Vegan Sweet Potato & Quinoa Muffins

I'm sure it is quite obvious that I love carbohydrates so I made another attempt to at least put a little bit of "health" into my carbs.  I had a lonely sweet potato that had been left out of my quiche with sweet potato crust so I decided to make vegan sweet potato & quinoa muffins.  *Nomnomnom*  Of course I ended up with left over quinoa so a savory quinoa recipe will follow this one.  

Vegan Sweet Potato & Quinoa Muffins

1 & 1/4 cups wheat flour

2/3 cups brown sugar

1 ts pumpkin spice
1 ts baking powder

1 ts salt
3/4 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup almond milk
1 sweet potato, cooked & mashed (skin discarded)

4 tb Earth Balance spread, melted
2 ts vanilla extract
1 tb canola oil

Topping

1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tb wheat flour
1/2 ts pumpkin spice
2 tb Earth Balance spread, melted 

Makes 12 muffins.

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Combine wheat flour, brown sugar, pumpkin spice, baking powder, & salt in a bowl.

- Thoroughly mix sweet potato, almond milk, Earth Balance spread, vanilla extract, & canola oil in a separate bowl.  

- Slowly mid the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Stir until just combined.

- Fold in cooked quinoa.

- In a separate bowl, combine all the topping ingredients.

- Either grease & flour a muffin pan or use cupcake liners.

- Fill 3/4 of each compartment with the batter & top with the almond topping.

- Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Yuuuummmmmm!!!

Brussel Sprouts With Quinoa

This is Day 3 of the competition/challenge & I have had ice cream every day so far but I am not eating heaping bowlfuls of ice cream.  I have managed to limit myself to no more than 2 small scoops of ice cream per day - the two scoops add up to about one child size portion.  I am quite proud of myself for being able to limit myself as I have always grown up in a household where each person eats from a cereal bowl full of ice cream in one sitting.  I must say, I sure do love my dairy!  

As you can see, I have not gone all health nut crazy with this challenge.  I strongly believe that it one cannot deprive your body of food that it wants otherwise when you do finally eat it, you will gorge on it & before you know it the entire 10oz bag of pretzel M&Ms is in your belly.  So I have not been depriving myself from cravings.  Instead, I am teaching myself to get into the habit of smaller portions of my less healthy choices.  A perfect example for me is dairy.  I also happen to love cheese & have a tub of fresh mozzarella balls right now so I decided to incorporate a small amount into the quinoa lunch I have made for tomorrow.  It looks & tastes so yummy!  

Brussel Sprouts with Quinoa

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water 
1 tb olive oil
1 cup brussel sprouts, quartered
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes
1/4 cup mozzarella balls, quartered
1 cup onion, chopped 
3 stalks green onion, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
 
- Cook quinoa & water in a small pot on low heat until water soaks into the quinoa & appears translucent.
- Heat olive oil in a large pan on medium heat.
- Saute brussel sprouts & onion in the pan until the onion is translucent.
- Add remaining vegetables & quinoa into the pan & mix together until mushrooms are thoroughly cooked.
- Add salt & pepper to taste.
- Turn heat off & let it cool for 10 minutes before adding the mozzarella in.


Enjoy!!



 

Almond-Quinoa Muffins

I bought the Veganomicon book a couple of months ago and came across a recipe for almond-quinoa muffins yesterday.  It intrigued me quite a bit because I adore quinoa so I thought I'd give it a whirl and see how it turns out.  The muffins didn't puff up as much as I thought they would but that's okay.  The texture was good (if you don't mind quinoa) and are really moist.  However, I wish I had added another 1/4 cup of apricots to make the muffins sweeter - maybe next time around.  Here's the recipe for anyone else who wants to try it.  Let me know what you think!

Almond-Quinoa Muffins

1 cup vanilla soy milk (I used almond milk)

1 tb ground flaxseeds

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup agave nectar

1/2 ts vanilla extract

1 & 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup almond meal

1 & 1/2 ts baking powder

1/2 ts salt

1/2 ts ground cinnamon

1/2 ts ground cardamom

1 & 1/4 cups cooked quinoa

1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots (I'm using 3/4 cup next time)

Makes a dozen.

- Preheat oven to 350F and grease muffin pan.

- Whisk together soy milk and flaxseed.  Allow to sit for 1 minute.

- Whisk in oil, agave nectar and vanilla.

- Add flour, almond meal, baking powder, salt, and spices and mix until just incorporated.

- Gently fold in cooked quinoa and apricots.

- Pour batter into muffin tin & bake for 21 minutes.