Super Endurance and Blueberry Cream Muffins

The title is a bit misleading in that I make no claims that the recipe herein will give you super endurance. Although, the blueberry IS one of nature’s recovery fruits …along with:

kiwi, cranberries, blackberries, prunes, raspberries, strawberries, apples, sweet cherries, plums, beans, broccoli, and artichokes.  Why? Those foods are overflowing with antioxidants.

Even though I already knew that about some of my favorite fruits and veggies, it was reiterated in Dean Karnazes book “50/50 Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days – and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance!”  What a great book!

I just love his method of tackling a long run called “Runabout”.  Page 143 describes a method of training whereby, after you have established a good training base, built up some endurance miles, you simply pick a morning, grab your credit card, a fuel belt, cell phone, GPS, and take off on a run, jog, hike,  or walk.  Go anywhere, just stay on your feet.  If you want, stop for coffee or a snack. But keep moving.  Don’t worry about miles, just have fun.  This puts the fun back in the run.

Trying to remember Dean’s “runabout” brings it back into perspective for me.  Sometimes I get so focused on my goal that the fun is gone. Running becomes a job not a way to relax and unwind.  There should be goals but they should be fun and exciting to work towards.  It’s tough to have fun when body parts start to hurt but then you take time off, recoup and, when you’re ready, you’ll come back stronger with the enthusiasm of the challenges ahead.  So important to remember when the going gets tough.

Has anyone read Dean Karnazes book(s)?

I’m going to share some sad and personal information with you.  A classmate of mine passed away this last Sunday.  I saw the obituary in the paper and, even though I didn’t know her well, it hit hard.  She was my age and when I first moved from Texas to New York, she was the person I chose to sit next to when entering the class room.  I remember giving her my little Texas “Hi”..or rather “Hai” (I moved to NY with quite the Southern drawl).   She looked at me, looked away and then laughed with her friends.  I never tried to speak to her again.  She preferred to keep to her own group of friends and not welcome in the “new kid”.  I held a grudge.  All these years, I held that grudge.  Now I feel so bad.  She was dealt a bad card and  I’m so, SO sorry for her family. Blessing be with them during these hard times. Too young and way too much to live for.  Life is just too short to hold grudges, to hate when you can love, to cry when you can laugh.  Please offer a prayer for this old acquaintance’ family: her father, her husband, and two sons.

BLUEBERRIES!

A nice surprise in the middle of these antioxidant rich anytime muffins.  A lime essence cream cheese filling.

Based on a recipe from Jane Dornbusch of Cooking Light.

Makes 12 muffins (and a little extra)

Filling

•  8 oz Neufchatel cream cheese (reduced fat cream cheese)
•  1/4 cup granulated sugar
•  1 large egg
•  juice of half a lime

Muffin Batter

•  2 cups flour
•  2 1/2 tsp baking powder
•  1/2 tsp salt
•  1/4 cup granulated sugar
•  1/4 cup maple syrup (*Make sure to check out Maple Syrup World for maple products)
•  6 TBS Promise Healthy heart margarine
•  2 large eggs
•  1 cup Low fat Buttermilk
•  2 tsp vanilla extract
•  14 oz can Wild Blueberries packed in Water – Drained really, really well.
•  1 TBS turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray.

Prepare filling by beating the cheese, sugar, egg and lime juice until smooth.  Set aside.

Prepare the muffins by mixing the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix the syrup, margarine, eggs, milk, vanilla. 

Blend the wet into the dry – the margarine mix into the flour mix.

Now fold in the blueberries just enough to swirl the mixture.

Fill the muffin cups about 1/3 way with muffin mix. 

Add a TBS of the filling.

Now top each muffin cup with the rest of the muffin batter to cover the filling.

Top with turbinado sugar and bake for 25 minutes. 

ENJOY!