Easter Morning Glory Muffins

     Easter is just around the corner, which means that it is slowly becoming Spring time! I love the Spring season and all the life and beauty it brings! To help celebrate the Easter Holiday, I wanted to make something that was both delicious and healthy! These Morning Glory Muffins are just that!

     These muffins are both delicious and nutritious! They are full of fruit and vegetables to help your day get started off right! The oil and eggs( found in most muffin recipes) is recplaced with apple-sauce to create a lighter, yet moist muffin! In addition to being super yummy, these muffins are both Vegan and Oil-Free, making them the perfect breakfast, snack or dessert!

Ingredients:

2 cups Flour
1 TBS Baking Powder
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Brown Sugar ( or Maple Syrup and use less Apple Sauce)
1 1/2 cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
1/2 Raisins
1 cup Crushed Pineapple
1 cup Grated Carrot
Oats and extra Brown Sugar for a topping(optional)

First, whisk together the dry ingredients- Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Cinnamon, Ginger, Salt and Coconut.

 

In a differnt bowl, mix together the wet ingredients- Brown Sugar, Apple Sauce, Vanilla, Pineapple, and Grated Carrot.

Then, add the wet mix into the dry mix along with the raisins.

Mix it to combine but make sure not to over mix. It should be a fairly stiff batter, but not a dough!

Preheat the oven to 400 F and line or grease a muffin tray. I used parchment paper and made my own liners, but store bought ones will work fine too! Also, Coconut Oil or Vegetable oil is great to grease with.
Fill the tins a little over half way full and top with a sprinkle of brown sugar and oats.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

 

Your house will smell amazing and you'll be craving a muffin by now! Thank goodness you have a whole tray full to eat!
 Let the muffins cool for a few minutes before removing them and letting them cool completely on a wire rack.

     These muffins are perfect for Easter Morning or any morning out of the year! They are also great to pack in lunches, have as a snack, or even as a dessert with a cup of coffee or tea! The coconut, carrot and pineapple pair together so well and make these muffins super moist and delicious! Also, its added healthy-ness!

     I hope you enjoy this recipe! Oil Free and Vegan recipes are hard to come by, so when you find a good one, you'll want to hold on to it! Its also a good idea to share those recipes with your friends and family! Please do so with this one too!

You can follow the blog via email, Google, Twitter @ SpinachisGood, Tumblr @ justrunningforfood, and on Pinterest @ Hannah Plunkett.

I post every Friday!

Happy Easter!
H. Banana

Vegan Eggs? Easy Egg Subsitutes!

      Eggs pop up everywhere! They are listed in the ingredients list in everything from breads and baked goods to candy bars and packaged snacks. As a vegan, it can be hard to find things that don't have eggs in them, as well as finding recipes that don't use eggs!

     But, how do Vegans and those who wish to go without eggs, live without eggs? Well, its actually pretty simple. There are tons of egg-substitutes out there from natural to more processed. Thankfully, it is becoming easier and easier to find things that are egg-free!

     What if you aren't a vegan or you don't have an allergy to eggs? Wouldn't baking and cooking be so much easier if you could just use eggs? Well, there are alot of perks to not using eggs in your baking and cooking, and to me its totally worth it and even better!

Reasons to Go Egg-Free

1. Eggs are fairly high in cholesterol, so removing them or at least limiting them will help to lower high cholesterol!

2. Consuming raw eggs can be dangerous, but raw cake and cookie batter is just too good to give up! Well, when you use an egg-subsitute, you can eat all the raw batter you want!

3.  Most eggs come from hens that are fed feed that is full of hormones and other scary things, as well as living in tiny cages. Using egg-substitutes is a great way to not support that!

4. Many egg substitutes can add flavor to a dish and make it taste better!

5. Most egg replacers are lower in calorie to an egg, so using a replacer can lower the overall calories of your dish!

There are many more great reasons not to eat eggs, but these are just a few of the main ones. If you want to know more about why not to use eggs, you can easily find them on various websites and blogs!

Egg Subsitutes

     So, now we know why not to use eggs, but what do we use instead? How do we make breads, pancakes, muffins, and scrambles without using eggs? Here are a few simple ways to go egg-free!

1. There are alot of natural ways to replace eggs in your baking and cooking!

1 TBS Ground Flax Seed + 3 TBS Water = 1 egg

 

1 TBS Chia Seeds+ 1/3 cup Water = 1 egg

 

1/2 mashed Banana = 1 egg

 

1/4 cup unsweetened Apple Sauce = 1 egg

 

3 TBSP Peanut Butter = 1 egg

 

2 TBS Water + 1 TBSP Oil + 2 tsp Baking Powder = 1 egg ( used for leavening in baked goods only)

 

1/4 cup Canned Pureed Pumpkin or Squash = 1 eggs

 

2 TBS Tomato Paste = 1 egg

 

2 TBS Potato Starch = 1 egg ( thickening sauces and soups)

 

( These Pumpkin Muffins are Egg Free!)

 

 

2. There are also some great processed egg replacers out there!



 

Brands like NeatEgg or Egg Replacer are some of the more mainstream brands, but there are alot more out there!

 

Tofu is also used alot for savory egg replacers as well as sweet ones.

 

Tofu is also used to make egg-free scrambles and omelets as well as things like puddings

 and custards.

Vegan Yogurts are also great to use in place of eggs in various recipes.

 

Vegetable or Oilve Oil can be used in baking as an egg replacement. 1/4 cup = 1 egg

 

( These Brownies are Egg Free!)

 

So, as you can see, replacing eggs is as simple as not buying them or using them. You can have everything you have now, just without the eggs! Even scrambles, omelets and custards! If you choose to go egg-free, or try out a few of the egg-replacements, you're cooking and baking will never be the same!

 

I hope this post as been helpful to you! I encourage you to try at least one recipe that uses an egg subsitute as see the amazing-ness of it!

 

Please share this post and my blog with your friends and family!

 

You can follow the blog via email, Google, Twitter @ SpinachisGood, Pinterest @ Hannah Plunkett, and on Tumblr @ justrunningforfood.

 

I post every Friday!

 

Stay Healthy, Happy, and Laughing!

 

H. Banana