Green Powerhouse Muffins

Dark winter mornings have the power to shift our whole weekday morning routine. Those extra minutes that the kids linger in bed  underneath their cozy comforters make it necessary for us to have fast, easy breakfasts on the ready. Freezer stash muffins have become winter essentials.

These Green Powerhouse Muffins are what we are digging lately (recipe below). They’re nut free, gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free. You can make them vegan by substituting flax or chia eggs for the eggs, and by using maple syrup instead of honey. 🌱 Beyond being an excellent breakfast choice, these are great for the lunchbox or as an after school snack.  

Sure, I’d love to enjoy a leisurely breakfast with my family of five on a school day. It just doesn't seem to happen these days. If it’s a similar situation in your house, give these a go!

(p.s.: here’s what else I’ve got in the freezer stash these days: banana muffins, breakfast cookies)

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 banana
4 dates
10 oz. frozen chopped kale (or spinach)
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup sunflower seed butter (unsweetened)
2 cups rolled oats (gluten free)
2 eggs
1/4 cup avocado oil
1/4 cup honey or maple
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Method: 

Preheat oven to 350. In a blender, first add the banana, dates and coconut milk. Blend until smooth. Next add the sunflower seed butter and half the oats. Blend again. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until all the ingredients are fully incorporated. Pour into a lined muffin tin and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out dry. Freeze extras for up to 3 months. 

* This recipe was inspired by The Natural Nurturer, whose Green Oatmeal Smoothie muffins we have enjoyed immensely. 

Strummin' on the Old Banjo

Life is good. ​

I came across something on Twitter the other day that basically boiled down to 'slow down to recognize all of the wonderful things you already have around you.' Always a good reminder. 
As an aside, my infant is teething. I've been up every hour for two nights and have reached a new level of exhaustion. Or delirium. Or new normal - I'm not sure.  It's hard to notice the wonderful things around you, let alone celebrate them when you're in these kinds of trenches but today I was spending the morning with my son and at some point realized that I was giggling! Loved.That.  

Cooking Banjo Muffins with My Toddler

​My son is regularly this smiley; it makes him a delightful companion. And when it comes to cooking, he scoops and measures with gusto; he pours in cinnamon like there's a present at the bottom of the container; he acts like he's the luckiest guy on earth when he gets to sample the goods along the way. And the best part? He'll often jump off of his "helper chair" in the kitchen and run into the playroom to get a prop and pretend to be the Entertainment Committee, playing his guitar, belting out a song at the top of his lungs. Lately, he's all about being in the kitchen with Dinah, strummin' on the old banjo. And there we were, singing it loud and proud - working on the railroad, fee-fi-fiddly-eye-oh-ing. I felt happy deep in my cells. 

Pretty much everything that I bake, I bake with him. It's all toddler-friendly measuring-pouring-scooping stuff around here. If there are any more complicated steps, I can get those done while he's in the midst of his musical interlude. Anyway, so today he wanted to bake muffins and use our Dora the Explorer cupcake liners. We devised this recipe together, tossing in some beet and apple for color and sweetness. Once cooled, he gobbled one down and declared it "dah-lisheey-ohso!"

Ol' Banjo Muffins
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup grated sweet potato (basically one medium sweet potato, peeled and grated)
1/4 cup grated apple (one medium apple, peeled and grated) 
1/4 cup grated beet (one medium beet, peeled and grated) 
1/3 cup coconut sugar (* you can substitute brown sugar) 
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons flax meal
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oat milk (* you can use whatever milk you'd like... we made this dairy free) 
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

Method
Preheat oven to 350. Line a muffin pan with liners (this recipe makes 12). In a bowl, mix together all of the dry goods. Add grated veggies and fruit and mix well to combine. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, oat milk, oils and vanilla. The coconut oil may be clumpy so using a whisk is probably best. Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Scoop into muffin tins and bake for approximately 20 minutes. ​
Let cool for 5-10 minutes and enjoy. 

Banana Sweet Potato Fig Muffins. Yum.

When I was little, my grandpa used to say he was waiting for someone to invent "smell-a-vision" so that when you watched a cooking show or talked on the phone with someone, you would be able to smell whatever it was that was cooking in their kitchen. If smell-a-vision was here today, you might want to call my house now. ​

The little guy and I had a muffin adventure in the kitchen this morning... an experimental recipe that went awry when I realized (after putting the muffins in the oven) that I had forgotten the baking soda AND the baking powder. Ugh. ​

I spent a full moment debating whether I should fix it or leave it - apparently aloud. When my son started saying "Mommy, what you forgot?" I realized we had come too far to have a muffin disaster. My son had personally added nearly every ingredient. He stuck his chubby little fingers into the batter so delightfully when it was fully mixed. He was excited about the final product. And I was too. So I took them out, poured the warm batter into a bowl, added the missing ingredients and put them back in the oven. ​

Boy does it smell awesome in here. ​And thankfully, the old adage about better late than never is totally true when it comes to rising agents. My son just wolfed down two of these muffins (with my assistance, of course). 

​Here's the recipe for Banana Sweet Potato Fig Muffins - baking soda and powder included. 

Enjoy! ​

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. ​

In a bowl combine:

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract​
• 1/2 c vegetable oil​
• 1 cup canned unsweetened sweet potato puree​
• 1 TB maple syrup​
• 1/2 tsp baking soda​
• 1 tsp baking powder​
• 1 1/2 cups flour​
• ​4 dried figs, chopped
• 2 tsp cinnamon​
• 1/2 tsp salt​

Mix thoroughly. Pour into muffin lined tin and bake for approximately 24 minutes. ​