Fruit explosion! muffins

I have missed my muffin days..it has been too long. I busted out the old muffin tin this morning, and convinced a friend to come over and sample a few with me :) I love summer berries, and usually have a good whack of them in my freezer. I also love jam. Muffins, berries and jam!! O yeah baby.

just a spoonful.

best store bought jam!

she loved them...

Ginger spiced plum muffins

I have been MIA lately, no real reason. Loving life. Here is a little muffin recipe I made up that uses all those beautiful little purple, last of summer plums!

Ginger spiced plum muffins

1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup organic sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup shredded coconut
2 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 6 tbsp water
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup coconut milk
2 cups flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups plums- pitted and chopped

Topping

1/2 cup rolled oats
3 tbsp organic sugar
2 tbsp vegan margarine

Preheat oven to 350
grease muffin tin
Mix together muffin mix, spoon into muffin tin
sprinkle topping over.Bake for 25 minutes or until done.

Butternut squash loaf... or muffins

Sometimes I feel like I have a morgue in my freezer...of bananas. I usually have a good whack of them in there, but today I saw something else. A jar of squash puree smiling at me. I thought it would be a good candidate for a loaf, and I was right. There was a little extra batter so I made a few mini muffins for the kids, topped off with a little Tofutti cream cheese!

Butternut Squash Loaf- or muffins

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup organic cane sugar

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 cup canola oil

2 cups squash puree

2 tbsp black strap molasses

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/4 cup water

pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 350

Whisk dry ingredients together

Combine wet in a small bowl.

Pour wet into dry. Mix up well.

In a greased loaf pan, sprinkle pumpkin seeds over and bake for 50 minutes or until done.

Tropical pineapple coconut muffin

The picture was a bit of an after thought, these were the last of the muffins. I think they lasted a whole 20 minutes and then they were gone.Super light and fluffy... a little taste of sunshine out of the oven!

Tropical Muffins
makes 12 muffins

1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt

1 banana- mashed
1 cup soy milk
2 cup fresh pineapple- chopped into small pieces
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup walnut pieces
2 tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 and grease muffin tin with butter or oil.
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
Mix wet ingredients in a bowl.
Combine wet into dry and mix well.
Scoop into muffin tin, sprinkle the walnuts and brown sugar on top.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done

Pumpkin cranberry muffins

There is something about pumpkins that I love, maybe its their color or the round chubbiness of them, or that they sit on peoples front door steps waiting for a face. Whatever it its I love them and the taste of them!

Local  cranberries hit the store the other day, so I picked up a bag. I am waiting for the veggie stand down the road to put them out, last year I got a huge ziplock bag full! Pumpkin and cranberry mixed together is like Ernie and Bert.

I whipped these up this morning with the roasted pumpkin puree I made the other day.  Perfect with your morning coffee (or tea).

Pumpkin cranberry muffins

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup soy milk mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 tbsp hot water

1 cup fresh cranberries- pulsed through a food processor ( just to break them up a bit)
Walnuts on the top are optional.

Preheat oven to 375
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl
Combine wet ingredients, pour into dry and stir it up.
Add the cranberries and scoop into a muffin tin. (grease it if you don't have muffin liners)
Bake for 30 minutes or until done.

Date & orange muffin

When you are pregnant sometimes you feel the urge to clean your home and change it up. "Nesting" as its referred to. I have felt it :) I put the baby crib up for the 3rd time! Yes I have had the same crib for 14 years! Insane...I know.

It is fun putting the baby clothes away. We didn't find out the gender of the baby. I like the surprise. I have one drawer of girl clothes and one drawer of boy clothes, most of which came from the thrift store and some gifts. I also purchased two rag quilts from Etsy, since Leeluu will be sharing her room I thought it would be a special something that they can both have. It is hard to believe that I only have a little under 11 weeks left!

I felt muffinish this morning so I made these, adapted from the joyofbaking.com. The sugar from the dates is sweet so feel free to cut down on the sugar. I will next time only use 1/4 cup. :)

Date & orange muffins 2 cups flour 1/4 cup rolled oats 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup cane sugar  1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tbsp grated orange zest 1/3 cup  fresh orange juice 1 cup soy milk/ mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar 1 egg replace 1/2 tsp almond extract 1/4 cup sunflower oil 1 cup chopped dates pumpkins seeds (optional) Preheat oven to 350- grease a muffin tin Mix dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix wet. Pour wet into dry. Mix until combined. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds Scoop batter into tins, bake for 20 minutes or until done.

Mango & Strawberry Muffins

I was at the store yesterday and mangoes were 25¢! I bought 9 of them with hopes to freeze a bunch and put them in smoothies. I also grabbed a box of strawberries, sometimes its nice to have a taste of summer in the cold winter.

When I got home I decided to make some muffins, and thought about mango muffins, but how much better would they be if I added fresh strawberries and in the middle a scoop of strawberry jam!

