Strawberry Banana Muffins

What do you make when you husband leaves his big bag of frozen strawberries in the fridge instead of the freezer? Why muffins, of course. I'm not sure how it happend, I just happened upon it; the defrosted bag of whole strawberries for his morning smoothie. Probably just one of those mornings that we look for our coffe cup in the freezer and put our strawberries away in the fridge. Happens all the time.....

strawberry banana muffins 1

Ingredient List:

1/2 cup Earth Balance melted
2 eggs lightly beaten or
egg replacement (I generally use flax seed.)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup raw agave syrup
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 ripe bananas mashed
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries diced
2 1/4 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Place paper liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.

Melt the Earth Balance and set aside. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Mix eggs, vanilla, syrups, and bananas together. Add the melted butter and blend. Add the strawberries to the flour mixture and mix to coat the strawberries. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture. Mix only until all the flour is mixed in.



Divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups. Bake unitl a toothpick comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Cool od a wire rack.

Enjoy!

strawberry banana muffins 2

Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.


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Crowd Tested Zucchini Muffins

There was a lot of motivation to make these muffins.

1. I got to use my new
mandolin to shred the zucchini, and I am getting better at using it!
2. I got to use the zucchini up in the fridge before it needed to head to the compost pile.
3. I had multiple taste testers available to verify as to its yumminess. (Is that even a word?)

I love recipes that have hidden nutrition. These muffins are full of
zucchini and wheat germ. They use whole grain flour and have fun things like pumpkin seeds and cranberries. But the best thing of all, they are delicious! I have brought a batch to work and made them for friends and family. Everyone really seems to enjoy their moistness and flavor; even those that shun anything that smacks of being "healthy."

Zucchini muffin

If you do not have a mandolin, a simple box grater will work just fine for grating the zucchini. It takes about 2 medium sized zucchinis to accumulate 4-5 cups once shredded.

I mix this recipe in one bowl. I start with all the wet ingredients, add the zucchini, nuts and cranberries, then the spices, salt and soda. This batter is fairly wet so the flour mixes in easily at the end with a spatula or wood spoon.

I use paper liners in my muffin tims because I am lazy and I hate oiling and cleaning muffin tins (but I love muffins, go figure.) If you do not have or do not wish to use paper muffin liners, just oil your pans with a spritz of canola or oilive oil, or use a little
Earth Balance in the cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick. Let the muffins cool in the pans for 15 minutes and then move them to a wire rack to finish the cooling process.

Ingredient List:

2/3 cup coconut oil or Earth Balance
1 cup brown sugar or raw agave syrup
2/3 cup applesauce/yogurt
2/3 cup rice/soy/hemp milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
4-5 cups grated raw zucchini
2/3 cup dried or fresh cranberries
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup raw almonds (coarsely chopped)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt/sea salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup wheat bran
2 1/3 cups spelt flour
   

Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.


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Mini Pumpkin Dairy Free Muffins

mini pumpkin muffins

Meatless Mondays posted a pumpkin muffin recipe yesterday from A Life Less Sweet and I have twisted it around to meet my twisted needs: dairy free, egg free, and refined sugar free. I have eliminated dairy from my diet. I am experiementing with an eggless existance, and I do not buy refined sugar in any form. I made a batch yesterday using stevia, but I was not in love with the after taste of the stevia (probably used too much.) Today I mixed it up again and I really like these so I thought I'd post them up for you!

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I am also experimenting with flours these days so I made mine with a combination of gluten free four and spelt flour. The original recipe uses whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. Which ever you prefer.......

I also experiment with spices all the time. The first batch I used the pumkin pie spice that the recipe calls for and that was good, but this batch I used five spice, a chinese spice blend, and I liked it even better. I think it is the star anise in the five spice. If you do not have either blend use cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, etc to your taste.

Ground flaxseed and the applesauce are the egg replacer.

The dry ingredients:
1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2-3 teaspoons five spice powder or pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons flaxseed
1/2 teaspoon salt

The wet ingredients:
1 can pumpkin (do not substitute pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup applesauce (natural and unsweetened)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 24 mini muffin pan or something comparable. You can use an olive oil mister or use a small slice of vegan butter and rub in the cups.

Blend these two groups seperately. Then blend them together until the flour is all mixed in. Spoon into the muffin cups until full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rake and enjoy!!

Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.


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Mango Spelt Muffins

This recipe turned out the best muffins so far that are dairy free and egg free. I used mango as the fruit but I think it would work with bananas or peaches just as well. If you changed up the spices, other fruit could also be substituted. It is a simple recipe that is very forgiving.

Ingredient list:
1 single serving container of plain soy yogurt
1/2 cup applesauce
2 1/2 cup spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground clove (I used a full tsp because I love clove)
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups diced mango (You can also puree the mango if you do not want chunks.)
3/4 cups golden raisens (optional)
zest of one lime

Mix together all dry ingredients and set aside. Mix together the yogurt, applesauce, mango, raisens, and lime zest. Blend the two together until all the flour is mixed in.

Bake at 350 for approximately 30 minutes.

Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.



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