Date and Apricot Muffins

ByDavid January 14, 2015April 28, 2021

Looking for a great way to start the morning? Try these Date and Apricot Muffins!
They’re delicious, and they’re also loaded with healthy benefits thanks to the addition of flaxseed meal from Bob’s Red Mill.

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At the end of last Winter, my wife and I went to a couple open house events at the local curling club. Yup, curling. As in that sport where completely sane people slide a 44-pound chunk of granite down a sheet of ice. The objective is to get that stone as close as possible to the “button” at the other end of the ice…about 140-ish feet away. I’d seen curling on the Olympics, but until last year I didn’t realize people actually curled locally. But then again we live just about 2 hours from the Canadian border. That’s a long way from home for this Southern boy…but at least I have access to some awesome winter sports!

Let me tell ya, curling is a heck of a good workout. Games last about 2 hours, and you’re ready to hit the showers when you come off the ice…even though it’s only about 38°F out there. Our local curling club began its season back in late Fall, and we decided to go for it. We signed up as full-fledged members. We’ve been curling 1-2 nights a week, and I gotta admit that it’s a really fun and addicting sport. It’s kind of like darts. On ice. With 2 teammates helping guide the dart to the bullseye. Ok, so maybe it’s nothing like darts.

This will be our 4th winter living in upstate New York. In the South, snow is fun. In the North, snow is not fun. Truthfully, the first snow of the year is always nice, but then that aforementioned snow just sits there until March…unless you get the gumption to go and shovel it. We’ve noticed that we really don’t do much in the winter up here. We sit in the basement and watch New Girl, Modern Family and re-runs of Law & Order: SVU. Not that there’s anything wrong with tv, but it’s not the most active of events. That’s where the curling comes in. That’s also where these Date and Apricot Muffins come in.

Our holidays were awesome this year! We visited my wife’s family in Pennsylvania. We watched a lot of movies. And we also ate a lot of desserts. But all good things must come to an end. I finally took down our Christmas tree the other day. I also packed up all of the cookies and other tasty treats that have been decorating our counter for the past several weeks. It’s time to get back to healthier eating habits for a bit. I’ve always been a big fan of blueberry muffins…they’re probably one of my top 3 favorite breakfast foods.

The other day, I was working on making my blueberry muffin recipe a bit healthier when my wife snuck up behind me. Aside from scaring the bejesus out of me, she suggested that I mix up the recipe a bit. “Like what?” “Well, like apricots instead of blueberries.” My wife isn’t often correct, but on this instance, she totally was. These Date and Apricot Muffins turned out awesome! My wife took a nibble of one of them, and she gave it two thumbs up. Actually, I think her words were something like “Those are freakin’ delicious!” And thus, these healthier muffins were born. (Admission: My wife is actually right about 99.99% of the time. I won’t say 100% because I’m sure the time will come when she is wrong about something.)

Aside from the unique dried fruits in this recipe, the real superstar is the flaxseed meal. We eat Greek yogurt topped with granola almost every morning, and we use flaxseeds in our granola recipe. So it only made sense that I should use flaxseed meal in this muffin recipe. Flaxseeds are a superfood loaded with all sorts of healthy benefits. They’re high in omega-3 fatty acids (i.e. the “good” fat), lignans and dietary fiber. Flaxseed meal is just ground flaxseeds, and it’s an easy way to “healthify” many of your favorite baked goods. (I worked with Bob’s Red Mill on this post, and they are my favorite source for all sorts of grains and meals. Give these Date and Apricot Muffins a shot today, or maybe just give your favorite recipe a makeover with flaxseed meal.)