Vegan Raisin Bran Muffins

The first day of fall is upon us! Kids are going back to school and life getting back to its usual speed; I find it so easy on busy mornings to run out of time for breakfast, which l know wrecks havoc on my metabolism, and makes me ravenous and more likely to crave something unhealthy for lunch.

The solution? Try these easy, fast, healthy and yummy muffins for a perfect breakfast for people on the go! I'm a big fan of bran muffins! They're healthy, and full of fiber that keeps me full all morning! 

Make these tonight and be ready to go tomorrow morning!

You can store these in freezer if you don't want to eat them all in one go.  Just pull one out in the morning on your way out the door. By the time you get to work, it should be defrosted and ready to enjoy!

I love these as is, but I'm a compulsive experimenter, so here are some of my ideas for future batches. Instead of using applesauce, I'm thinking about trying pureed prunes for even more fiber. I'm also considering adding half a banana or maybe some cooked apple for some extra flavor. Experiment at home and let me know what you think!

Here's The Skinny:

Per muffin: 160 calories, 6 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein

Recipe:

Makes 10 muffins

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups all-bran cereal
1 1/4 cups original almond milk
2 Tbs coconut oil
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins

1) Preheat the oven to 400, and line 10 cups of a muffin tin with liners.
 
2) Combine the cereal and almond milk, and let sit until the bran becomes soft and mushy, about 5 minutes.

3) While the cereal sits, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.

4) Add the coconut oil, apple sauce, and vanilla extract to the soaked bran, and beat with a hand mixer until combined. Then stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Lastly, stir in the raisins!

5) Using an ice cream scoop, distribute the muffin dough into 10 lined muffin cups.

6) Pop into the oven for 20 minutes, rotating halfway through so they cook evenly.

Note: The muffins will come out of the oven is basically the exact same shape as they are when they go in, so you may want to smooth the tops before baking

I love these with a little bit of fruit preserves (not included in calorie count). Yum!

Enjoy the beginning of fall! It's my favorite season, and some of my favorite flavors - stay tuned for pumpkin recipes to come!

Vegan Buckwheat Blueberry Muffins

First, I have to apologize for not posting anything on here lately! The last month has been crazy busy, and hasn't allowed much time for me to experiment in the kitchen. Happily though, I was able to get back into the groove this morning by changing around the blueberry muffin recipe from a few weeks back.

The changes I made were small, with a big pay off! I used 1/2 cup buckwheat flour to replace some of the whole wheat flour, and then based on that, I decided that almond would compliment the buckwheat flavors, so I used almond extract to replace the vanilla. The last change was small--I only had the original almond milk instead of unsweetened, so in went the original! Surprisingly, I could actually taste a small difference, and I liked it!

Recipe (makes 6 to 8 muffins)

Dry ingredients (which I like to mix together the night before to make my morning easier)
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup raw sugar

Wet
1/2 cup original almond milk
2 tablespoons trans-fat-free shortening, melted
3/4 teaspoon almond extract

3/4 cup blueberries, fresh or thawed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To assemble, mix together the dry and wet ingredients in different bowls; I like to measure the almond milk and then just use the measuring cup for all the wet ingredients to save on dishes and hassle.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until just combined. Then carefully stir in the blueberries, being careful that you don't squish them!

Line or grease a muffin tin, and then use an ice cream scoop to easily distribute the batter into 6-8 muffins. I somehow almost always end up with 7.

Then pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, rotating the tins halfway through so they cook evenly! Resist the temptation to scarf them up right away, and wait 10-15 minutes for them to cool just a bit.


Here's the skinny:

Each muffin (made 7 big muffins, last time I made 8 smaller ones):

200 calories
4.7 grams of fiber
3.8 grams of protein
4.8% of your daily iron
4.6 grams of fat (varies A LOT based on the type of shortening)

Using the buckwheat flour was a great choice, adding protein, fiber and iron to the muffins! I also really like the more nutty taste it adds.

I am completely in love with the almond instead of vanilla! I know I'm a big fan of almond flavoring, so if you're not, experiment on your own! You could try coconut extract and then maybe add some mini chocolate chips...make these your own!

These muffins are pretty filling! I'm not the kind of girl who takes a bite of a cookie and says she's full, but after eating one of these muffins I felt pretty satisfied! They are kind of really delicious, so I may or may not have gone against my better judgement and eaten another one, but that was actually too much. So one muffin could be the perfect on-the-go breakfast!

Next time I'm using more buckwheat flour. I didn't want to overpower the recipe so I was a little wary this time, but I definitely think it can handle some more. I'm also going to use oat flour to replace the whole wheat flour to make these gluten free. I try to make only one or two changes at a time so I can see where the taste differences come from which is why the muffins didn't go gluten free this time, but since I loved the buckwheat I'm going for it! So next time the flour ratio will be 3/4 cup buckwheat flour and 1/2 cup oat flour.

Another idea in the back of my head is adding some very finely chopped almonds. That will definitely add calories and fat, but they would make the recipe a better investment because of the added protein.

Try the recipe, and let me know what you think! You can always comment here, or tweet me @kirstenmhowell

Vegan (and soon gluten free) Blueberry Muffins!

This is an awesome recipe for blueberry muffins! I tested them on three men, telling them to be completely honest, and got rave reviews! In fact, they ate nearly the entire batch! I decided to wait until after to let them know that the muffins were actually pretty healthy.

So here's the recipe, which I got from Bethenny Frankel's book "Skinnygirl Dish". By the way, if you haven't checked out any of Bethenny's books, I definitely recommend it! She's amazing!

Here's the skinny: Each muffin has about 180 calories, which compared to a normal blueberry muffin is a steal! A Starbucks blueberry muffin is 380 calories! Ouch!


Makes 6-8 muffins
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

1 1/5 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cups raw sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/5 teaspoons baking powder
1/5 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons shortening (melted if using butter or margarine)
3/4 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a muffin tin with paper liners, or grease the pan. I would definitely recommend liners - way less hassle and no mess!

Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder) in one bowl, and all the wet ingredients (milk, vanilla, shortening) in a separate bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir together. When everything is incorporated, stir in the blueberries.

Using an ice cream scoop, distribute the batter between 6-8 muffin cups, and then pop in the oven for 20 minutes, rotating the pan after 10 minutes so that the muffins cook more evenly.

It's as simple as that! Next time I'm going to use buckwheat flour or oat flour (the original recipe calls for oat flour, but it's slightly harder to find in stores, and I think, a bit of a pain to make myself) to make the recipe gluten free as well as vegan so all my friends and family can enjoy them! Plus I love the taste of buckwheat, it's kind of nutty and has extra iron which is just an added bonus!

Enjoy!