Today’s treat is blueberry and lemon muffins. I love making tarts and slices and will always do those but, each week, I also need to make some more solid baking for my calorie hungry husband. And for him the less sugar, the better. In fact, these muffins only have 1/2 cup of sugar, which suits my digestive system just fine.
The other day on one of the Facebook pages I am a member of, I saw a woman talking about how bad she felt when the weather was gloomy but not when it was sunny. You might say that is normal, but this woman felt really down. Now, I understand her because when it is cloudy and gloomy, I also feel not great in a general way. I have low blood pressure, and this is affected by the atmospheric pressure which, of course, drops when the weather is bad. She had never thought about that, and for her, it was a eureka moment because she had low blood pressure too. I wonder how many of you are affected in this way?
The other thing that is common for those of us with low blood pressure is to feel claustrophobic in a crowded room after a while. I thought it was connected to my being an introvert, but it seems there is a scientific explanation for it. When your blood pressure is low, the heart has more trouble pumping the blood to the brain so, if you are standing for any length of time, you may start to feel faint. And, in a crowded room, the people are literally sucking the oxygen from the room and replacing it with carbon dioxide. So now we don’t even have enough oxygen in the blood which manages to reach our brains and we will start to feel quite desperate to escape the room because we feel so bad. The expression ‘to get a breath of fresh air’ couldn’t be more accurate. I often need to get out for a while, maybe even 15 minutes and then I can return, if I have to. Otherwise, I prefer not to.
On the whole low blood pressure is preferable to high blood pressure but it does have its disadvantages.
If you malabsorb lactose, use lactose-free sour cream.
- 2 cups of my gluten-free flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ cup cane sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1.25 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp grated lemon rind
- ⅓ cup oil (I used palm oil)
- 1.25 cups fresh blueberries
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.
- Add the sugar and mix.
- Add the blueberries and stir until they are coated in the dry mixture.
- Place the rest of the ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
- Combine the wet ingredients with the dry, stirring until just combined.
- Spoon the mixture into a muffin tin or muffin papers and bake for 12 minutes.
Lovely, simple and delicious looking. I only feel bad when I am tired, which is a part of a bloggers life. Ha ha wish I could get to bed early!
It is part of a bloggers life and yet we feel so much better when we do get some good sleep. I know I do.
I love the last photograph with the basket, it is very pretty.
Thanks, Nik. It’s ready for a picnic.
Lemon and blueberry is such a terrific combo, and it’s one that I’ll eat in anything: bars, slices, muffins – they’re all good. Wonderful looking dish here. Interesting facts about low blood pressure – I didn’t actually know any of that, but when explained it seems so obvious! Good post – thanks.
I know those things about low blood pressure from having lived with it all my life. I must never get up too quickly from a chair or I get dizzy. But so much better than high blood pressure so I will take it, thanks.
How interesting, I wonder if I have low blood pressure. I often am overwhelmed in large crowds and feel slightly faint, like you mentioned. As for the muffins, blueberry with lemon is my favorite. I love your muffin liners!
You can probably get it checked at a pharmacy. We can here at some of them. It would be interesting to know.
Oh, I have low blood pressure too and gloomy days make me depressed too! Thanks for the revelation. What lovely looking muffins – your husband and son are so blessed to have so much good food coming out of your kitchen – seems there’s always something being baked xx
Aha! Another one who should be living in a sunny weather climate all year round. They say somewhere in Mexico, it is spring all year. I must seek it out for our retirement!
I think my family takes it for granted but they would sure squeal if it stopped.
This combo is perfect and yes you can reduce sugar in this one. Going back to your story, I like both weathers. I just don’t like when it’s too cold to enjoy outside.
You are lucky you don’t get affected by the weather. Too cold to go outside does not sound comfortable at all.
I didn’t know that about blood pressure being affected by atmospheric pressure. So interesting. We just had an ugly, cloudy day yesterday, and I did feel like my energy level was very low. These muffins would brighten any day though! Blueberry and lemon are the best for muffins.
Muffins do brighten a gloomy day1
Because low blood pressure is so much better than high, we are often a little ignored and so there is not much literature out there to help us. We can take medication, but I choose to not do that and it helps to understand why we feel bad on certain days and in certain circumstances.
I was out looking at the wild blueberry bushes today. This well be a lovely summer treat if the deer and turkeys don’t get to them first. 🙂
I just love the fact that you can talk about blueberry bushes, deer and turkeys. You are very lucky.
Suzanne lovely recipe 🙂 also thanks as I was’t aware of atmospheric pressure affecting blood pressure…….
Thanks, Maria. Not many people know about what affects low blood pressure sufferers – just us.
Wow, I might have just had a eureka moment myself. The weather, bad that is, really affects my mood and overall feeling and I have the claustrophobic thing you mentioned too. Perhaps it’s time I spoke to my Dr. about low blood pressure. Thanks Suzanne!
I love muffins and they do cheer me up. I am like your husband that the less sugar the better but my husband doesn’t share the feeling, lol:) Great recipe!
I think you should be able to go to the chemist to have your blood pressure checked. I know you can in Italy, so maybe it’s the same in the Czech Republic.
Such a delicious taste combo with blueberry & lemon! Is there any chance that there’s wet ingredients missing from the recipe? Just asking because I followed the recipe exactly, and my mixture was so dry that it took 2 lightly beaten eggs plus 1/4 cup milk (I used LF) to get my mixture to typical muffin wetness. They turned out beautifully, though. Lovely and moist! 🙂
Oh dear, you are so right, Chantelle. Of course muffins needs eggs. I must have been dreaming when I wrote it out. I have adjusted the recipe to reflect your experience with the recipe. Thanks so much for alerting me to this.