Mango & Strawberry Muffins

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt

3 mango-peeled and chopped
10 strawberries- chopped

1 cup milk
2 egg replacements
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup canola oil

strawberry jam


Preheat oven to 350
Mix dry with wet. Stir in fruit.
Scoop into greased muffin tin 1/2 way.
Place a spoonful of strawberry jam in the middle.
Top up with the rest of muffin batter
Bake for 45 minutes or until done.

Carrot & Apple muffins....and a winner!

After we came home from the beach, we decided to make some muffins. These are moist and fluffy and perfect for snack time! The winner of the CSN gift card is #84 Dia Corona congratulations! Please email me your info.Thanks everyone for entering the contest :)

1 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 pinch of nutmeg

1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup apple sauce
2 cups grated carrot
3 egg replacement
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup soy milk
1 apple peeled and grated

preheat oven to 375 and grease the muffin tin
mix wet into dry and stir until well combined.
Spoon into tins until 3/4 full.
Bake for 25 minutes or until done.

Cranberry love

The weather is getting cooler and we have been using the wood stove almost every night, it keeps the house toasty. When I walk outside of the house I can smell the burning of wood in the air...
I guess I have been taking a little bit of a break from my blog, I feel sometimes lost for words, but I have enjoyed reading a bunch of new blogs that I have found. I always feel inspired to make something I have never tried, and then I seem to fall back into the same old meals.....

We had thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago and I made this quick cranberry jam, its not super sweet and has a nice tartness to it. It would be nice with some roasted garlic on toast.YUM! The first batch of cranberries I picked up at the farmers market. Those were gone fast! On my way home several times I noticed that the elderly couple had there stand out at the end of there driveway selling cranberries so I stopped. $5.00 for a huge bag!!

quick cranberry jam

cranberry & orange muffins

There is so many things to do with cranberries, I think I am going to go the savory route next. I found some good ideas on the Martha Stewart site (I love her), this is where I got the idea to make a cranberry upside down cake, not to mention I had just read a post on Opera singer in the kitchen's blog, her gingerbread caramel pear upside down cake looks delicious! I had to adapt the Martha recipe to make it vegan. I used coconut oil instead of butter and added water, I also changed the baking powder to baking soda. I served it with coconut ice cream.

cranberry upside down cake

Lemon poppy seed cupcakes

It is a happy day for me because this afternoon my new stove was delivered!  What could be better than cupcakes to celebrate this joyous occasion? The great thing about this recipe you can leave out the frosting and have great lemon poppy seed muffins. This was my first time using egg re-placer and I am still undecided if it's a good thing?

2 cups flour
3/4 cup organic sugar
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk
1 1/2 tbsp pure lemon extract or 2 tbsp lemon juice
1 egg replacement
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp white vinegar

Add wet to dry and mix until all combined. Spoon into a greased muffin tin and bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until cooked ( test with a sharp small knife by inserting into the muffin, if it comes out clean there done!)

Frosting..I usually just eyeball it, but here is a good idea.

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup organic icing sugar, plus a little bit more :P
2 tbsp vanilla soymilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt

With a mixer combine everything and blend until fluffy. Adjusting the taste to your preference

Blueberry Banana Crumb Muffins

 

I have had a bunch of bananas sitting in my fridge for the last few days and they were looking very sad :(  I like to freeze bananas that don't look so appetizing anymore. I take them out and put them in a bowl on the counter to defrost. There is a yuck factor to them, super slimy, but the flavor in baked goods is AWESOME!  I had every intention of using them that day (which was 3 days ago). So in the fridge they went waiting to be used in something yummy. 

What could be yummier then fresh baked muffins in the morning? Bananas have there own sweetness, especially when they are at there peak of ripeness, so I cut down on the sugar. I think I could of left the sugar out.

 

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup organic cane sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

3 ripe bananas

1 cup almond milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil + 1 tbsp

1 tsp vinegar

1 cup blueberries

Topping

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup oats

3 tbsp organic sugar

3 tbsp earth balance

Preheat oven to 350

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl

Mix wet ingredients in medium bowl

Pour wet into dry. Mix well.

Fold in blueberries

Spoon into greased muffin tin, crumble topping over and bake for 30 minutes

Carrot Spice Muffins

This morning I was looking for something that would go nicely with my cup of coffee, and we have no bread for toast ( I need to go to the grocery store today:P), which is what I usually have. So I made these, they are not super sweet,  perfect for a breakfast muffin!

• 2 cups four
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/8 tsp ground clove 
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg 
• 1/3 cup cane sugar
• 1 cup oat milk
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 4 carrots- peeled and  grated
  

Preheat oven to 375 , grease up a muffin pan ( I used earth balance).

In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients.

In a small bowl mix together wet ingredients. 

Pour wet into dry, and stir to combine, fold in carrots,

Spoon into muffin tin, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean! 

Blueberry Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil
• 1 cup rice or soy milk
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

preheat oven to 400.
grease muffin pan or use paper muffin liners.
Mix flour,sugar,powder,and salt together
In a separate bowl mix oil, and milk,
pour over dry mixture, mix with wooden spoon, until just combined
stir in blueberries.

Bake for 20-25 minutes