Whole Wheat Blueberry Oat Muffins

I decided to change things up from my usual banana-based weekend baking and made some of these instead:

I used the recipe from The Lean Green Bean as a base and made a few minor modifications. They turned out perfectly – bursting with berries, moist, sweet but not too sweet, and very much toddler approved. Little dose he know, I snuck a big old zucchini in there ;). They’re perfect for a quick snack or breakfast and were also insanely quick and easy to make, basically the most important factor according to me.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Oat Muffins (adapted from The Lean Green Bean’s recipe) ~ 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cups organic, naturally sweetened vanilla yogurt
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 small to medium sized zucchini, finely grated
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, plus another 1/4 cup to place on top of muffins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° and either grease or line a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. Mix together coconut oil, egg, yogurt, vanilla & grated zucchini until well combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients together.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients; mix well.
5. Fold in 2/3 cups blueberries.
6. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full.
7. Gently press 2-3 blueberries on top of each muffin.
8. Bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle of muffin comes out clean.
9. Let cool for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

I made these on Sunday and put 1/2 in the freezer for safe keeping. That way i’m not tempted to finish a dozen muffins in half a day ;). The modifications that I made were omitting the sugar, using vanilla instead of plain yogurt (since I omitted the sugar), coconut oil instead of butter & the addition of a zucchini. I was a little worried that they would have that really flour-y taste that can come with using whole wheat flour, but they absolutely did not.

And here, because I just can’t help myself:

I could just take a bite out of those little legs. I won’t, obviously :D.

Have a great Tuesday!

Mini Muffins & Weekend Happenings

Did the weekend even happen?? I feel like I blinked on Friday and when I opened my eyes, it was Monday! Well I hope you all had a great weekend anyway, if it did in fact take place ;).

I always buy bananas on Sundays, let them ripen up throughout the week, and bake with them on Fridays. This time around, I made mini banana oat muffins and it was the easiest method possible. I put all the ingredients into the blender (in 2 batches – so I basically divided all the ingredients in half) blended until smooth, and poured into a greased (with coconut oil cooking spray) mini muffin pan. The recipe produced 24 perfectly moist and sweet-but-not-too-sweet 2 bite muffins.

Banana Oat Mini Muffins

• 3 very ripe bananas
• 2 1/2 cups quick oats (you can also use old fashioned oats – use gluten free if you have an allergy)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (melted) or olive oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)
• 1 tbsp hemp hearts (optional)
• 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350º and grease a 24 cup mini muffin pan – I use coconut oil cooking spray
2. Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend well. Depending on the size of your blender or processor, you may want to divide the ingredients in 1/2 or even 1/3’s.
3. Pour batter into muffin tin so that each cup is about 2/3 full.
4. Bake 18-20 minutes. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. These are good for about 3 days so you may want to freeze part of the batch.

**You can add a handful of mini chocolate chips if you’d like, but fold them in after blending.

Replacing regular flour with oat flour means a denser finished product, but I find the blending method makes them a lot fluffier. And the cleanup is so easy!

On to other things.

We had a very rainy Saturday so we did some super exciting indoor activities including Home Depot for wood primer and stain (working on a fireplace mantle), and the mall for some food court lunch and playtime in the kid zone for Ryland. He is obsessed with slides. I need to find one that will fit in our condo, which is already overflowing with toys. Yet all he wants to play with is tupperware, coasters, remote controls and shoes. Seriously though, I don’t think he’s ever had so much fun in his life then he did on that slide. Melts my heart!!

About once a month, Duncan gets up early to make a pancake breakfast. We love pancakes!!

I took Parker for a quick hike after breakfast while Ryland (and Duncan) were napping. I try to spend quality time with just him when I can because I hate to admit it, but he definitely doesn’t get the attention he did before Ryland came along. I promised myself that wouldn’t happen and constantly feel guilty for it. Sometimes I feel like there needs to be two of me.

When we got home, Duncan & Ryland were all geared up and ready for football Sunday. We’re a Packers family while pretty much everyone else we know are Seahawks fans so it was a highly anticipated game. Lucky for us, the Packers cleaned house!

Our little Cheesehead!

We put Ryland to bed after the 1st quarter, but he was right into it for that little bit. Future NFL-er?? I hope not…I’d have way too many heart attacks.

That about wraps up our insanely fast weekend. I hope yours was great and I’ll see ya soon!

Blueberry Banana Oat Muffins – Gluten Free & Toddler Approved!

Hi! I hope your day is off to a fantastic start! I have a quick, easy and healthy muffin recipe for you today, following a little bit of rambling :).

I used to ignore ingredient lists and nutritional stats, but now that i’m studying nutrition, I would feel like a cheat if I continued to remain oblivious to those things. I’m not saying every single thing I put into my mouth is 100% healthy, but I try for the most part to make better choices for myself and my son. I’m working on Duncan…he’s still very much a convenience and junk food lover. He assumes if something is healthy, it just won’t taste good. Yeah, I’ve got my work cut out for me there.

Before I had Ryland, I made a lot of my own granola bars and muffins.There’s just way too much going on with the store bought stuff. The sugar content alone is scary. And too think…back in high school my lunches would consist of gummy bears and diet coke! My poor body! Anyway, I’m a big fan of really grainy baked goods so I generally replace flour with whole and/or ground up oats. I don’t have a wheat allergy and I don’t avoid it, it’s just a general preference for some things. I also like to add chia seeds and hemp hearts to basically everything, so those always go in my baking. It’s just such an easy way to boost the nutritional value. I’ve made a lot of variations with what I add into my granola bars and muffins, whether it be fruit, nuts, seeds, raisins or chocolate chips. I’ve also recently started to add some ground up pumpkin seeds to increase the iron content. I had some postpartum anemia which has since resolved, but I’m always really paranoid that i’m not getting enough iron!

Ok, but enough of all that. Here are the muffins I whipped up last weekend:

And here is the recipe:

Blueberry Banana Oat Muffins (gluten free)

• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 cups *oat flour (be sure to use gluten free oats if you have an allergy)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (melted) or olive oil
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp hemp hearts
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1. Pre-heat oven to 350º and line a 12 cup muffin pan with muffin liners. Spray the liners with cooking spray so that the muffins don’t stick. Because trust me, they will otherwise.
2. Place bananas, vanilla extract, apple sauce, yogurt, chia seeds, hemp hearts and oil in a blender or food processor and mix until well blended.
3. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
4. Add wet ingredients; mix well.
5. Fold in blueberries.
6. Pour mixture into muffin liners so that they are each about 2/3 full.
7. Place on middle rack of oven and bake for 18-20 minutes.
8. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

These muffins are great on their own, but sometimes I top them with peanut butter. I top a lot  of things with peanut butter. I made a batch 2 weeks ago and added a zucchini into the blender. Perfect way to fill my toddler up with veggies ;).

Notes

*the general rule I follow for making oat flour is approximately 1.5 cups of oats = 1 cup of oat flour when ground. For this recipe, I ground 3 cups of oats and it produced exactly 2 cups of flour. I also threw a handful of pumpkin seeds into the food processor while grinding the oats. I didn’t include it in the recipe because it’s not necessary, but feel free to do the same if you’re looking for some extra nutrients. 

I find that the muffins are good for about 3 days so I usually freeze half.

That’s it, that’s all! Have a great day!