Lena's Favorite Blueberry All-Bran Muffins

Lena is my beet-loving sister who inspired the golden beet and trout appetizer (posted below) that I made in honor of her engagement to her loving fiance, Matthew.  Since the engagement which was only a few months ago, she has proven to be an excellent bride-to-be in my opinion.  The wedding isn't until August but she already has inspiration for all kinds of good wedding things like colors, jewelry, invitations, and shoes.  Did I mention that I am carrying the important title of Matron of Honor for this wedding?  I may not have, since I tend to be pretty modest about it, but it's true!  Lena at first suggested we go with Person of Honor as my title, which to me sounds more like an award for someone who survived as a POW or took a bullet to save her platoon.  I don't know, maybe she thought matron was unflattering for a pretty young thing like me, or maybe she didn't like the idea of my tending to her at every moment (which I plan to do, btw), but I think I pull it off nicely so MOH it is. 
Anyway, we spent the day in Brooklyn a couple weekends ago doing the kinds of things that MOHs and brides do together to plan for a fabulous wedding, like talk about our favorite muffin recipes.  Lena brought up her favorite blueberry muffins, and since she's such a great cook I took her pretty seriously and asked for the recipe.  I couldn't wait to try these muffins, especially because of all the hype about the health benefits of blueberries lately (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/health/nutrition/25recipehealth.html).  Now they are our favorite muffins, too!  My only minor complaint is that the ingredients are a tad on the pricey side if you end up having to buy more than you need for the recipe as I did, so I suggest making a double recipe to get the most out of your investment and freezing whatever you won't eat right away.  These muffins have lots of good healthy stuff hidden in them, so you can always write it off as paying the grocer now instead of the doctor later!  By the way, if you would like to have your favorite recipe featured on this blog, send it to me and I'll happily try it out! 

Lena's Favorite Blueberry All-Bran Muffins
Compliments of my sister, Lena
Adapted from Very Vegetarian by Jannequin Bennett

1 cup Kellog's all-bran cereal
1 cup raw wheat germ
1/2 cup oil
1 cup soy-gurt or yogurt
1 cup soymilk or milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or substitute all-purpose)
1/2 all purpose flour (or soy flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar - 2/3 cup if you are using sweet, fresh blueberries
1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat the oven to 375.  Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, mix the cereal, wheat germ, oil, soy-gurt, milk and vanilla.  Let the mixture stand for a few minutes while you assemble the dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar with a whisk.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until they are blended.  Gently fold in the blueberries, being careful that they don't burst.  Fill the muffin tins and bake 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

Lena's notes:
Best with fresh blueberries in blueberry season.
Doubles well.
Freezes pretty well.
If you use frozen blueberries, do not defrost them before mixing them in or the muffins turn blue.
I've also used cranberries and used the full cup of sugar - I'm sure other berry experiments would be good, too!

Sarah's notes:
Whole Foods sells whole wheat pastry flour in the bulk section so you can buy only what you need.  If you can't find this item, try buying it at amazon.com.
Substitute some of the blueberries for sliced bananas for blueberry-banana muffins - yum!
For half of the yogurt, use your favorite complimenting flavor instead of plain and cut down to 2/3 C sugar.