Fruit & Cream Cheese Filled Muffins

Dessert tonight. Breakfast all week. Adapted from a very old (March 2001) Cooking Light magazine. Cooking Light was probably the originator of my cooking/baking as hobby-instead-of-just-necessity. Then, for awhile I was too snobby to use those old magazines. But because I have just enough of my mother's hoarding in me, I still have them. And began referring to them again, because I am finally starting to get over myself.



My husband restarted his P90X three weeks ago. To drop the last 10. And, more importantly, prepare for ski season. I have been putting it off. But restarted Power 90 today. With the plan to ease back into P90X. I lost the last baby-20 thanks to Tony Horton. And, more importantly, felt fantastic. But it got away from me the last few months. Transitioning to "third-year" and a million other excuses. Five pounds creeped on. But really I just want my "prozac" back.

This all makes baking a little less fun. Not because I bake for me. I rarely eat much or any of what I bake for me. And I certainly believe in moderation over dogma, so a bite of raw cookie dough here or a taste of iron cupcake muffin there does not send me into a shame spiral. BUT, I do bake for those I love. And the particular one I love most of all has BEGGED me to stop. Argh. When its loved one vs. loved hobby, I find myself torn between two lovers. It is very complicated, because Food=Love. Everyone knows that. This is very complicated math. At any rate, thats a very long explanation for tonight's muffins. (Thank god for nurses at work, dinner parties, book clubs and hungry friends, who also need love).

Fruit-and-Cream-Cheese-Filled Muffins, adapted from Cooking Light magazine, March 2001

1/4 c. low-fat cream cheese
2 T. all-fruit (the recipe calls for strawberry jam, i had apricot all-fruit)
2 1/4 c. flour (I used 1 c. all-purpose and 1 1/4 c. whole wheat)
1/4 c. sugar (recipe called for 1/3, I thought 1/4 was plenty)
2 t. baking powder
2 t. poppy seeds
1 t. ground cinnamon (not in original recipe - could have probably used another teaspoon)
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 1/4 c. buttermilk (I didn't have buttermilk, so I used 1/2 c. yogurt and the rest 2% milk)
3 T. oil
2 egg whites
1 egg

Preheat 375. Combine cream cheese and fruit. Mix dry - flour through salt - in one bowl. Liquid (all the rest of the ingredients) whisked in another. Mix together just until moist. Fill sprayed tins or papers 1/3 full, put approximately one teaspoon of fruit-cream cheese in each, divide the rest of batter on top. Bake for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins. Freeze extras.