Quinoa, Spelt: Banana Blueberry Muffins
The ultimate breakfast, (anytime) muffin. These moist and not-too-sweet morsels were created out of the usual need for me to feed the WSL healthy snacks and mix up his breakfast menu. Also, I have a friend who recently gave birth to baby no. 2. She was wishing on FB for a really good muffin, and I noted her previous posts on having to avoid dairy/sugar when nursing the newbie. So. I played. A few rounds later and I was satisfied.<!–more–>
How much healthy can one pack into baked goods you ask? Lots! And why not? If it tastes good? Ahm, isn’t a no-brainer? Of course I covet the usual sugar and butter laden treats like most – but not for everyday. Some of us have dietary concerns, allergies and nursing. Oooo, yes – newborns are finicky little miracles. I’m all about not totally restricting my diet if certain foods cause my little sweetie gas (=discomfort and CRYING). Lets have us some options! Because food and health are beautiful things. Hence these quinoa, spelt, flax, oatmeal, blueberry banana muffins. Spelt flour is delicious, nutritious and slightly nutty coupling beautifully with protein packed quinoa. You may have read some of my previous posts where I go on about how it has a lower gluten, therefore carb count, therefore fat, than in white or whole what flour. I could go on to surmise that carbs are responsible for the current crisis in overdone hispster fashion, explains why Adobe and Apple can’t make nice, and is indubitably why Harper is is just plain evil.
Alright, enough blathering and on with the recipe. This is a double whammy, so decrease the ingredients by 1/2 if you really want, but why bother? These suckers freeze beautifully.
What You’ll Need:
* 2 cups of cooked quinoa
* 2 cups of fresh organic blueberries
* 6 ripe bananas, mashed
* 4 tablespoons flax seeds
* 8 tablespoons of water
* 2/3 cup of sunflower oil
* 1/2 cup maple syrup (the real thing, no high fructose corn syrup knock offs yo)
* 1/2 cup of agave nectar
* 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 2 teaspoon vanilla
* 4 cups of spelt flour
* 2 tablespoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon cardamon
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups of oatmeal
How You Do:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Oil a muffin pan or use disposable muffin paper cups. You can find recycled and compostable paper cups easily nowadays. Go green. Put the flax seeds and water in a blender and shazam until crushed and gelatinous. This is actually the binding agent (along with the bananas), and replaces eggs in some vegan baked recipes. Flax is also rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Good for the brain and mood, and growing babies, ya. Use it anytime you would dig a nutty earthy flavor. Place in a bowl and mix in the oil, maple syrup, apple sauce, mashed bananas and vanilla.
Stir the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamon, salt and 1 cup of the oatmeal (save the other 1 for the topping), together in a medium bowl. Add the wet to the dry, do not over mix. Gently fold in the quinoa and the blueberries. Divide evenly among the muffin tins (I like to use an oiled ice-cream scoop), and sprinkle with the remaining oatmeal. Mayhaps some brown sugar for added crunch. I even sprinkled some flax seeds on top. Do’er up. Bake at 375 degrees for 22-25 minutes until a toothpick comes cleans and muffins are lightly browned on top. Et Voila! Butter up generously (especially since there is none in the muffin!) and devour. Share.
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Hi there,
I had a friend post this recipe on facebook and decided to have a quick look. I’m not sure when this recipe was posted on your blog, but I had to chuckle at the comment about using maple syrup and not high fructose syrup and in the very next line the recipe called for agave nectar. Agave nectar is basically high fructose syrup.
Hey there Carolyn,
Thanks fro stopping by. In my research i have learned that the higher fructose versions of corn syrup that some ‘maple syrups’ are made with, undergo further chemical reactions to process rather than agave nectar, which leads to it’s much sweeter taste. This process allows food manufacturers to reduce the amounts of the sweetener used in mass food production, saving a lot of money each year. Not to mention I have yet to find organic corn syrup that tastes better than agave.
Agave is a sugar alternative I prefer over corn syrup (when baking, in small doses) and nothing more…but maple syrup is the best! Health reasons aside, it just tastes better than that Aunt Jemima crap. I’m just experimenting over here and mixing things up a bit. I am by no means an expert, but I’m glad you got a chuckle. Laughter is lovely. All of my posts are dated directly above by the way…
Cheers!
Yummy! I also love to bake with maple syrup. I make sure to always bring a jar back with me. Love this muffin. going to try it. Thank you lady.
Speaking of which…when is your next visit?
[…] 9. Bake His Fave Treat […]
Hmm…sounds like an interesting recipe that I would Definetely like to try…just a few questions…red or white quinoi? Why cardamon? Doesn’t ground flax digest better? Also having a hard time finding agave sweetened items like ketchup or just agave itself
Hey Mel, this is way late but here are my answers! You can use any kind of quinoa you want. Caradmon is a spice used in many Indian sweets and had such a distinct, delicious flavour I thought it would be fun to use. I would use ground flax (1 tbsp flax, 1 tbsp cold water) as a binding ingredient for eggs if I wanted them to be dairy free. But I like the texture of the flax seeds, (coupled with the textures of the oatmeal and the quinoa) which make these a hearty breakfast muffin. Yea, you pretty much have to make your own ketchup if you want it without the high content of liquid sugar. I did it this year, not that difficult. I suppose i should blog the recipe 😉 Since this post I’ve kind of veered away from agave anyways, it’s so expensive and i can’t source it locally. I now opt for maple syrup, honey, maple sugar, fruit purees – it all depends on what I’m baking. This has been an excellent resource for me in baking sugar-free. http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.ca/2006/09/sugar-blues.html
I woke up this morning dreaming about blueberry banana muffins with quinoa in them, since we just got lovely no-spray blueberries in at the market this week. So I went a searching on ye old faithful google, and here you are! Thank you for posting! can’t wait to try them
Awesome! Tell me how they turn out for you Kelly.