Starbucks is Mean.
They are always tempting me with those big, fat blueberry muffins, but the muffins aren’t vegan. Eh, store-bought pastries often look better than they taste, anyway. Luckily I have my own muffin-esque recipe that is insanely-delicious, not to mention healthier than the Starbucks pastries:
It’s everything you’d want from a warm blueberry muffin. However, I should cut the Bucks a break. After all, they do sell vegan Frappuccinos now. First step Frappuccinos, second step blueberry muffins. (Props to anyone who picked up on the Miss Congeniality reference.)
Blueberry Muffin in a Bowl
(See “Variations” below for flavors!)
- 1/8 to 1/4 cup nondairy creamer (I use Silk)
- 1 serving cooked bulgur or oatmeal (See: How to Cook Bulgur)
- sweetener of choice, to taste
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- fresh or frozen blueberries, post-blending
Make sure to cook your bulgur or oats with salt. (I use 1/4 tsp, and it’s important to put this in before cooking the grains.) Once cooked, put the bulgur or oats in your blending gadget, such as a Magic Bullet short cup. Add everything else (except berries) and blend! Now add in some frozen blueberries, or any other fruit, nut butters, chocolate chips, etc.
Variations I’ve tried:
1. Strawberry Shortcake (add frozen strawberries pre-blending)
2. Chocolate Cream Pie (see optional ingredient, above)
3. Cinnamon-Raisin (add cinnamon and raisins, post-blending)
On a cold day, nothing’s better than a blueberry muffin in a bowl. Except… a blueberry muffin in a bowl that you don’t have to leave your house to buy.
Do you like Starbucks?
People seem to be very passionate about Starbucks. They either love it (Fun coffee drinks! Passion Tea!) or hate it (Over-priced! They’re everywhere!). The company has multiple facebook fan pages, but there’s also an entire website, ihatestarbucks.com, dedicated to all things anti-Starbucks. In any case, I owe Starbucks for a lot of good memories. In high school, it was the place to hang out. Oftentimes, we wouldn’t even buy anything. Horrible of us… and now I’m wondering why they didn’t ever make us leave!
Okay seriously, everyone is raving about these blueberry muffin larabars! I have got to try them!
Starbucks was definitely the place to go for “serious” talks about boys. I used to loove going all the time until I realized I was breaking the bank with all my fraps! I think people just hate on Starbucks because it’s corporate but I feel like you shouldn’t hate it for being corporate. Unique coffee shops are fun and funky but the baristas are usually really stuck up 🙁
I agree with you. I mean, yeah it’s a business, so it puts business first… but don’t all successful businesses do that?
Sometimes I just plain need coffee, and Starbucks is everywhere, but I try to buy from locally owned coffee shops when I can. That is, when I’m even buying coffee out, because I try to make it from home as often as possible!
I love Starbucks, but not for the drinks. More for the memories (for Starbucks was, as you said, really the only place to hang out when I was in HS, too) and the vibe. I just like being there. I wish the drinks were tastier–if you don’t go for the full fat, full sugar, full crap 800 calorie drinks, the fakers aren’t really that good. But that’s just my opinion, I know a lot of people who love the SF/FF bev’s. 🙂
Haha that’s so cool!
It’s good we dont have that many over here, when I was in NY I drank TWO caramel fraps + whipped cream DAY. oi. I still lost weight because of all the walking though, amazing city 😉
I totally picked up on your Miss Congeniality reference – best movie ever 🙂
Your blueberry “muffin” looks way better than the ones from the store (store bought is so dry and crumbly). I don’t go to Starbucks much, but when I do, I get the shaken green tea – love it! I’ve never tried the soy frappuccinos, but I really want to!
I could marry Starbucks-well not really. I mean I love all coffee, and it just do happens that every Starbucks I have been to the people have always helped me when I ask stupid questions like how many calories is in certain thing, and if I want to read the ingredients on something. I know not all places are like this, but as far as I can tell they have been good-at least to me, and anyways, sure they have flaws but every place does.
I think there are good and bad things about Starbucks – just like all businesses.
Good: pumpkin bread/cake/thingy (OMG – please post a healthy recipe for this!) , open late, strong and delicious black tea
Bad: they are a major chain and make it harder on smaller coffee shops
That said, what is necessarily wrong with a business doing well and expanding? And I’ve seen plenty of local coffee shops nestled against Starbucks and doing fine – perhaps because they’ve been able to use the opportunity to market themselves differently, focus on specialty products (like vegan muffins, as in my local coffee shop), and become a community gathering spot rather than simply ‘a place to get coffee’.
I’ve been meaning to try my hand at a pumpkin bread recipe! I wonder if people will still be receptive to it if I post such a recipe in the middle of July lol.
YES!! Definitely! I approve of pumpkin bread year-round! 😉
I don’t have Twitter, so I’m commenting here on your latest tweet: I think a good name for that shortened would be Choconut Bananutter?! Haha.
Thanks!! I’m adding your suggestion to the list :).
Hahah Starbucks was THE place to be in my high school too! Especially on Wednesday mornings before school because we had a late start every Wednesday.