Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I had to drive back to my doctor office yesterday to do my fasting blood draw.  Which meant no food or coffee (I loves my Sweet Cream International Delight – a tablespoon is all I need).   I didn’t even think that I could have gotten my blood drawn at our local hospital and have it sent over – gah.  The traffic sucked – I left my house at 7:20 and didn’t get to their office until 8:35, so I was 15 minutes late for work.

I don’t mind needles or blood draws at all – in fact, even though my veins are tiny, I can fill up two test tubes in seconds.  Whenever I give blood (okay, it’s been a while!) I always tell them not to go far because I can fill up a bag in minutes. (note to self – donate blood!).

I brought along a lemon poppy seed muffin to eat on my drive back to work.  I have to think that lemon poppy seed, or any poppy seed muffin (now I just thought of almond poppy seed muffins – need to make those this weekend!) are my favorite.  I can buy a two cup container at my store for $1.38.  But I did read that poppy seeds go rancid rather quickly – so I store mine in the freezer.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

• courtesy of Food Wishes  (I left off the glaze, but check out that link if you want to finish it off with a lemon glaze)

Makes 12 muffins – each muffin – 207 calories, 13 fat, 17 carbs, .8 fiber and 4.2 protein

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick (1/2-cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup white granulated sugar (I reduced to 3/4 cup)
• finely grated zest from 2 lemons
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup sour cream (I subbed in Chobani plain yogurt – 6 oz.)
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl, and reserve until needed.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and lemon zest, until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next. Stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the lemon juice, and 1/2 of the sour cream until combined.

Add half of the remaining flour mixture, and stir until combined. Stir in the remaining sour cream. Stir in the rest of the flour mixture, and then the poppy seeds.
Line a 12-muffin tin with paper baking cups. Fill each to the top with batter. Bake about 30 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove the muffins from the oven when ready, and allow to cool for 5 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove muffins from the tins and cool completely on a rack before serving.

Can you see all the flecks of lemon zest?  Love.  Just love.  Here is a picture I took over the weekend.  Tony’s been enjoying them all week.

And when I got to work I poured myself a big ass cup of coffee.

Later in the morning I had my breakfast – the last of the sweet potato banana pancakes and ham.

So at lunch I decided to go outside my comfort zone and do some upper body in the . . . . free weight room.

I’ve been going to this gym for over a year and it’s the first time I stepped foot into it.  I went on Pinterest and found an upper body workout I wanted to do – but I literally had to google the workout to print out pictures so I would know what I would do.  My co-worker does cross-fit (I know Jody, I need to try it ) so we came up with some weights to start out with – but then I quickly crossed them off when I got there – 15 pound dumbbells are fucking heavy!

So here was my actual workout – I did three sets of 10 – it took me about 15 minutes.

Then finished that off with a 30 minute walk at 6.0% incline – my blood sugar was only 180 before working out so I didn’t have enough to run.

When I got back to work my blood sugar was 63 – so I quickly put lunch together – another episode of “throw shit in a bag.”  A steak pita sandwich using the last of the steak from our philly cheese steaks, celery, cottage cheese with hot sauce and an apple. 

When I got home it was a glorious 73 degrees.  Tony and I sat outside for a while when it started to rain – it only lasted about 15 minutes – weird!  So I cooked our burgers inside and made a quick batch of homemade potato chips – just thinly sliced potatoes deep fried – the key is to cook them the first time at 350 degrees, then turn the fryer up to 375 and crisp them up on the second time around.

I don’t really see a vegetable on that plate – do you?  That’s my #1 goal next week is to up my fruit and veggie intake.  And yes, I realize that my cheese is upside down – I put it on the wrong bun – doh!

After dinner while Tony watched football, I did my Cardio Recovery that I skipped the night before.  It’s hands down my favorite because it’s calming to me – slow moves, lots of stretching.  I just feel completely stretched and relaxed by the end.

Afterwards I watched a couple episodes of America’s Test Kitchen I have on the DVR (I may have 50 episodes on the DVR) and then I went to see if Girls was back on HBO.  I didn’t find it, but saw a new series called Family Tree.  OMG, hilarious.  At half time Tony and I watched two episodes – it’s free on demand if you have HBO – you will thank me later.

Stats for the Day:

• 1762 caloires, 217 carbs, 97 protein, 60 fat and21 fiber
• my grade on calorie count was a C – high in sodium and saturated fat for the day
• 30% of calories from fat, 21 from protein and 48% from carbs

Hooray for Friday!  Although truth be told, yesterday felt like Friday and I was bummed when I was driving home yesterday that it was only Thursday. 

Oh well, make it a great day!