Tag Archives: Muffins

Yellow Squash Cranberry Muffins

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A few years ago I planted some yellow squash and it went gang busters in the garden. I made fritters with it, sauted it, roasted it, you name it. But I was at a loss of what else to do with it. So I found this recipe from CaramelPie and altered it to cut down on prep time and make them a little more healthful. And since the, they have been by far one of my favorite summer baked goods.

I just baked up my first batch of the season and they are just as yummy as I remember! Super moist, light and delicately sweet!

Ingredients:

15 muffins

  • 2 cups baby yellow squash grated
  • 2 eggs
  • 1⁄2 cup melted butter
  • 1⁄2 cup applesauce
  • 1⁄2 cup sugar
  • 1⁄2  cup brown sugar
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1teaspoon salt

Directions:

  1. Wash squash, trim ends, and grate.
  2. Measure 2 cups of the squash, combine with eggs, butter, and applesauce, and set aside.
  3. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
  4. Make a well in center of mixture.
  5. Add squash to dry ingredients, stirring only until moist.
  6. Spoon into greased muffin tins, filling 3/4 full.
  7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.

Sweet Potato Chai Muffins with Coconut Oil

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I’m a little surprised at how often I make muffins these days since I wasn’t a huge muffin baker in the past. But now that my kids are going to school in the mornings and need a quick breakfast that’s also wholesome, I find myself trying more and more muffin recipes. Who doesn’t get tired of cereal and frozen waffles every morning! We gotta mix it up and we leave the pancakes (unless I make extra and freeze them) and smoothies for the weekends.

I had sweet potato in the freezer the other day that needed to be used (here’s a HUGE tip…buy the frozen mashed sweet potato from Trader Joes! Just defrost and you are good to go!!) and so decided to make this recipe that originally used pumpkin and then I swapped out the butter for the coconut oil. Easy peasy! I personally like coconut oil in my muffins and my girls like it too, but it can make the texture a little denser. That said, I love the added flavor the chai tea brings to these muffins.

Sweet Potato Chai Doughnut Muffins Author: Adapted from Martha Stewart Ingredients

For the muffins: Makes 12

  • ⅓ cup milk
  • 1 bag chai tea
  • 10 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 2 cups all­purpose flour, plus more for pan
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon allspice
  • ¼ teaspoon cardamom
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1¼ cups cooked and mashed sweet potato (pumpkin can easily be substituted)
  • ¾ cup lightly packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
For the sugar coating:
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 2½ teaspoons cinnamon

Directions

1. Pour milk into a mug or small microwaveable bowl. Heat in microwave 40 seconds until hot (but not scalding). Steep tea in milk 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 12 standard muffin cups. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom and baking soda until well combined.

3. Remove tea bag from milk, squeezing out any extra liquid and flavor from bag. Pour milk into a small bowl and stir in canned pumpkin until mixture is well combined.

4. In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, beat oil and brown sugar on high speed 1 to 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. Using a spatula, wooden spoon or stand mixer on low speed, alternate stirring in flour (in 3 additions) and sweet potato mixtures (in 2 additions), beginning and ending with flour mixture, just until batter is combined.

6. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups. Bake 23-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool muffins 10 minutes in pan on a cooling rack.

7. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together sugar and cinnamon. One at a time, remove muffins from pan then roll in sugar­cinnamon mixture. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Protein Packed Sunflower Butter Muffins…Yum!

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IMG_3737Well hello again! I disappeared there for a bit over the Christmas break. I posted a few inspirations on Instagram, but I was otherwise engaged with hanging with the family folk for the last few weeks. I have to say, it was nice to slow down, not rush out the door and just hang in our jammies if we so chose. Not to give an entirely wrong impression that we did nothing but hang out in our pjs slothing about. We did venture out of our hollow up to visit the snow, downtown to see the gingerbread houses and then a dismal attempt at driving around to find Christmas lights and ending up in a gas station bathroom (ewe!!).

Now that the merriment of the holidays are behind us, we’ve stretched our pants to capacity and dawned our nightwear sufficiently during the day hours, it’s time to get back on track. Exercise, stick to a schedule and eat healthy…but still eat yummy food of course!! The Christmas cookies are in the past and I am inspired to start thinking of some healthier options for my little peeps that they will actually eat. So I went to my “High Protein Vegetarian” cookbook and found these bad boys that I hadn’t tried before. Partly because my oldest daughter only likes almond butter and my youngest only likes peanut butter…hmph 🙁 But a lightbulb went off last night and I thought of the all forgotten sunflower butter that I think is oh-so-delicisious, but hardly used. So with a few minor substitutions, I whipped these up last night while the girls were in bed. And the best part? they tried them for breakfast and they liked them! Yay! And I have to say I do too. Super yum with all sorts of healthy goodness in there to make a mom’s conscience rest easy.

Here is the recipe that was adapted from Veggie and the Beast:

Sunflower Butter and Chocolate Chips Protein Muffins

 

YIELD: 10 – 12 muffins (I only got 10)

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

COOK TIME: 15 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup whole grain spelt flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
  • ½ cup quick oats
  • ¼ cup wheat germ
  • 1 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup natural unsweetened applesauce
  • ⅔ cup creamy peanut butter
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ½ cup 2% plain Greek yogurt
  • 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Whisk together the flour, oats, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
  2. In another bowl, stir together the applesauce and peanut butter. Mix in the honey, sugar, egg, and vanilla, and then stir in the Greek yogurt.
  3. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold in the chocolates chips.
  4. Drop the batter into 12 lined and greased muffin tins.
  5. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick/knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
  6. Allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Since this is an oil-free quick bread, the muffin flavor and texture will improve overnight.