When was the last time you saw a GF muffin like this? : Zucchini Muffins

It's been a too long since I last posted! Since the last time, I turned another year older, taken another mini vacation, gotten too involved in watching the hockey playoffs (Go Canes!) and occasionally did a little cooking. I've also had some weeks where I didn't do much cooking, so I've found a few new products. I'll cover those in another post. But the one thing that demanded I post right away are these beautiful muffins.

I don't think I've ever had a gluten free muffin look like this. They actually rose over the top of the pan and formed a muffin top. Then, said muffin top didn't cave in the middle. Best of all, they are yum-0! I made them when my sister came over for breakfast this weekend, and we had a hard time not gobbling the whole batch. Since then, I got a new muffin pan so I didn't have to use the papers and the second batch was even more beautiful. Unfortunately my photography skills on the second batch didn't live up to the muffin.

The original recipe came from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, I made just a few adjustments and voila!

Zucchini Muffins with Cinnamon-Crumb Topping

Dry ingredients:
2 cups gf all purpose flour mix
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Wet ingredients:
1 Tbsp flax seed meal/ground flax seeds
3 tablespoons water
1-1/4 cup shredded zucchini, packed
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1-1/4 cups rice milk or other non-dairy milk

Optional Cinnamon Crumb Topping: (I doubled the original - it adds a lot of flavor without a lot of sugar)
2 teaspoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon demerara sugar
1 tablespoon gf all purpose flour mix
1/2teaspoon cinnamon(Use a fork to combine until crumbly.)


Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a muffin pan with paper or silicone liners or oil well . In a medium bowl, whisk the flax meal and 3Tbsp water and let sit until it's a little gelatinous (just a couple minutes).

Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

Add the remaining wet ingredients to the flax mixture and stir to combine.Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until combined. Do not over-stir. Batter will be very heavy. Spoon into muffin cups, dividing batter equally among the cups. Sprinkle the center of each muffin with a little Cinnamon Crumb Topping, if desired, and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

If there aren't enough of you to reasonably eat the whole batch, you should probably put some of them away immediately! Enjoy.

Back from vacation and Props for my Alma Mater

Well, I'm finally back in the blogosphere. Yet again, I've been trying to adjust my schedule. Now that exercise is once again part of my regular routine (oh, how I've missed it!) and I am back from a real vacation, I will try to catch up on some of the things I've made and tried in the past month. I have tomorrow off from work for Good Friday - maybe that will help. But I also have my first appointment with a personal trainer tomorrow - so maybe not!

The real point of this post is to give some major kudos to my Alma Mater - Meredith College. I got an invitation in the mail the other week to an anniversary celebration/reunion for the honors program. Imagine my surprise and delight at the bottom of the registration when they actually asked about vegetarianism and food allergies! Reunions and catered affairs are usually particularly difficult because you can't exactly just pull in with your lunch box without being afraid of offending - or just having your dietary issues becoming the topic of conversation. I sent in my registration with a note explaining that if they would rather, I could just bring my own lunch and "ice cream" (no spring Meredith event is complete without an ice cream social). I was just glad they opened up the lines of communication so that I would be free to do that. Instead of just saying "yes, why don't you do that." I got a kind email from the director of the honors program saying that they would like to accommodate my needs. They had a prospective student who has some of the same issues and are interested in trying out some options of what they might be able to do for her! How perfect is that? Not only do I have the potential of going to an event where I don't have to take my own lunch, but I might be able to help food services know a little more about how to help a new student who is probably pretty afraid of what might happen when she is no longer in full control of her meals. She did leave it open that if food services can't handle it, that I would be able to have refrigerator space to store my lunch. Even if that's all they end up doing, that option is a big step in the right direction!

An old recipe brought back to life: Pumpkin Muffins

This recipe is based on an old recipe that my mom picked up at a Weight Watchers meeting a long time ago. I don't know if the recipe actually came from WW or from a member of the class. The copies we have are all run off on a copy machine, are handwritten with a drawn pumpkin outline on it. To let you know just how old it is, the original recipe calls for Sweet N' Low! And it lists exchanges instead of WW points. I haven't seen a recipe like that in a long time.

Well, I've veganized it and replaced the Sweet and Low with sugar. So, it's no longer the no sugar added, reduced fat muffin that told you to eat 6 full size muffins as one serving! I never could do that. But they are pretty darn tasty and with all that pumpkin and carrot (and now almond meal and flax), still pretty nutritious. Because they are different nutritionally, I have figured out the nutritional information for these and posted them below the recipe.

Because of the low flour content/high pumpkin content, these are a dense chewy muffin rather than a cakey one. They taste pretty much the same (other than no artificial sweetener taste) as the originals, but I call them better because they are now vegan, have essential fats, and are no longer full of artificial anything.

Better than WW Mini Pumpkin Muffins (Makes 22 mini muffins, 11 servings)

• 2/3 cup almond meal
• 6 Tbsp brown rice flour
• 1/8 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 5 Tbsp ground flax
• 6 Tbsp water
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup grated carrot

Mix all the dry ingredients, except the ground flax, together in a medium bowl. Set aside Mix the flax and water with a fork until you have a gelatinous (egg-like) mixture. Add the vanilla and the pumpkin puree to the flax mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until well combined. Fold in the grated carrots. Raisins or nuts are optional and yummy additions. I left them out this time and they are not included in the nutritional information. If you choose to use them, fold them in after the carrots.

