Gluten-free, dairy free, oat and nut flour, sweetened with dates and chocolate chips for an energy power energy muffin for the health of it.
Hodge-Podge Healthy Gluten-free Muffins
I call these muffins my Hodge-Podge Muffins because Hodge-Podge times call for a confused mixture of healthy ingredients.
The time of lockdown, at first, had me confused. A real mixed bag of emotions. Hodge-Podge days.
But week after week I adjusted what was normal, to a new normal.
So, before I tell you why; could I interest you in the most delicious, accident of a chocolate chip, healthy muffin I have ever created?
She ain’t the prettiest ‘muffy’ on the block, but dang she got power, she healthy, and she sure is scrumptious!
Power Energy In Times Of Trouble
I can’t even speak to you about what is happening all around us right now. No, I just can’t.
Just like I have never been that girl who could watch films like The Omen, or Jaws, and then be able to sleep. Nope. Never seen them.
Why? This girl discovered long ago that life can be pretty scary, uncertain, even evil. Protecting myself from things that disturbed my peace, is something I learned to do and it has served me well.
Surrounding myself with a healthy environment, pretty things and something I call ‘Power Energy’.
Putting on makeup every single day, wearing cloths that make me feel good is the beginning of that power energy.
I laugh a lot. I create recipes out of a hodge-podge of things I know are heathy for me. These things keep my sense of balance, and give me peace.
Healthy Me
This nightmare virus became the horror movie I have never allowed myself to watch on television; only there was no turning it off.
So, I dug deeper inside myself to find a way to balance my personal environment; especially since it would become the only environment I might know for months to come.
I continued to put makeup on ever single day (first thing in the morning), put on cloths that were comfy but made me feel I was going somewhere.
Of course, Colored My Own Hair when it was needed, did my own nails with colors of the season, and eat healthy food.
When this miserable time is behind us, I don’t want to Look like I’ve been through a war, even though it feels like it.
Healthy Energy Food
Food that is healthy has a way of bringing us comfort, powerful energy.
Maybe it’s the smell of a particular food, or the taste, that brings a smile to our face, but it’s the powerful whole ingredients that make up feel healthy.
Today was sunny out. Chilly, but yet sunny.
Daffodils are blooming in my yard and life has begun to pop up out of the ground everywhere, a real dichotomy to what is going on in our world at large.
I wanted to make something healthy and yummy to have with afternoon tea outside, my first tea on the veranda this year.
Gluten vs Gluten-free
Gluten is not an issue for me since I don’t have celiac.
Celiac is a discomforting disease in which some people have an immune reaction to eating gluten; which is a protein found in wheat and a few other grains.
The gluten-free trend (I call it a trend only because many who don’t have celiac feel they should be gluten-free), did teach me something.
It exposed me to so many other types of flour to cook with that are actually healthier and more delicious.
So, I went into my pantry and fridge, which is also looking strangely different these past weeks.
Grabbing a hodgepodge of ingredients that spoke to me, chocolate being the first, dates, nuts, oats and a few other goodies followed.
My Muffin Madness
When my four children were growing up and I was a single mom with an in-home business, I needed fast easy ways to feed my children heathy meals.
Muffins were a great way to have these little power bombs of everything healthy I could think to put in them.
Waiting for each little sweet face at the breakfast table, or have ready for after school snacks at the end of their day, was my way of giving a variety of hugs throughout their day.
Healthy Energy Muffins
Sometimes the muffins had fruit and nuts, while other times they were loaded with eggs, meat and veggies. I soon became the muffin queen.
When I went to Brazil to live for a few years (empty nest time), I made muffins for friends I met.
Before long I was being approached to go into business and open a chain of muffin shops all over Brazil.
They had never seen a muffin. Imagine that, with the gazillion types of bananas they have, turning rotten soon off the plant!
Needless to say, my Banana Muffins were a smashing hit!
Healthy Muffins Are A Comfort Hug
The muffins I made for my Hodge-Podge crisis, gluten-free, healthy power muffins, came together fast.
They are so delicious that I wanted to document the recipe right here and now so I will always have it to come back to.
I hope they will be a moment of comfort to you as they were for me today. Stay safe, healthy and stay home so we can all be together again SOON!
More Superfood Muffins To Love
Since the documenting of this article, I have published so many other healthy muffins, both yin and yang; savory and sort-of-sweet.
Life has moved several years from that wretched year that knocked us off our feet, but the desire to eat healthy has become more powerful than ever before.
Hope you will enjoy many more easy to make, healthy muffins for your busy days, and relaxing weekends.
- Apple Muffins – Recipe has the added healthy ingredients of oats, nuts and lots of fresh apples for an Autumn hug.
- Zucchini Muffins – European inspired healthier zucchini lemon bread or muffin recipe is made with pure Rapeseed oil, kefir, lots of garden fresh zucchini and two whole lemons.
- Banana Muffin Recipe – are made with barley flour, sweet ripe bananas, olive oil, yogurt and molasses, for the best healthy banana muffins ever.
- Oatmeal Muffins – healthy overnight oat muffins with ginger for our tummy, molasses for bones, oats for everything and cardamom, a cholesterol aid, are muffins for all.
- Sweet Potato Muffins – while this recipe was created around an AB Blood type, and can only be found in my cookbook, its concept was designed from my Sweet Potato Pie.
- Spanakopita muffins – all the yummy spinach, feta, lemon, fresh oregano and eggs found in spanakopita, made into a muffin, without phyllo!
- Cheeseburger muffins – All your favorite burger ingredients in a muffin batter with another mini cheeseburger on top, pickles and tomatoes!
Ingredients Needed
- Oats
- Rice flour or Coconut flour
- Walnuts
- Sugar
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Dates
- Eggs
- Olive oil
- Almond milk or other
- Chocolate chips
Equipment Needed
- Muffin tins – I’m loving these silicone muffin trays, they never need non-stick spray!
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cup
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- 2 Mixing bowls
- Baking paper cups
- Oven
My Muffin Madness Cookbook
Now that I’ve got you thinking outside the box about muffins, are you ready to try other creative and delicious muffin recipes you won’t find anywhere else?
Hot off the press this year: My Muffin Madness Cookbook!
Healthy Gluten-free Power Energy Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin tin
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups Rolled Oats ground to a flour
- 3/4 cup Rice flour, coconut flour or millet flour
- 3/4 cup Walnuts ground to a flour
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 10 Dates pitted and finely chopped
- 2 Eggs
- 1/4 cup Olive oil
- 3/4 cup Almond milk or Whole milk homemade almond milk
- 1/2 cup Chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven 350
- Mix the wet ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
- Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to wet ingredients.
- Add chocolate chips and chopped dates. Transfer batter to paper lined muffin tins.
- Bake until done, about 25 minutes.
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.