Oat-Chocolate Chip-Walnut Muffins

These taste quite a bit like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Yum!

3/4 cup old-fashioned oats (not instant — if you use instant they will turn these awesomely nutty muffins gluey and I will not speak to you any more)

1 cup lowfat buttermilk

1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour (white flour should also work fine, but regular whole wheat flour would make them heavy and change the flavor)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

2/3 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup oil

1 egg, beaten

1/3 cup brown sugar or Splenda-brown sugar blend

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 425 and spray a 12-muffin tin with cooking spray or line with muffin liners.

In a small bowl, combine oats and buttermilk. Allow to sit for 30 minutes.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and mix well. Combine wet ingredients plus sugar in a separate bowl and whisk well. Add wet ingredients and oat mixture to dry ingredients and stir just enough to combine. Do not over-stir. Add walnuts and choc chips, again being careful not to over-stir.

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake at 425 for 11-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Eat some warm. 馃檪