Apple Raisin Flax Muffins

Remember how last night I said I had the baking itch? Well about a 1/2 hour before I planned on going to bed, I headed into the kitchen to bake a quick batch of muffins I really wanted to have them for today, and I knew that I’d have no time to bake in the morning. Luckily this recipe was pretty easy to throw together. I found the original recipe on Spark Recipes, but tweaked it a bit. The ingredients are:

• 1 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oat bran
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 apples, chopped
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together dry ingredients, apple, and raisins. Separately mix milk, brown sugar, egg whites, and vanilla, then pour into dry mixture. Mix all together and fill cupcake papers (which I also sprayed with nonstick spray). Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (mine were done at 22 mins). Makes 18-20 regular sized muffins.

These turned out SO. GOOD! I’ll be honest - I thought this was going to be an epic fail. But even my Dad liked them. That is huge, my friends. Even though the recipe had no butter or oil, these came out incredibly moist and perfectly sweet, with a nice nutty flavor from the flax.

I ate two of these babies for breakfast, with a smear big spoonful of almond butter.

Let’s rewind to earlier this morning - and I mean earlier. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. What the heck I couldn’t for the life of me fall back asleep, so I hopped out of bed around 5:15 and headed to the basement. I know I’ve said this a million times before, but I’m seriously going to start looking into new gyms STAT. I pretty much dread the thought of going to my current gym (which is why I’ve been working out at home so much) and the treadmill is getting seriously boring. I’m sure you guys know what I’m talking about. So to switch things up a bit (and shorten my workout time) I did some HIIT today. In 30 minutes I managed to kick my own butt:

0 -2 3mph
2 - 7:30 5.5mph (1/2 mile!)
7:30 - 10 4mph
10 -11 8mph
11 - 15 4mph
15 -16 8mph
16 - 20 4mph
20 - 21 8mph
21 - 25 4mph
25 - 26 8mph
26 - 30 3mph

I’m pretty excited that I’m coming along slowly but surely with the I Dream of Running challenge. I know I’m still only at 1/2 mile, but it was so easy for me today. In fact, I considered going up to 3/4, but I wanted to save my energy for the HIIT. In general, it’s so exciting to see my endurance go up (and heart rate down). I am determined more than ever to reach that 3 mile mark…however long it may take!

I also did 10 push-ups, a few sets of lying chest press, and crunches.

And just to humor you, I’ll leave you with a picture of me in my fun/goofy new glasses. I know that these are so “hipster” (which I generally cannot stand) but I’ve always wanted fake glasses, what can I say?

Time to go to work. Have a great Wednesday, darlings! xoxo G

Have you ever done HIIT? If so, what did you think of it?