New Lunch recipes! Energy Bites & Zucchini Carrot Raisin Muffins

 Energy Bites
2 c regular oats
1 c peanut butter (or other nut butter)
2/3 c raw honey
2 c shredded coconut
1 c freshly ground flaxseed
1/2 c mini chocolate chips
1/2 c raisins
2 t vanilla
1-2 T chia seeds

Mix everything above in a medium bowl until thoroughly incorporated.  Let chill in the refrigerator for an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls and enjoy!  I chill the night before, and then roll into balls the next morning.  Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week. Very filling and delicious!

Zucchini Carrot Raisin Muffins
1 c regular oats
2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c coconut sugar (or sucanut)
1 T + 2 t baking powder
1 c grated zucchini
1 c grated carrot
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1 t sea salt
3/4 c raisins
3/4 c coconut oil
2 ripe bananas
1/2 apple
1/2 c agave

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the first 9 ingredients in large bowl. Combine the last 4 ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. These freeze well and taste DELIGHTFUL!

Zucchini Muffins

Zucchini Muffins
4 1/2 c grated fresh zucchini
1 c liquid coconut oil
2 c sucanut
3 T chia seeds (put in 9 T water and let it sit for 15 minutes or until gel)
3 t vanilla
3 t baking soda
pinch sea salt
4 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1 1/2 c raisins (or dried cranberries)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl combine the sucanut, chia seeds, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted oil. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Stir in raisins.
Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little spray (or use muffin liners). Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes.

2 New Muffin Recipes

I have rarely made muffins. For my whole life. They just seemed like a lot of work, until I realized that you can squeeze all kinds of nummy stuff into them, and then freeze them! Pull them out the night before and it's all soft and wonderful the next morning. Lately, I've been freezing muffins, and I leave just enough for lunch with a fruit and a ton of veggies and dip (hummus, black bean, salsa, whatever!) This is a super easy lunch idea instead of buying lunch or packing sandwiches day after day. (Oh, and it's a super easy breakfast idea to eat AFTER a green smoothie!)  Before I give you these recipes, though, here are a few resources. 3 years ago, I bought each of my kiddos one of these. This is PERFECT for leftover soup, stew, chili, or even dinner from the night before if the kids raved about it. :)

This year, I'm buying these so that my kids have homemade & much healthier lunchables. Also, my sister has a membership at Sam's Club and is going to buy a package of 1000 of these (see picture) for dips, etc. I'm soooo excited for this, because kids looooove to dip things. Heck, I love to dip things too. :) 


Alright, hopefully now that you know there are plenty of ideas for packaging the lunch out there, let's move on. MUFFINS!!!  P.S. Special thanks to my Jess who bought me the coolest cookbook! I have adjusted some of the recipes per Jess and the result is absolutely fabulous!

Banana Muffins

2/3 c Agave

3 very ripe bananas

1/2 c coconut oil

1/4 to 1/2 c almond milk (adjust to make batter thin enough)

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 apple, cored, with skin on

1 t baking powder

1 1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t sea salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

2 c flour, see note

Note: any combination of flour will do, but we do a lower gluten variety if we can. You can do whole wheat or partially whole wheat with spelt or kamut or brown rice flour. Everything I've tried has worked beautifully!

Blend in high power blend, or if you don't have one, make sure at least the apple and banana is blended until smooth. Then add dry ingredients to combined wet ingredients. Fill muffin tins until about 3/4 full. This made about 21 muffins. Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes. 

****you can also add a few teaspoons of freshly ground flax seed-yum!

Pumpkin Muffins

1 can pumpkin

1 1/2 c agave

1/2 c coconut oil

2/3 c water 

1 whole apple, cored, with skin 

1/2 banana, mashed

2 t baking powder

3 1/2 c flour (see note above)

2 1/2 t baking soda

1 1/2 t sea salt

1 t cinnamon

1 t nutmeg

1/2 t ginger

Blend in high powered blender. If you don't have one, do the banana and apple, and then mix combined wet ingredient with combined dry ingredients, adding water as needed to ensure the batter is thin enough. Pour into 2 muffin tins, about 3/4 full. Cook at 325 for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

****you can also add a few teaspoons of freshly ground flax seed-yum!

I loooooooove fall, so these just fill my kitchen will all sorts of happy smells and happy thoughts of cooler, crisper weather and colorful leaves.
I will do some dip ideas in another post, but until then, ENJOY!!! :)

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Do you see these???? Oh my heaven. Ohhhhh myyyyyyy heavennnnnnn!!!! They are well worth the effort. I'm not a huge carrot cake fan, but I'm tellin ya, I had a hard time staying away from these!! These come from GSG's Holiday Cookbook.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

3 eggs

3/4 c plain kefir

1/2 c coconut oil

1/3 c mashed banana

1 c sucanut

3/4 c raw honey

2 t vanilla

2 t cinnamon

1 t nutmeg (my variation)

1/4 t sea salt

2 c Kamut flour

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder (aluminum free)

3 c finely shredded carrots

1 c crushed pineapple with juice

1 c shredded unsweetened coconut

1/2 c raisins

chopped walnuts if desired

Preheat oven to 350. Blend the eggs with the Sucanut and honey. Add the oil, kefir, mashed banana and vanilla and blend again. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Add the carrot, pineapple, raisins, coconut and opt nuts. Drop batter by 1/4 cup into greased muffins tins or muffin cups and bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool. Top with the following icing, if you want.

