Flourless Tart Cherry Oatmeal Muffins

So on Sunday I went on a giant meal-prep spree! This included an amazing banana bread baked oatmeal that I’ve been eating all week, hard-boiling some eggs, soaking and cooking chickpeas, roasting veggies, making the rice and ground turkey for last night’s burrito bowls, and baking these muffins. Why don’t I make muffins on Sundays anymore? Why?

There is nothing easier than making these muffins. You make these in the blender! You throw everything except the cherries into the blender, run it until it’s smooth, and then stir in the cherries. For those who haven’t check out this loaf I made, you know that I ended up with about a zillion tart cherries and I pitted them and it took forever. And then I gave up and just chucked some of them in the freezer bags with the pits still in. So then I had to take out all the pits when the cherries were still frozen. I’m also on a mission to use up the hilarious number of bananas that are in the freezer, so bananas went in both this and my baked oatmeal this week.

These muffins are dairy-free, since it uses almond milk. They are peanut-free, and can be gluten-free if you use gluten-free oats. There’s also no oil or butter, the only fat is from the almond butter.

This recipe make 12 muffins, like any reasonable muffin recipe does.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups oats
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 2 bananas
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups pitted tart cherries (or your favourite more common normal berry)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line your muffin tin with paper liners or grease it well.
2. Combine all ingredients, except the cherries in a blender and blend until smooth.
3. Stir in the cherries. Pour into muffin tin and bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins

Here at The Adventures of NutriGirl, we strongly believe in the power of muffins for mid-morning snacking. Also with coffee on Sunday afternoons. I don’t know about you, but by the time I commute to work, work all day, drive to CrossFit, work my butt off, and drive home again, I’m exhausted and starving. One of the best ways to avoid overeating at any point throughout the day is to keep yourself from getting too hungry. Try eating more often to keep from getting to the point where YOU NEED TO EAT ALL THE THINGS RIGHT NOW. For me, if I’m not tasting something at work, that means I need something with fibre and something with protein. The oatmeal and whole wheat flour in these muffins bring the fibre. I paired these muffins with a couple pieces of medium cheddar cheese to incorporate some protein and fat to keep me full and hold me over until lunch or after my workout.

Since this recipe has both pumpkin and applesauce, you’re getting all those good things from apples that keep the doctor away, plus all the nutritional bang of pumpkin. 1 cup of pumpkin has almost 200% of the vitamin A you need in a day! It also has 17% of your vitamin C. You need both these vitamins to keep your immune system going strong and fighting off any spring colds that might sneak up on you. These muffins are also made with almond milk instead of regular milk so they are dairy-free, for those who don’t agree with lactose.

This recipe makes 12 muffins. Store muffins in a sealed container in the fridge to keep them fresh. Serve with sliced cheddar cheese or a smear of light cream cheese for a treat.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup almond milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray or line it with muffin wrappers.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oatmeal, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir to combine.
3. Add the pumpkin, applesauce, egg and almond milk to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Portion batter into muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

As part of meal prep every week for the last month or so, I’ve made a batch of healthy-ish, portion controlled muffins on Sunday afternoons. While they always still have some sugar and fat in them, they are definitely healthier than the muffins I could buy in the cafeteria at work, or at Timmies, or wherever else I get to throughout the day. Split between two people, 12 muffins means we can each eat one on Sunday, and then each have one every day all week. Making muffins every week has also been an awesome way for me to try some new recipes. I made a couple vegan recipes from Thug Kitchen, as well as a few I’ve found on Pinterest and hadn’t made yet. And if the recipe I find doesn’t quite meet the nutrition standards for my lunch packing, I swap plain fat-free yogurt and applesauce in as needed. But those are recipes for another day.

When I was in first year, we were required to take an introductory foods course, where we learned the science behind our cooking, as well as food safety and cooking skills, and then we put it all together in a 2 hour lab every week. Four years later, whenever I need a recipe to work from or can’t remember a specific random food science fact, I crack open that stained, scribbled in, beaten up cookbook and can find all the basic recipes I will ever need, and the reasons why they work the way they do. This is all relevant because I made a batch of blueberry muffins in that lab. My partner and I made the muffins and some cinnamon rolls. When we tasted them at the end of the lab, I remember the cinnamon rolls being really good, and the muffins being ok, but not awful. There were often leftovers in lab so we brought containers so we could take things back to residence to munch on. I brought these back with me, and fed one to my lovely, unsuspecting boyfriend, who I had only been dating a couple months at the time. He told me they were great. I ate one later that day and they were THE GROSSEST MUFFINS I’VE EVER EATEN. I never found out why. I’ve made the recipe as it’s written since then with no modifications and had it work perfectly. I’ve played around with it and also had it work really well. I have no idea what on earth we did to those poor muffins in first year, but I’ve come a long way since. And the lovely boyfriend is much more discriminating taste tester now.

This recipe makes 12 muffins. I would suggest storing them in the fridge if you plan on keeping them around longer than 5 days. If you’re going to eat them all in the next day, it really does not matter.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup oatmeal
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup frozen blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease a muffin tin well.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar. Stir to completely mix.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the milk, canola oil, and lemon juice.
4. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined.
5. Gently stir in the blueberries until just combined.
6. Use an ice cream scoop or small measuring cup to scoop batter from the bowl into the muffin tin.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in an 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack or plate to cool completely before storing in a container.

