Month: August 2023

Sinfully Delicious Banana, Date-Nut Muffins

Sinfully Delicious Banana, Date-Nut Muffins

Well the blueberry muffins from my last post were a real hit over here but this time I thought that I would experiment with bananas. I used the same recipe https://greenlighteating.com/super-moist-vegan-blueberry-muffins/ but with a few tweaks. I ran out of millet so I only used rolled oats, omitted the lemon zest and cardamom and added more dates.

When I was a child my mother would buy the most sinfully delicious date-nut cake at Baker’s Bakery in Parma, Ohio. Let me tell you that cake was to die for and my request every single year for my birthday. It is hard to believe but these muffins taste SO MUCH like that date-nut cake but without the eggs, sugar and butter. They taste like they should be a guilty pleasure but they’re not. As with all plant based, no sugar, oil or salt recipes the more you eat the healthier you are. I hope you try this recipe. As always, I love comments!

Ingredients:

  • 15 dates pitted
  • 1 cup unflavored, unsweetened plant based milk
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 2 cups overripe banana slices
  • 2 tsps. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 3/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts
Dates, plant milk, oats, bananas, baking powder, baking soda (not pictured), applesauce, walnuts

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. Line muffin tin with 12 non-stick parchment cupcake liners or use a silicone muffin pan
  3. Cut the dates up roughly and add to the plant based milk and set aside (so the dates soften).
  4. Grind the oats in a high speed blender and place in mixing bowl. Add the baking powder and baking soda and stir with a fork.
  5. Add the date and milk mixture, applesauce, bananas and chopped walnuts to the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix gently to combine the ingredients. Do not overmix.
  6. Spoon the batter into cupcake liners or silicone muffin pan filling each 3/4 full. 
  7. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown and inserted toothpick comes out clean.
The overripe bananas and dates make these muffins super sweet yet low on the glycemic index scale. Low glycemic foods do not have a dramatic effect on blood sugar levels. Enjoy these muffins for breakfast or as a snack with a nice glass of cold plant based milk!

Super Moist Vegan Blueberry Muffins

Super Moist Vegan Blueberry Muffins

Getting an invite to Cheryl and Ulle’s farm to pick blueberries is something I look forward to every year. I mean no where else could you pick blueberries among a friendly herd of Sheltie pups, a family of happy quacking ducks, honking geese and clucking chickens in the setting of a gorgeous farm on a hot summer evening. Cheryl and Ulle’s blueberries aren’t just any blueberries. These are the sweetest, juiciest and most flavorful blueberries EVER!! Every year I come home with a big huge bag of berries and dream of all the ways I am going to eat them.

Well today I started thinking about blueberry muffins. A few years back I made a batch of vegan muffins but wasn’t happy with the way they turned out. Yesterday I tried a new recipe in Fork Over Knives and all I can say is OMG!

These muffins are INSANELY DELICIOUS.

The recipe made 12 muffins. Today there are only 5 left. The good news is they are extremely healthy so, in the words of Dr. Michael Greger, “the more you eat the healthier you are!”

It is recommended that we get one daily serving of berries and three servings of other fruit a day. Berries are singled out for their potent anticancer properties. Berries are second only to herbs and spices as the most antioxidant packed food. Among all the berries, blueberries are the star performer.

Blueberry harvest 2023
Picked right off Cheryl and Ulle’s blueberry trees!

Ingredients:

  • 12 dates pitted
  • 1 cup unflavored, unsweetened plant based milk
  • 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 3/4 cups millet
  • 2 tsps. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 tsp. lemon zest
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
Dates, plant based milk, rolled oats, millet, baking powder, cardamom (as shown still in the pod but you can buy powdered in the seasoning aisle of most stores), applesauce, lemon zest, walnuts, blueberries

Directions:

  1. In a bowl cover the dates with the plant based milk and set aside (so the dates soften).
  2. Grind the oats and millet in a high speed blender and place into mixing bowl. Add the baking powder and cardamom and stir with a fork.
  3. Place the dates and plant based milk in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the date mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients along with the applesauce and lemon zest. Mix with a spoon until all the ingredients have been disappeared.
  4. Fold in the blueberries and chopped walnuts. Spoon the batter into a silicone muffin pan or parchment muffin papers filling each cup 3/4 full. Since the batter does not contain oil the muffins may stick to regular cupcake papers.

Note: The use of cardimom and lemon zest add a really special flavor to these muffins so neither should be omitted. Also, the dates give just the right amount of sweetness and have a low glycemic index (between 44 – 53) compared to table sugar which has a high glycemic index (100). Foods with high glycemic index raise blood sugar quickly. Foods with low glycemic index release glucose slowly and steadily.

These muffins are insanely delicious!