Coconut Blueberry Chia Muffins

These gluten/dairy free Coconut Blueberry Chia Muffins are filled with lots of fiber and are very yummy!

My husband said, "These are definitely muffins to have around all the time!"

I love the taste of anything coconut and Nutiva has the best organic coconut flour...

Here's the recipe...

Coconut Blueberry Chia Muffins

by Nutiva

Gluten and Dairy Free

Makes 12 Muffins

1 cup Nutiva Organic Coconut Flour

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. raw honey (I subbed maple syrup)

1 cup coconut milk

6 eggs

4 Tbsp. Nutiva organic coconut oil, melted

4 tsp. vanilla extract

4 Tbsp. Nutiva organic chia seeds

1 cup organic blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 deg. Sift the coconut flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl. In a separate bowl or blender, whisk honey, coconut milk, eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla. Gently stir wet mixture into dry ingredients and mis in chia seeds. Fold in the blueberries and pour batter into greased or lined muffin tins, until 3/4 full. Bake for 25 mins until muffins begin to turn golden brown and are cooked through. Immediately remove from tins and cool on rack.

*When baking with coconut flour you'll notice that it requires lots of eggs and that's because coconut flour recipes don't call for xantham gum like most other gluten free recipes. The eggs do the binding. 

Preheat your oven and mix it all together in a big bowl and drop them into the baking cups.

Which I love using large unbleached baking cups by If You Care and my Vollrath 1-1/3oz stainless steel disher. Click on the links. 

Pop them in the oven for 25mins.

Let them cool down.

And enjoy!

"Even Better Than The Real Kind" Banana Bread

This Banana Bread didn't come out like any others I've made.

I didn't add any of the refined sugar. Instead, added one more banana and a little maple syrup abt 1/8c.

It was very moist and a little bit soggy in the middle.

Probably because there is yogurt in there too.

After my kids got home from school I asked if they wanted some and of course they did, but I told them it's not like other b bread I've made, it might taste different, and it's soggy in the middle.

After the first bite, the reply I got was, "Ummm, this is the best banana bread, it's even better than the read kind you make!"

Lol. Oh, the things kids say!

Coming out of the oven it looked and smelled good though.

Recipe from: So Good Blog

Delicious Healthy Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

4 Eggs
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of 2% yogurt
4 ripe bananas (mashed)
1 cup of Wheat flour
1 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder

*I omitted the olive oil and used coconut oil, white & brown sugar, added 1/8c maple syrup.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Beat eggs in medium size bowl.
Mash 4 ripe bananas and set aside.
Add oil, yogurt and bananas to beaten eggs.
Combine wheat flour, sugar, walnuts, baking powder and baking soda and mix well.
Add banana mixture to the dry ingredients and make sure everything is thoroughly combined.
Pour mixture into two greased loaf pans.  Make sure they both have equal amounts.
Bake for 35-45 minutes.  Or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the bread.

Take a slice and enjoy this better than the real kind B. Bread!

 

Coconut Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza

I made these mini fruit pizza cookies for my friends and they loved them!

I couldn't eat them because of the grains and sugar in them, so I'm very happy they passed the test!

Everyone said they were more than good and of course my family loved them too. 

My mom used the make this delicious treat for us every once in a while and oh my goodness she makes the best sugar cookie dough and this was one of our family's favorite treats. I didn't use my mom's recipe. I found one on my All Recipes app that wasn't going to take long... Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe. 

I didn't have any butter, so I used coconut butter (Artisana Coconut Butter, which is my absolute favorite), but it didn't work. The dough was super crumbly and not sticking together. So, I cracked in another egg and added coconut oil in tablespoon by tablespoon until the dough started sticking together.  I usually use coconut oil instead of butter, but because the weather is so warm here in Hawaii, our coconut oil is always liquid. I needed softened coconut oil, so the cookies wouldn't be flat as a pancake! 

I rolled them in balls and then mashed them and flattened them out in my hands. Which they were still a bit crumbly and would crack easily, but it worked!

Everyone said they were soft and delicious! Thank goodness!

I was going to make a coconut whip cream, but I didn't want to overdue it on the coconut and I was pressed for time. Luckily, thanks to Thanksgiving there was a can of whip cream in the fridge at my in-laws that all I had to do was shake the can and out it came. Then top it with apple-banana slices, strawberries, and kiwis and it looks beautiful!

Use your own favorite sugar cookie recipe and sub out butter with coconut oil for an extra good coconut-a-nutty taste and top it with your favorite fruits! 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Quinoa Waffles

Recipe from Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood pg.19

Ingredients: Organic quinoa flour, baking powder (non-gmo), salt (sea salt), sugar (raw honey), organic eggs, milk (unsweetened almond), water, oil (coconut oil), vanilla extract, cacao chocolate chips.

I ground my own quinoa flour in my vita-mix dry grains container...

1. Heat quinoa in a pan, medium heat, stir frequently.

2. When it starts popping for one or two minutes take it off the stove.

3. I pour it onto a cookie sheet to spread out and cool down.

4. Put it into the Vita-mix and start to blend at low speeds, slowly increasing to high speeds.

(DO NOT blend for more than a couple minutes, it's not good for the blade.)

5. Put it in a container and store in the fridge for longer freshness!

*Quinoa flour has a nutty smell and flavor, that can be strong. It's a great gluten-free option!

Valentine Coconut Sugar Cookies

These Sugar Cookies and frosting have the butter substituted with Organic Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil. Right now with the cold weather, the coconut oil is pretty solid and I needed it to be smooth and creamy. To do that I ran a glass bowl under hot hot water, scooped the coconut oil out with an ice cream scooper, and dropped it into the bowl. Once it hits the bowl it starts to melt. I continue to heat up the oil by mashing it with a rubber spatula until it's nice and creamy. If that's not quite doing it then I also heat it up just a few seconds at a time in the microwave (covered with a plate on top). You don't want it to be liquid, so you need to do it nice and slow until you can get it soft and creamy.

 I used this recipe, altered a little....

1 1/2 cups Organic Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil

2 cups Organic Sugar (I added a little less than 2 cups)

4 Organic Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

5 cups Organic Unbleached White Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder (Rumford Aluminum/GMO Free)

1 tsp Sea Salt

"In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight). 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. 

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely." (I had to bake them longer abt 9mins)

 Here's the frosting recipe I used too....

1/4 cup Unrefined (Virgin) Coconut Oil
16 oz Powdered Sugar
4-6 tablespoons Coconut, Soy, or Almond milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla

This is much easier with a hand blender, but you can definitely do it with a whisk - and build some muscles! It's also best if you can measure out the powdered sugar with a scale. If you don't have one, feel free to just use two cups of powdered sugar and a little less soy milk. :)

steps:

1. "cream" the coconut oil until it breaks up and gets nice and smooth
2. add in 1/4 of the powdered sugar, the vanilla and 2 tablespoons of soy milk
3. mix together until nice and smooth
4. keep adding powdered sugar along with tablespoons of soy milk as needed until everything is combined - you don't want any clumps of powdered sugar or coconut oil.
5. frost everything in the vicinity

This frosting melts pretty easily, so make sure whatever you put it on is nice and cool. It should be enough to cover one 9x13 sheet cake.

*I usually make my own organic powdered sugar in my dry-grains blender. I also used Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk. 

We had fun delivering these yummy cookies to daddy, teachers, and friends!