Strawberry Poppy Seed Muffins

The seasonal produce on sale this week: Fresh strawberries!

I love, love fresh strawberries. Strawberries fall on that list of fruit that I hate the artificial flavor of, along with cherry, watermelon, and grape. The artificial flavor of these fruits tastes nothing like the real thing, and thank goodness for that too! I hate strawberry body lotions, cherry beverages, watermelon candy, and grape anything. I love the real thing of all those fruits, though.

It's been a busy week. The hubby had most of the week off, and then is working nights for the next 3 days, so we've been running around getting house-stuff done all week. I've had a couple of pints of strawberries in the fridge since Monday, so as soon as the hubby left for work tonight it was time to bake!

I had planned on making a Strawberry Poppy Seed Bread, but at the last minute changed my mind. Muffins are perfectly portion sized, while my slices of bread feel humongous. And of course I eat the whole, gigantic piece of bread. Just because I can :) With all the work I'm doing to get ready for bikini season, I might as well help myself out with a smaller portion size.    <------Said with beer in hand. Sigh.

I had a muffin right out of the oven and fell in love. These are weird looking little muffins, but they sure are tasty! I loved how ooey, gooey the fresh strawberries got.

My only problem? I didn't use as much of the strawberries as I hoped. I guess I will be having strawberries in my cereal for breakfast this week :)

Ingredients (makes 15 standard-size muffins):
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 large eggs
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup strawberries, chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour through salt. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
3. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine milk through almond extract. Mix with a hand mixer until well combined. Add flour mixture to bowl, stir with a spatula just until combined. Fold in strawberries.
4. Coat 2 muffin pans with cooking spray. Fill cups 3/4 way full. Bake in oven 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storage.

Adapted from Food Network