wholesome” and muffins in the same sentence, hehe!).

I must warn you due to the low fat and sugar content, these are a little dry and obviously not as sweet as what you may be used to. But if you decide to fold on your healthy resolution half way through these healthy muffins and realise that there are still more to finish, don’t fret as you can always slather a thin coat of jam and butter to bring your tasty muffins back! (I’m not saying that was what I did! *wink*wink* )

Apple and Blueberry Wholemeal Muffins

(tweaked slightly from weightloss.com.au)

Makes about 11 medium sized muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 tbsp baking powder

4 tbsps vegetable oil

150ml (5 fluid oz) reduced fat milk (may need to add an extra 2-3 tbsps full of milk, depending the consistency of the batter)

1 egg, beaten

1 large apple, peeled, cored and finely diced

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen) – I’ve used frozen

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 356 degrees Fahrenheit for convection oven or 160 degrees Celsius / 320 degrees Fahrenheit for fan forced. Lightly grease a 12 hole muffin pan.

2. Sift flour and baking powder into bowl. Mix together vegetable oil, milk and egg until well combined.

3. Place chopped apple, brown sugar and cinnamon in with the flour mixture. Pour in the milk mixture and stir until just combined.

4. Add the blueberries and carefully mix in.

5. Place in preheated oven and cook for 10 – 12 minutes.

6. Let stand for two minutes then take out of tin.

7. Serve immediately with a flavored fruit yoghurt and extra berries if desired.

{Enjoy!}