Banana Pina-Colada Muffins

Winter is not leaving anytime soon. I normally don’t mind this season but this winter is not getting any better.

I am ready for a break.

The snow is pretty but I hate when it gets slushy and murky.

Cold weather itself isn’t horrible, but I would like the –4 degree wind chills to be gone.

Basically, I need a little warmth and there’s only so much hot tea I can drink.

Thankfully, I had some bananas waiting on the counter, just for this reason!

If I can’t get to the tropics this winter, I’m going to bring them to me.

Banana Pina-Colada Muffins – Vegan!

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil (I used Tropical Traditions)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut (I used unsweetened, but either type would be fine)

Streusel Topping:

• 1 Tbsp whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp Earth Balance
• 2 Tbsp coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large bowl, mash bananas.
3. Stir pineapple, coconut oil, and vanilla into bananas.
4. Add brown sugar to banana mixture.
5. Mix in dry ingredients (flour through coconut) until just combined.
6. Fill muffin tin 3/4 full.
7. In small bowl, mix together streusel topping and sprinkle streusel on top of muffins.
8. Bake 25-27 minutes or until golden on top and toothpick comes out clean.

I knew these would be good as soon as I smelled the bananas with the pineapple and coconut oil.

And I’m not sure about you, but I’m a sucker for a streusel muffin. I don’t know what it is about that crumbly, buttery topping, but it’s addicting in the best way.

If you can’t make it to an island this winter or have no plans to lay on a beach until June, you probably need these, too.

It may still be winter outside, but your kitchen will smell like summer.

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Coconut Oil Convert

How in the world did I wait so long to try coconut oil?

A week or so ago, I got a fun package in the mail – a huge jar of coconut oil from Tropical Traditions.

I know I’m like months behind on this trend, but I’m so happy I finally had the chance to try it.

Coconut oil is…strange. But a great strange!

It’s solid at room temperature, so it’s hard for me to call it an “oil”. But seriously – opening that jar brings up summer time memories of playing at the beach and the smell of my mom’s suntan oil (that stuff was not solid at room temp).

And while I would have loved to make something with limes and pineapple or something else completely tropical, I found a muffin recipe on their website that I knew I had to try.

I made this Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffin recipe, and only made a few changes – I cut everything in half (only making 12 muffins) and used all whole wheat flour and skim milk.

Yeah…I was thinking the same thing after opening the jar.

Pumpkin and coconut? Won’t this be too strong? Will the coconut flavor overpower the subtle spices and dark chocolate chips?

Turns out I had nothing to worry about.

Sure, the batter smelled a bit like coconut after adding the melted oil, but after baking, these were simply some of the best pumpkin muffins I’ve ever had.

Nick even liked them, and he’s not a huge fan of pumpkin anything!

 

Have you ever used coconut oil? What’s your favorite way to use it?

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Guest Post: Peanut Butter Muffins with Coconut Flour

Hello Bran Appétit readers!

My name is Lily, and I write a blog called Lily’s Health Pad where I discuss eating, exercising, and living healthfully while on a budget.

As you probably know, Brandi is vacationing in Spain. So, I hope you don’t mind my short takeover of her blog. When Brandi announced her need for guest posters, I jumped at the opportunity. As an avid reader of her blog, I am constantly impressed by her simple and delicious approach to cooking and meal planning.

Today, I’m going to introduce you all to baking with coconut flour. I’m also going to share a recipe for peanut butter muffins. It’s probably my favorite coconut flour recipe. Not to mention, it’s simple and delicious, so I know Brandi would approve!

Baking With Coconut Flour 101

Coconut flour is simply the fiber from coconut meat after most of the oil has been extracted. For those with allergies and intolerances, coconut flour is a wheat- free, gluten-free alternative to traditional flours. But coconut flour can and should be enjoyed by all. Even those without allergies will enjoy cooking with this product because baked goods that contain coconut flour always have a great texture and a hint of coconut flavor. Plus, coconut flour has some impressive nutritional stats. Check ‘em out below.

¼ cup coconut flour contains:

Calories-228

Fat- 8.4 grams

Carbohydrates- 33.2 grams

Protein-9.8 grams

Fiber-21 grams

Here are a few more tips and facts that will aid you in baking with coconut flour:

1) Coconut flour is quite dry on its own, so recipes using coconut flour almost always include more eggs than a traditional recipe.

2) You can replace up to 20% of the flour called for in a recipe with coconut flour. Just make sure you add the same percentage of liquid to the recipe.

3) When baking with coconut flour, don’t worry if your batter seems runnier than usual. Coconut flour’s high fiber content makes it very absorbent. During baking, the coconut will absorb much of the liquid.

***

Now, onto my favorite coconut flour recipe!