 

 

Sundried Tomato and Basil Egg Muffins

As I continue with the theme of New Year’s resolutions from the last couple weeks, who made a resolution to eat breakfast more often? Breakfast really is important for starting your day on the right foot. If you wait to eat when you’re completely starving around 10am, you’ll find yourself reaching for the greasiest bacon-filled breakfast sandwich, or the sugariest doughnut you can find in a hangry haze. Even if all you can manage is a yogurt cup or a banana, you can bring something more substantial with you on your commute or to eat at work.

This recipe works perfectly for quick and easy breakfasts on the go, and is chock-full of protein, between the eggs and ricotta cheese. I also used fresh basil in this, which could only be made better by being fresh from a pot on the deck in the summer, instead of fresh from a package at the grocery store. When you’re looking for sundried tomatoes, find the ones sealed in a zippered package, not the ones in a jar in oil. You’ll save yourself a lot of fat, but still have all the flavour. I used kitchen scissors to cut both the basil and tomatoes, and that sped up the process even more.

This recipe makes 9 egg muffins. I’ve been eating two per meal with an english muffin to round out the meal.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) light ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) skim milk
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) finely chopped sundried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) chopped fresh basil

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Grease a muffin tin. Do not skip this step unless you like scrubbing muffin tins.
3. Crack the eggs into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the ricotta and milk and whisk until light and fluffy.
4. Divide the egg mixture between 9 holes of the muffin tin. Sprinkle each muffin with sundried tomatoes and basil.
5. Bake for 18 minutes, or until eggs are completely set.

Muffins can be stored in the fridge and reheated in the microwave as needed for make-ahead breakfasts.

Chocolate Chip Yogurt Muffins

Happy Friday everyone! If you’re looking to do some baking in the next couple days, I have the recipe for your! These muffins are not overly sweet and they have oatmeal to increase the fibre and make them more filling. Even better, there’s no oil, like you’d find in many muffin recipes, and there’s only 1/3 of a cup of sugar, other than what’s in the yogurt! I used raspberry yogurt in my muffins, but if that’s not your thing, you could use strawberry or vanilla and get very similar muffins. The raspberry yogurt doesn’t give it a ton of taste, just a little bit of raspberryness when you first bite into the muffins. These are great to keep on hand for work lunches, for grabbing while working at weird hours, and with a mug of tea for breakfast. I’m really happy with how they turned out and I hope you are too! This recipe makes a dozen muffins.

Also, I’m on the hunt for more interesting dishes and placemats or napkins to use for foodstyling so if anyone has any ideas where to find some, let me know!

As always, if you like what I’m doing, share it with your friends, family, enemies, dog… whoever! You can also like me on Facebook!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup quick oats
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup raspberry yogurt
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In the mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking powder and salt. Stir to mix thoroughly and add the sugar. Mix again.
3. Slowly add the milk, stirring continuously. Beat in the egg and yogurt.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Grease a muffin tin.
6. Carefully use a scoop to distribute the batter evenly between the 12 muffins.
7. Bake the muffins for 17-20 minutes, or until a fork inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
8. Let cool and serve!

Saturday Banana Muffins

I feel like I always have over-ripe bananas and never know what to do with them. If they’re not in my fruit bowl, there’s a huge collection going in the freezer. I’ve been trying to use them up, so I decided to make a batch of muffins over the weekend. These turned out amazing, and judging by the fact that I had none left by Sunday night, are very well liked by my recipe guinea pig/boyfriend. Had I managed to save any, they would have been perfect for taking to school for lunch all week!

Ingredients:

• 3 very ripe bananas
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 squares sweet baking chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Mash the bananas and combine with the peanut butter and vanilla.
3. Cream in the sugar. Add flour, oatmeal, baking powder, and baking soda and mix until everything’s combined. Add the milk.
4. Chop the squares of baking chocolate into very small chunks. You could also use chocolate chips but I didn’t have any in my cupboard so baking chocolate it was!
5. Grease a muffin tin and scoop batter into the tin.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges are browned and a toothpick stuck in a muffin comes out clean.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Muffins

Some recipes are recipes of necessity. In this case, my boyfriend had some pumpkin puree left over that really needed to be eaten up. Since I make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies all the time, I decided it was time to switch it up. They probably aren’t the healthiest thing I’ve ever made but they got the pumpkin out of the fridge and were great when it was so cold and blustery outside this weekend. What more can you ask for? I’m also willing to bet they’re a little bit better for you than the pumpkin muffins at Timmies or Starbucks so that’s a plus! They come out pretty dense so they’re really filling. I added more chocolate chips to ours, but I found that the muffins with the most chocolate chips came out really sticky and goopy, so do so at your own risk! 
Here’s what you need:

• 2 cups pumpkin puree (Not pumpkin pie filling, actual pumpkin. There is a huge difference)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk (Whichever kind is your favorite)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Line the muffin tin with muffin liners or give it a quick spray with some Pam.
3. Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon in a medium sized mixing bowl.
4. Add the pumpkin, egg, milk, and vanilla and stir until everything is good and combined.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Scoop into muffin tins. They’re dense little buggers and don’t really rise much so you can fill them right up! You could also easily fill them less and make twice as many smaller ones.
7. Bake for 25 minutes, or until you can stick a toothpick in and have it come out clean.

Et voila! You have some lovely pumpkin muffins ready just in time for Halloween!