Gluten Free Mini Carrot Zucchinni Muffins

These muffins are gluten free, my adapted version makes them nut free as well. if you know anyone sensitive to gluten and allergic to nuts, this is a great muffin!

This recipe is adapted from GDL's  Mini Carrot Zucchini Muffins  

Ingredients

1 Cup Brown Rice Flour

1 TB of Coconut flour ( yep, just 1 tablespoon- i will tell you why later)
1/4 Tsp of fine sea salt
1 Tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 Cup grapeseed oil
1/3 cup of Maple syrup
1 Large egg at room temp
1/2 cup of grated carrots
1/2 cup of grated zucchinis 
1/2 cup raisins

an additional 1/3 Cup of Unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup of water

2 TB of honey, optional,  for extra sweetness 

Frosting
1 Cup whipped cream cheese
1 1/2 TB honey 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

When its Zucchini Season, ask for some from a neighbor , co worker or friend.

 

Pushing your dry ingredients through a sieve is really important, makes the batter less clumpy and more fluffy

I love the color of the maple syrup...this thing was the most expensive ingredient! I love that its such a great substitute for brown sugar.

**Instead of using all oil I did half oil and half applesauce. I measured this by using displacement, I put in the applesauce first in the measuring cup- about half way up- and filled the rest with the oil, then added an additional 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 cup of water- I did this because coconut flour is very very absorbent. I found this out the hard way once. Save your money and time and trust me on this.**

 The original recipe says to bake for 5 minutes, but i did more like 8 minutes, and since we are high altitude here in SLC, the temperature of the oven went up to 375 degrees.I think the oil and applesauce and the moisture from the veggies just needed the extra time.

the frosting is the best part! i could use this as a dip with apples and strawberries! i would swim in it if i knew how to swim ( yes, i do not know how to swim)

I made two batches, one to keep home and one to take to a bake sale at work. The ones for the bake sale, I baked in these cute start muffin cups and they were a hit at the bake sale! People love seeing the all natural ingredients, and I didn't realize how many gluten sensitive people are really out there, or people who just truly appreciate a healthful muffin!

De"lite"ful Blueberry Muffins

The past month or so I have been trying to eat as healthy as possible. It definitely is not easy, especially when you are wanting to bake constantly. The husband doesn't like me to make him eat all my sweets and I don't have any kids to pawn them off to so what to do? I figured the only thing to do was make some recipes lighter and healthier.

I had some blueberries that needed to be used so I took this muffin recipe and revised it slightly. It was already pretty healthy but I definitely didn't want to use fats and it called for fatty milk. Anyway, here it is, some yummy and filling blueberry muffins!

Recipe revised from: http://www.wholeliving.com/130491/blueberry-health-muffins

3/4 C whole wheat flour
3/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 C toasted wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 C brown sugar
3/4 C skim milk
1/4 C applesauce
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 C blueberries
1/4 C oats

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with Smart Balance cooking spray. In a bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Make a well in center of bowl and add wet ingredients. Gently mixed until combined. Fold in blueberries.
2. Divide batter among muffin cups, I use a 1/4 measuring cup. Sprinkle oats over muffins. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer muffins to cooling rack.

In addition I took the new recipe to caloriecount.about.com and these babies are only 142 calories per serving! Check it out http://caloriecount.about.com/healthy-revised-blueberry-muffins-recipe-r1297462!

Enjoy