South Beach Friendly Blueberry Muffins

Matthew and I have been on the South Beach Diet since late March or early April this year. I've lost about 16 pounds (even though I've been bad the last few weeks) and have lost a full dress size. The diet is very easy for me to follow and I've noticed a big increase in my energy level since we've started eating this way.

In the book The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health for Life, there is a recipe for Oatmeal Muffins that I had been meaning to try for a while. Since we went to the NC Blueberry Festival in Burgaw, NC yesterday, I wanted to adapt the recipe to use some of the yummy fresh blueberries we bought. This is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons rolled oats
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
2 eggs
3/4 cup splenda
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray. In a small bowl, mix 1 3/4 cup of the oatmeal with buttermilk and let it sit for 30 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and blueberries. Stir to coat blueberries in the flour. In a large bowl, combine eggs, oil, Splenda and vanilla and blend well. Add oatmeal mixture and flour mixture. Stir until just combined but do not overmix. Divide batter into muffin cups, filling them 2/3 full. Sprinkle each muffin with 1/2 tsp of oatmeal. Bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on rack. Yields 12 muffins.

Here is the nutrition data for 1 muffin.

Thoughts:
Overall, I like the flavor. The muffin could be a little sweeter (I could probably go to a full cup of Splenda) and could use a little more liquid (maybe a half cup of milk or so) because the whole wheat flour makes for a dry texture. I would also like to try this with some lemon zest added to the batter to make the flavor a little brighter.