Healthy Muffins All Over The Place!

If you're a faithful reader of this silly blog then you know I'm in love with a particular vegan muffin recipe! I've made these muffins in pumpkin and banana and they are delicious! My friend Christina from my old job in Tennessee shared this recipe with me and it has reserved a spot in my cute little recipe box. First, I just have to say thank you to the ladies who gave me the recipe box back in 2009! Some wonderful women at Belle Aire Baptist Church gave me this box filled with their favorite go-to recipes and it truly touched my heart! Plus, it's so cute that Blake even lets me keep it on top of the fridge!

I had to get Lolly in the picture too!

Recently I made this recipe a little healthier by taking a risk with some quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) flakes! What's quinoa? Don't worry, I Googled is for you! Quinoa is a type of seed, but can be prepared and substituted like whole grains such as rice! It takes less time to cook than other whole grains – just 10 to 15 minutes. It tastes great by itself too! You can eat it with cucumbers, add a bit of olive oil, sea salt, dill and lemon juice mmm! Quinoa has the highest protein content of any whole grain and has all 9 essential amino acids. It's gluten-free, cholesterol-free, usually organic, and JUST PLAIN GOOD FOR YOU. Quinoa was a staple food for thousands of years in South America as one of just a few crops the ancient Incas cultivated at such high altitude. To prepare it, cover it with water or vegetable broth and boil until soft, about 15 minutes. 1/3 cup of cooked quinoa has 160 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein... awesome! Quinoa flakes are different though! 

I'm excited to share this recipe with you since I think we're all interested in eating a little healthier these days! I'm so proud of Blake too, he's been drinking these yummy almond milk banana chip smoothies I've made for him almost every day! I usually stick with pumpkin, bananas, strawberries, or some other fruit with this recipe but since I found some really cheap zucchini at Aldi and couldn't eat it all by myself, I decided to make zucchini muffins. I've had zucchini bread before and it's delicious so I couldn't wait to try it out! Jude played with his pots and pans on the floor while I made my mess right above him.

I can't believe he's standing!

 If you want to make muffins or cakes with vegetables, you almost always have to use raw veggies peeled and grated. Grating vegetables by hand takes FOREVER if you're like me and don't have a food processor. I'm not complaining because I don't know how much I'd use a food processor if I had one anyways! So, instead of grating the zucchini I got out my amazing Pampered Chef Mandoline slicer and had myself a zucchini slicing party! First you have to peel the veggies. So, after I sliced, I got out my Pampered Chef chopper and whacked that thing until the zucchini was in itty bitty tiny bits... all over the place. It worked!!! There were no chunks in these muffins! 

As I was gathering all of my ingredients I remembered I accidentally bought quinoa flakes instead of the actual grains... I wonder if that would work instead of flour. YUP!! Instead of using all quinoa flakes, I used half flakes and half flour. I'll have to do some research before substituting all the flour. We'll see! They smelled up the whole house, mmm! Blake came home from playing tennis (he's been playing almost every night, yay) and he wanted to try one but I wouldn't tell him what was in them. He tried it and he liked it! I'm so excited! 

I haven't made a 100% commitment to baking completely guilt free but I'm making progress. I think we all need to enjoy a good old chocolate chip cookie every once in a while but for now, I'm trying to gear my creativity towards healthier choices! I'm glad this experiment worked! Here's the recipe!

Vegan (fruit of choice) Muffins!

2 cups canned pumpkin, mashed fruit of choice, or raw, peeled, grated, veggie

2/3 cup oil
1 cup Truvia or 2 cups sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/4 cups quinoa FLAKES

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 dark chocolate chips if desired

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a med bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk, and vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking, cinnamon, and salt. Stir together with a fork-don't use a handheld mixer as it will make the batter gummy. Once well combined, fold in the chocolate chips. 
3. Fill liners two-thirds full. Bake for 22-24 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely before icing. 

Cinnamon Icing:
1/2 cups confectioner's sugar (i used a lot more)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp vegan margarine, melted
1 tbsp soy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla