Vegan Banana chocolate chip muffins

 It is September and kids are going back to school tomorrow. For us parents it is a tough time as we need to prepare nutritious meals that kids will eat and at the same time pack some nutrition that will help them thrive in school. 

This year I decided to do a series of posts dedicated to back to school recipes. I will be covering snacks and lunches that my son will be taking with him to school.

Today I baked vegan banana chip muffins. Muffins area great snack that most kids love. This provides us parents with an ability to sneak few extra valuable nutrients.

Ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose ancient whole grain flour 

2 ripe bananas 

3 dates

2 tbsp flax seeds, milled

3 tbsp hemp hearts

Handful of chocolate chips 

3-4 tbsp of brown sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda 

Pinch of sea salt

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Steps:

1. Place milled glazed with water and set aside for a 2-5 minutes

2. Blend bananas, hemp hearts, and dates with half a cup of water until smooth

3. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips in a large bowl. I usually mix them by hand with a spoon. Add more water as needed - approx 0.5 cup. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes. 

4. Preheat the oven at 375F.

5. Add chocolate chips to the muffin mix. 

6. Divide the muffin mass into muffin forms. Bake at 375c for 25-30 minutes. 

7. Let muffins cool off for at least 5 minutes so they come out if the form easily and you don’t burn yourself. 

Why I used selected ingredients?

I use whole grain ancient flour as it contains more nutrients, including gut benefiting fibre.

Hemp hearts in the recipe act as added fat replacing butter. However, my primary reason is extra protein that most baked treats are deprived of. 

Flax seeds are replacing egg and butter in my vegan recipes. Also, they are a great source of omega 3 and fibre. 

Bananas and dates are used in this recipe to help reduce quantity of added sugar. Both fruits are a great source of potassium that does not exist in refined sugars. 

Chocolate chips - I use semi-sweet Made Good brand as they clean ingredient and not excessive amount of added sugar. 

Muffin forms: I have been using Tchibo silicone forms for 7 + years and love them. I find removing muffins from them is very easy and barely ever I have issues with muffins sticking to them. 

Banana Oatbran muffins with Cacao Nibs

This week we let the bananas overripe, not on purpose of course. I hate throwing out food and usually I try to create the recipe to use the food before it goes bad.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of red fife flour (or eincorn flour)
1 cup of oatbran
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of coconut water
3 overripe bananas, mashed (I mashed them with a fork)
2 tbsp of cacao nibs
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

Process:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. I did not take the blender out, just used a regular spoon.
Place the dough in the muffin forms.
Bake at 375F for 25-30 minutes. Let them cool off in the over for 5-10 minutes.
Enjoy!

Healthy Lunch Box Series

Many of the snacks found in kids lunch boxes are packaged snacks, such as chips, pretzels, candy bars, granola bars, and cookies. While some are worse than others, and occasionally you might find something that is not loaded with fats, sugars, and chemicals. 

I want to show that preparing healthy snacks at home is not a rocket science and can become an adventure and lesson in healthy living.

Savoury Chickpea Flour Muffins

Who does not love muffins? Although often they are associated with sweet cakes, they can be a perfect savoury snack. Today's recipe is inspired by my exploration of chickpea flour recipes. While I tried many sweet recipes, I like chickpea four more in savoury dishes.

Chickpea Flour

I love chickpea flour as it is one of the healthiest flours, comprising of 25% protein, 14% fat, and 61% carbs. According to the nutrition data it is a great source of folate, B6, thiamin, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and manganese, and fibre.

 Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups of chickpea four (aka besam flour)

2 tbsp flax, milled and combined with 4 tbsp water

1 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda

50g sun-dried tomatoes, socked (reserve water)

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

10 olives, pitted and chopped

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp organo

15 tbsp water from soaking sun-dried tomatoes

Preparation:

1. Mix all ingredients together.

2. Add it to the muffin forms, to about 2/3rd of each form.

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 375F (177c) for 25 minutes.

4. Enjoy!

Carrot and apple muffin - vegan and gluten free option

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #muffin #carrot

Today my son asked for muffins. I asked what does he want in his muffin...he said carrots and apples!

So we pulled a big bowl and set my son in his muffin mixing position with a measuring cup in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Ingredients:

1.5 c millet, milled into a flour

0.75 c buckwheat flour 

4 tbsp flax, milled and mixed with 6 tbsp of water and set aside for a few minutes

2 sweet apples

2 medium size carrots

2 handfuls of raisins

0.25 c honey

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1.5 tbsp of cinnamon 

1 tsp vanilla powder

1 tbsp of grape seed oil

1. In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients.

2. Grate carrots and add to the mix. I grated them on the small eye grater.

3. Place cored apples in the blender and blend until you have apple sauce. Add to the bowl.

4. Add flax mix, honey, and oil to the bowl and mix everything well.

5. Add raisins and mix everything together.

6. Place mixture in the muffin forms.

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 177c for 30-35 minutes

8. Enjoy!

Oat bran orange and black cherry muffins

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating

Today my son was calling for muffins and he picked the ingredients - orange and cherries. I picked oatbran and vanilla powder. So we whipped up some incredibly good muffins.

Makes 10 muffins.

Ingredients:

1 c oat bran

0.5 c buckwheat

0.5 c all purpose flour

4 tbsp flax, milled

1 tsp vanilla powder

10 frozen cherries 

1 orange, peel and 1 cup orange juice

0.25 c honey

50 g butter, melted 

1 tbsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda 

1. Mix all ingredients, starting with dry ingredients.

2. Bake at 177c for about 30 minutes.

3. Enjoy.

Muffin time: Oat, Apple, carrot and pumpkin seed

#easyfoodcreations #healthyeating #muffins

Here is another super easy muffin recipe. This time we throw away flour, eggs, sugar, oil - typical ingredients in baked goods, and replace them with oats, honey, fruits, veggies, butter and spices.

Serves: 10

Ingredients:

2 c oats, grinded into flour

1 carrot, finely grated

1 Apple, corse grated

1/3 lemon, juice only 

100 g honey 

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp baking soda

0.25-0.5 c butter, melted

Handful of raw pumpkin seeds

1. Mix all ingredients together. Let it stand for a few minutes.

2. Bake in a preheated oven at 177c for about 30-45 min depending how moist were your fruits and veggies.

3. Enjoy!