Peanut Butter Muffins

(yields 6 muffins)

Ingredients

· 3 eggs

· 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted (you could sub oil or butter)

· 5 tablespoons sucanat (you can sub brown sugar)

· ¼ cup natural peanut butter

· ¼ teaspoon salt

· ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

· ¼ cup coconut flour

· ¼ teaspoon baking powder

Directions

· Blend together eggs, oil, sugar, peanut butter, salt, and

vanilla extract.

· Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps.

· Fill 6 muffin cups halfway with batter.

· Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. (Makes 6 muffins.)

Voila!

You’ve got to try this recipe! It makes scrumptious muffins that have a delightful texture.

Swing by Lily’s Health Pad and let me know if you like cooking with coconut flour as much as I do!

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Playing Catch Up

So much to post, so little time  🙂

Today was pretty good, except for me almost passing out at the doctor’s office – oops! I am not good with needles or other not-fun things and I just got really hot today and felt like I was going to pass out. Thank goodness I didn’t, but that is never fun. The good thing is my stomach is doing a bit better! The pills are working and I’m hoping Nick and I will both be back to normal by the end of the week.

So, I have almost an entire’s day worth of food to post!

Before my doctor’s appointment, I had one of the blueberry chia muffins.

Still good, but I think I like them better heated up a little bit. I love the flavor, though.

Went to the doctor, paid $35 and left with a cup of water and a lollipip to get my sugar back up? I didn’t eat it – it was a gross flavor dum-dum and not my favorite (cream soda dum-dums are the best!)

Lunch was kind of random and thrown together, but it tasted good! I wasn’t sure how this would be when I packed everything up, but I liked the combination.

I brought 2 slices of my flax seed bread and brought a bunch of toppings:

• 1 wedge laughing cow cheese
• sauteed portobello slices
• leftover roasted asparagus
• sliced avocado

This was good! The asparagus was a little hard to eat so I think I would cut them into smaller pieces next time, but I loved the cheese with the mushrooms/asparagus/avocado. I ate the rest of the leftover asparagus that I couldn’t fit on the sandwich, too  🙂

Plus some other “sides”:

a nice crispy apple

and a small handful of pretzels – about half a serving, probably?

I felt a lot better after eating lunch – that seemed to get me back to normal after my almost-fainting incident.

I really liked this lunch, but it was lacking in protein and I was feelin’ it this afternoon. I was so hungry!

I had about 2 Tbsp of crunchy pb and about 1.5 cups or something ridiculous of celery. Yum.

Around 4:30 today, the skies decided to open and just dump all the water they were holding! All of a sudden, there was this huge crack of thunder and then you could hear the rain pouring down on the building. Of course, I left my rain jacket in the car at lunch since it was all nice and sunny at noon today – I got soaked just walking from the office door to the car door! It rained really hard the entire way home and finally let up a bit by the time we got to the chiropractor. Everything went well there, but she had to use the hammer tool thing on my neck and I hate that thing.

We ran to the store after the appointment for mroe bread for Nick and some chocolate chips for a baking project tonight  🙂  It smells amazing! I can’t wait to try it.

Even though I wasn’t sure how this meal would be on my stomach, Nick asked me if I wanted New River Grille, so we went there for dinner.

I didn’t get my normal, but I did still get onion rings – you just have to get them here! They’re so good! I got the blackened flounder with onion rings and green beans. Not the healthiest dinner, but it was good and just what I wanted. And I’m still feeling good!

I’ve got to get my lunch packed for tomorrow before I forget!

Make sure to tune in for the second Honduras post tomorrow morning  🙂

What’s your favorite dum-dum/sucker flavor?

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Full, But Not

This Honduran  craziness makes my tummy so strange. I’ve felt hungry all day, but not much actually sounds good. I’ve eaten, but still just feel empty? It’s very strange.

I got all my work done today! Mondays are my busiest day at work, and I was wondering how today would go with the teleworking. The set-up we used worked great! It was a bit slow, but other than that, I think it will work fine if they really do start supporting this more often.

To quiet the tummy rumbling this afternoon, I had a snack.

Oikos and Fage were both on sale this weekend! Wahoo! I crumbled up one of my blueberry chia muffins into a plain oikos and ate that while working. I love having baked goods crumbled in yogurt – the different textures and the sweet/tart combination always makes me happy.

I really wanted to have an even bigger snack that this, but I didn’t want to ruin my appetite since Nick came home at lunch. Because we were both already at home, I knew dinner would be earlier than normal, and I was right!

Nick asked for a big salad tonight and since that actually sounded good to him, I pushed tonight’s dinner plans to tomorrow and put together a big salad spread.

