Serves: 5
Total Calories: 289
Yield: One dozen

1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons strawberry preserves
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons poppy seed
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons oil
2 egg whites, beaten
1 egg, beaten

Whisk together cream cheese and preserves in a small bowl; set aside. Combine next 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Make a well in center of flour mixture and set aside. Whisk remaining ingredients in a large bowl; mix well. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups sprayed with non-stick vegetable spray, filling 1/3 full. Top each with about one teaspoon cream cheese mixture; divide remaining batter evenly over top. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Immediately remove muffins from pans; cool on a wire rack.

Tip: Be on the lookout at flea markets and antique shops for vintage tin bread boxes. Filled with strawberry plants, they're a mini garden patch!

Nutritional Facts:

Serves: 5
Total Calories: 289
Calories from Fat: 10

More Recipes from the Summer In the Country Cookbook:
Pancakes with Blueberry-Cinnamon Syrup
French Toast Croissants
Santa Fe Breakfast Bake
Spinach & Potato Frittata
Grandma Retha’s Rhubarb Muffins
Summer’s Best Berry Bars
Last Hurrah of Summer Peach Bread
Just Peachy Coconut Smoothie
Blueberry-Rhubarb Sauce
Nellie’s Farmgirl Egg Bake
Crustless Zucchini Pie
Girls’-Day-Out Granola
Apple-Berry Breakfast Crisp
Friendship Apple Crumpets
Aunt Emmaline’s Strawberry Muffins
Delicious “Cow Butter”
Fresh Fruit with Creamy Sauce
Spoon Bread
Ericka’s Cheese Danish
Lemon Fluff
Amy’s Orange Shake-Up
Sweet Pea’s Breakfast Blitz
Country-Style Breakfast Pizza
Herbed Salmon Omelets