Lightly oil a mini muffin pan and fill to the top with muffin batter. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Because of the nature of these muffins, the bounce back test and the toothpick test wont work. They will be lightly set and browned on top.

Nutritional information (serving size 2 mini muffins)

• Calories: 96.6
• Fat: 4.7g
• Saturated Fat: 0.3g
• Carb: 11.5g
• Fiber: 2.8g
• Sugar: 4.5g
• Protein: 3g
• Weight Watchers points: 2

For me, comparison to a product/recipe I already like is helpful. So I looked up a chocolate coconut LaraBar. These are one of my favorites, but because of the sugar content (not to mention the cost) I have to limit them to the occasional treat. 4 mini pumpkin muffins have slightly fewer calories, less fat, half the saturated fat, more protein, and half the sugar!

This last week has been weird

I decided this past week that I missed some of my old, quick standbys. Black beans with tomatoes and hot sauce, sweet potato fries, pulling leftovers from the freezer, etc. So, I didn't cook last weekend for the upcoming week. I didn't realize how accustomed I'd become to having meals ready to eat. It was a disaster! It was way too easy to pick up chips or popcorn and skip fixing anything decent for dinner so I didn't have to think about it. I only did that once or twice, but the point is when I went back to the old plan - more like a non-plan - I went back to old, bad habits. Not enough vegetables, not enough whole grains, etc. At least I kept exercising. But, I discovered something: I like the new plan! So I'll be back to cooking this week. I might just have to mix in some of the old standbys in the weekly planning.

Valentine's Breakfast: Silver Dollar Corn Pancakes with Strawberries

I had some drama in the kitchen this morning trying to make crepes (the non-buckwheat ones) gluten free. I ruined the whole batch, but had already promised breakfast to my mom and dad. And, I'd already sliced the strawberries -how can you have Valentine's Day breakfast without strawberries? (Well, I guess you can if you can't get them where you live this time of year, but I was lucky). So I looked at the blueberry corn pancakes in Veganomicon for a little guidance, changed them up a lot based on my allergies, my pantry, and the fact that deglutenized/sans blueberries they were way too thin. I came up with a nice corn pancake recipe. These are money! (silver dollar...money...get it? ;)) We'll be having these again.

Silver Dollar Corn Pancakes (Makes 10, 3 servings - depending on how hungry everybody is!)

Sift together and set aside:

• 3/8 cup gf all purpose flour mix
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/3 tsp baking soda & 2/3 tsp cream of tartar (1 tsp baking powder would work instead of these two)
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix the following:

• 3/4 cup rice milk
• 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp water (approx 1/6 of a cup)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tsp lemon zest

Mix the two groups together until just combined. Brush a light layer of coconut oil onto a preheated (medium-low heat) heavy skillet. Pour batter into pan using a 1/8 cup measuring cup. Cook until the top bubbles, the edges are drying and the bottom is golden brown. Flip pancakes and cook until the bottoms are golden brown. I found that I didn't have to re-oil each time - just use the brush to redistribute the oil that may have moved to the edges of the pan. If your pan is dry, reapply a thin layer of oil. I had to make these in 4 batches (3 of 3 pancakes and then 1 lone pancake), so you might want a plate and a piece of foil handy to keep them warm.

To make the strawberry pancakes that are shown in the picture: Place 3 pancakes on each plate. (Wrap the leftover pancake in the foil and save in the refrigerator for later or give somebody an extra). Top with fresh, sliced strawberries. Using a small metal sieve/strainer, sprinkle on the powdered sugar - about a tsp per plate. Serve while pancakes are still warm.

Just a note for the lovers of the the light, fluffy pancakes. These are not those! They are a nice hearty, heavier pancake. In fact, the one leftover was great cold with almond butter spread on it. It was almost like eating bread, and made a perfect after-walk snack.

I hit a produce sale at the grocery today!

I went to a convenient, but usually overpriced grocery store today to pick up some fresh produce for the upcoming week. They were having sales on lots of stuff today. I didn't think I'd see those prices 'til spring. 98c/lb for zucchini in February is a surprise blessing. Look at this beautiful haul.

For under $30, I got the following:

• 2 leeks
• 1/2 container almond butter
• 1 can organic navy beans
• 5 sweet potatoes
• 1 large lemon
• 3 large onions
• 2 pints blueberries
• 1 lb strawberries
• 5 (or maybe 6) zucchini
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1 fuji apple
• 1 bosc pear
• 1 nectarine
• 1/2 lb sliced baby bella mushrooms
• a lot of baby spinach

The only thing better would be to get a bunch of local produce at the farmer's market. But in the middle of winter, I take what I can get.

I couldn't do this again if I tried

Yes, I know that you generally don't want to know what a klutz I am. But this act of klutziness ended in an unusual way. I had used one of my favorite totally unnecessary, but much used kitchen gadgets - the can-sized strainer. (It fits right on the top of a standard 14-16 oz can so that I don't have to mess the big strainers!) In wiping up a spill, I knocked the strainer off of the island and as a natural reaction my hand tried to catch it and my hip swung toward the cabinet to keep the strainer from reaching the floor. I didn't feel the strainer and I didn't hear it hit the floor? Had I become a magician without knowing it? Nope...look where the strainer landed.