Mine had:

• romaine
• hard boiled egg
• yellow tomato
• black olives
• a tiny bit of crumbled bacon
• homemade avocado dressing, which was thick but really good

Nick added beer butt chicken to his, but I just wasn’t feelin’ that since I had some at lunch.

The avocado dressing just had

• about 1/2 of that huge avocado I opened up today
• the juice from 1/2 a lemon
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder
• 1-2 tsp canola oil

Whir it all up in the food processor or blender until creamy. You could add more liquid or something like mayo/yogurt to make it thinner. I liked the overall texture and once I mixed my salad together, it coated everything nicely.

I also made me some more “garlic bread” on a hot dog bun. Nick went and got himself a little loaf of french bread, but I know he’ll want more the next 2 nights with dinner so I let him have that and just made one of these for me. I just split the hot dog bun, spread on a little olive oil spread, sprinkled on some garlic salt + parsley and toasted in the toaster oven. Perfect!

I just finished packing up my lunch for tomorrow and doing some other things I needed to do (cut celery, freeze a package of chicken, make bean dish for lunches, etc) and now all that’s left is to make the bed, prep breakfast, and have a snack!

My stomach already feels empty again. I know it may be because I had 2 salads today, but this hunger is just ridiculous. I’m hoping we both get back to normal in the next day or two.

I have a feeling a bowl of my microwave popcorn is going to appear tonight  🙂

Is there a food that always makes you full/satisfied when you have it? I feel like nothing is working today, but it may just be this weirdness.

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Grilled and Chilled

I’m happy to say my baking project turned out delicious!

After seeing these muffins on a few blogs, I decided I needed to make them while I had blueberries and chia seeds on hand.

I took Nicole’s  version of the recipe and made a few changes based on what I had:

• I used 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 cup oat flour too add a bit more sweetness to the batter
• I used vanilla sugar AND added some of my Honduran vanilla  🙂
• I somehow got 13 muffins out of the batter – hooray for a baker’s dozen
• I used almond milk in the batter

Yum! I’m excited to eat more of these this week, and I like knowing that they’re good for me at the same time.

Lots of laundry happened, and I also took a quick nap on the couch that involved a bit of drool – guess I was sleeping harder than I thought I would!

It was pouring most of the morning, but it finally cleared up so we could make our planned dinner: Beer Butt Chicken!

You just take a whole chicken, season the skin, and take a beer can that’s about 3/4 full and put it inside the chicken so that it stands up. We always grill ours, but you could also do this in the oven, as well. The beer evaporates into the chicken, which keeps it extremely moist and gives it a great flavor.

Nick wasn’t feeling very well when we ate and didn’t want anything other than chicken and corn, so I just heated up one of these single serving broccoli & cheese containers I got with a coupon yesterday. It was pretty good, but I would add more broccoli next time  🙂

I got some bicolor corn at the farmer’s market yesterday, so we cooked that up to have with the chicken. This corn was SO sweet! I love the bicolor corn – it’s always super sweet and it’s just pretty.

I think Nick is feeling a bit better and I’m hoping my stomach craziness doesn’t get any worse.

I’ve got one more load of laundry to fold and I think we’re all caught up from our trip.

In trip recap news – I’m still working on getting through my 500 + pictures, so I’m hoping to have some recap posts up sometime this week. I’ve also just got a bunch of stuff on my mind from this trip that I’m sure will come out sooner or later. I’m just working on finding the right words, which is proving harder than I thought.

is tomorrow really Monday already? How was your weekend?

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Brandi’s Bran Muffins

Why order vitamuffins when you can make your own? Now, I’ve never tried the “actual” vitamuffins, but these are really tasty, chocolatey bran muffins that are easy to modify to whatever you want that day!

• 1.5 cups TJ’s High Fiber fruit and nut medley cereal (you could also use something like Fiber One or another similar bran cereal)
• 1 1/4 cups milk (cow’s, soy, almond, etc)
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 3 egg whites or 1 egg
• 2/3 cup applesauce
• 2 Tbsp honey or agave
• 1/4 cup butterscotch chips

1. Crush cereal in ziploc bag or food processor. Put cereal and milk in large mixing bowl and let sit and soften for 10 minutes.
2. Mix egg whites/egg, applesauce and honey into cereal mixture.
3. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa.
4. Fold in chips.
5. Spoon into muffin tin (mine was a 12 muffin, regular size) and bake 12-15 minutes at 400 or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let cool for a few minutes, then pop out of tin and let them finish cooling before putting in an airtight container.
7. These will last longer if you keep them in the fridge.

One of the best things about these muffins? You can add whatever you want!

Don’t like butterscotch chips?

Use chocolate instead, or dried cherries, or walnuts, or toffee pieces! I can’t wait to try all kinds of different mix-ins for these.

I like them warm right out of the oven, and they’re really good on plain yogurt, too:

Let me know if you try them!

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