Coconut Cream Icing

1/2 c coconut oil

1 c powdered Sucanut (you can run it in your blender to powder it)

3/4 c shredded unsweetened coconut

1 t vanilla

Blend oil, Sucanut and vanilla in your high powered blender, then stir in coconut. Spread on cupcakes and let it set up.

Chocolate Muffins

Happy Mother's Day all of you who are mothers or will be someday! It's warm and sunny and beautiful here today....with the very small exception of my little 6 year old who is running a fever, achy and coughing. Bleh. I'm hoping with a little extra greens coming her way tonight it will help her body fight it off!

I didn't have a traditional Mother's Day with the husband who makes breakfast in bed, blahbity blah....instead, I have the gift of a husband who has a desire to help others. He and 300 others in our Church from the Nashville area are in Alabama right now helping with the clean up efforts from the multiple tornadoes that hit a few weeks ago. If you aren't aware of it, do a search for Tuscaloosa tornado. There was one in particular that left a wake of 200 miles of damage. It was mind boggling! I was so thrilled to find out that from Nashville area alone, 300 men volunteered, and nearly that many wives were happy to let their husbands go on Mother's Day weekend. From what my husband says, the devastation is overwhelming, and yet the simple acts of gratitude of the people they have been able to help has been so humbling. I'm grateful.

So, during this cleanse, I have to say that there have definitely been ups and downs. Nothing feels as good as drinking pure veggies and fruits for a few days, I have to admit. It really is amazing! I was determined, however, to have something chocolatey on Mother's Day. Check out this baby! I haven't tasted it yet, but my house smells absolutely heavenly! Our weekly tradition is to have a treat on Sunday evenings, and I'm so grateful to find things without sugar to serve as a treat.

Chocolate Muffins
1/2 c water
2 1/2 cups freshly ground whole grain flour
1 c buttermilk
1 c unsweetened applesauce (I made this from scratch in my BlendTec-see below!)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla (or 1 tsp almond extract and 1 tsp vanilla)
3/4 c cocoa (raw, preferrably)
3/4 c agave nectar
2 tsp stevia
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
Almonds or walnuts, optional

Mix 1st 4 ingredients and let sit overnight (or all day). The next morning, stir in next 5 ingredients, first with a spoon and then with a hand mixer. Stir in (with a spoon) the baking soda and sea salt and mix until just blended, then let it sit for 10-20 minutes while oven preheats to 400.
Fill muffin tins (either oiled or lined with muffin liners) 3/4 full. Sprinkle with nuts if desired, and let bake for 20 minutes or until they spring back when touched. Makes 2 dozen.

Blueberry Flax Muffins

Wow. That's all I gotta say. I'm not even following this to the letter cause I'm breastfeeding and needing some more calories, but wow. Some of the reactions my body has had on it's desire to rid itself of toxins are: nausea, extreme fatigue, issues with mood stability, frequent urination, bloating, restless sleep.
It's been really hard, but I'm on day 3, already lost 4 pounds, and today has already been a lot better then the previous two.
Emotional cleanse? I've been doing pretty good with this. It really has helped me to take a few minutes to myself every day. I need to start leaving the house a little more. Those days seem to make all the difference. Looking forward to some warmer weather next week-a walk sounds so delightful!
Spiritual-I missed yesterday! Boo to me, but I'm not going to beat myself up. Right? Right!!! I'll pick it back up today. I'm not doing as well with praying on my knees, but I will also do better starting today.

I've loved hearing some of your goals. A few folks have emailed me with them, and I just love the enthusiasm-it's contagious! So, thank you so much!

On another note, I have been to 2 of the 3 Mother's day celebrations at my kiddos' school this week. My last one is this afternoon. It has been so much fun! My favorite things were the letter written to me by my 10 year old, my stats written by my kindergartner-including my 26 feet of height and 250 lb weight, and the excited face of my 8 year old-ready for me to come and be with him. I'm so excited! Since our family is still holding true to the no-sugar thing, I made some Blueberry Flax Muffins. The texture was different, but the kids LOVED THEM! I'm sure I'll make them again. We were able to share these together during the celebration to avoid the sugary junk that was being offered.
The recipe is from Green Smoothie Girl, and I made the bean flour by just blending up some white beans in my BlendTec. The muffins will rise more and be lighter and more digestible if you soak the grains overnight as described in the instructions.

3 C warm water
3½ C whole-wheat flour (finely ground soft white wheat is best)
½ C white bean flour
2 eggs (organic, free-range)
½ C yogurt or kefir (or whey)
1 1/2 C Sucanat
2 tsp. vanilla
½ C melted coconut oil
1 Tbsp. aluminum-free baking powder (reduce by half if you soak grains overnight)
½ C flax seeds, freshly ground
1 tsp. sea salt
2½ C blueberries, fresh or frozen
Combine the water, flours, flax, and yogurt. Cover and let the mixture sit overnight or all day (this is an optional step to eliminate phytates). Add all remaining ingredients except the blueberries and mix thoroughly.
Gently fold in the blueberries. Bake in lined or greased muffin tins, 2/3 full, for 25 minutes at 400°. Makes about 3 dozen muffins.