Name: Healthy Cranberry Orange Cornmeal Muffins
Prep time: 13 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 cup + 1 tablespoon cornmeal; 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 2 teaspoons grated orange zest; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 large eggs; 1 cup low-fat buttermilk (well-shaken); 1/4 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 cup fresh cranberries (chopped)

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These healthy whole wheat cranberry orange cornmeal muffins are great for snacking! At only 127 calories apiece, they are practically guilt-free.

Kamikazes, quick bread and corn muffins...oh my! And they all involve cranberries!

As soon as the fresh cranberries hit the stores, I stock my fridge and freezer. I can tell you're thinking, "But what the heck do you do with all of those cranberries?"

In my world, there's no such thing as "too much cranberry sauce". If you have ever tasted homemade cranberry sauce, you know what I mean.

What?! You haven't had homemade cranberry sauce? Stop everything you're doing and scratch that canned cranberry sauce off of your Thanksgiving shopping list. The homemade kind takes about 15 minutes to make and tastes 15,000 times better than the canned stuff. This one and this one are two of my favorite recipes.

But once the holidays have passed and you've served cranberry sauce every which way you can possibly imagine...well, then what? That's where those kamikazes and quick breads come in. And those lead to corn muffins. Going through winter without several batches of corn muffins somehow seems wrong.

Eat them for breakfast, serve them with soup and chili or eat them at midnight, hiding in your closet. A little privacy is sometimes necessary to properly enjoy a really good muffin.

It seems that the proper sweetness of corn muffins and cornbread can be a fairly polarizing topic, so let me get this out there right now. These are NOT really sweet. In fact, there's a hint of tartness from the fresh cranberries. If you prefer something a little sweeter, drizzle a little honey or agave nectar over the muffin after splitting it in half. It's a "personalize your sweetness" kind of thing.

A Helping of Healthy

Every fresh fruit and vegetable out there seems to have a long list of health benefits, and fresh cranberries are no exception.

You've probably heard that cranberries can help decrease the risk or urinary tract infections, but do you know the reason for that? I know that I didn't until I came across this article from Runner's World. It seems that cranberries are packed with certain photochecmicals, known as proanthocyanidins (PACs). These PACs stop bacteria from sticking to the urinary tract, which greatly reduces the risk of urinary tract infections. That's a little Cliff Clavin fact to wow your friends with.
Cranberries are a good source of Vitamin C, fiber and Vitamin E.
Cranberries have anti-inflammatory properties, which can reduce the risk of inflammation in blood vessel linings (that means a healthier cardiovascular system) and in the colon and large intestine (leading to a healthier digestive system.)
Cranberries help to prevent the risk of cancer, particularly prostate, liver, breast, ovarian and colon cancers.

All of these are fantastic reasons to work more cranberries in our diets!

Other recipes with fresh cranberries:

Cookin' Canuck's 3-Ingredient Brie & Cranberry Phyllo Turnovers
Cookin' Canuck's Crockpot Apple & Cranberry Sauce with Orange & Crystallized Ginger
Little Broken's Asparagus with Cranberry Honey Vinaigrette
This Gal Cooks' Cranberry Pumpkin Pancakes