Super Moist Grain Free Vegan Blueberry Muffins Made with Tula's CoCoYo

I lived in communist USSR until I was 5 years old. Even at my young age, I still remember the long lines for food rations.When we came to the United States, the extreme abundance was overwhelming. Our fridge was consistently packed with cheap processed food, which, at the time, seemed so incredibly and miraculously affordable.

My new American diet consisted of sugary cereal and homogenized milk for breakfast, tater tots and breaded chicken patty sandwiches with corn syrup sweetened chocolate milk for my free school lunches, and for dinner we would celebrate our homeland with a more traditional dinner. My family also liked to shop at Costco, where we could stock up in one shopping trip and eat for the whole month. Almost every trip we made to Costco, we'd buy their muffin pack filled with 12 variety muffins. At 620 calories a piece and 32g of fat, these monster muffins were my favorite comfort dessert. My favorite was blueberry. I still can't believe how many of these I consumed as a child.

 

Nowadays, I steer clear of Costco unless I'm shopping for a birthday party and, every once in a while, I find some gems there like Wild Planet's Sardines and TruRoots Three Bean Trio. On a recent trip, I spotted those infamous blueberry muffins and decided to bake a much smaller and more healthy version as an homage. 

My secret ingredient in my blueberry muffins is Tula's CocoYo. This is my new favorite "yogurt." I usually eat it with homemade raw buckwheat granola to reap the benefits of the 80 billion CFU live probiotics (a lot!) per 1/2 cup serving. For this recipe, I decide to use the delicious stuff to add moisture to my muffins. It's honestly the best alternative to dairy yogurt I've ever tasted. Tula's CocoYo is all natural and is made with just 5 ingredients: raw young coconut meat, raw young coconut water, alcohol free vanilla, probiotic cultures, and stevia. I guarantee that you will not find a more natural yogurt substitute.  Tula's also has a line of Coco Kefir, which comes in the 3 flavors: Regular, Apple Cinnamon, and Citrus. The Coco Kefir, like the CocoYo, has a high volume of probiotics (15-25 CFU per 1/4 cup serving). I tried the regular flavor and really enjoyed its sweet and tangy flavor.

Crafty Grain Free Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup Blanched Almond Flour
1/2 Coconut Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1 tbsp Chia Seeds with 3 tbsp water
1/4 tsp Celtic or Himalayan Salt
1 cup Tula's CoCo Yo
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1 cup blueberries
2 tsp vanilla powder
1/3 cup melted ghee or coconut oil





Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees 

2. Mix chia seeds and water and let stand for 10 minutes

3. Combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar and vanilla in one bowl

4. In another bowl, mix yogurt, oil/ghee, chia gel, and blueberries

5. Add wet ingredients into the bowl of dry. Using a mixer, mix until all ingredients are well blended

6. Scoop batter into lined muffin tin (makes 12 small, 10 medium muffins)

7. Bake for 22-25 minutes

8. Let stand in oven for another 5 minutes and then let cool on rack

9. Enjoy!

For the Love of Beets: Cumin & Mint Scented Beet Salad

My last post about borscht got me thinking about all the wonderful things you can do with beets. They really are an underutilized vegetable. Recently, one of my favorite blogs, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, featured a great how-to on roasting beets. I had 2 weeks worth of beets from my CSA box from Full Circle and I decided to roast them and create a salad.

Cumin & Mint Scented Beet Salad
Ingredients
6 medium beets (I had 3 golden beets and 3 red ones)
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped mint
1 tsp Celtic Salt
1 cup romaine lettuce

Process:
1. Roast beets according to The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen recipe
2. Slice Beets
3. In a bowl, mix beets, cumin seeds, 2 tbsp of lemon juice, olive oil, mint and salt
4. Mix well so that lemon juice, oil and cumin seeds are well distributed
5. Refrigerate for 1hr
6. Chop romaine lettuce and drizzle with lemon juice and additional olive oil if you'd like
7. Top lettuce with beets
8. Finish with Tula's CocoYo
9. Enjoy!

Grain & Gluten Free Breakfast Ideas! The Best Waffles Ever & Swiss Chard Hash

Weekend morning breakfasts at our house are usually kind of generic, a version of eggs and toast. So when this weekend the hubby asked me to make him something special for breakfast, I came up with two grain-free (both), Paleo (Hash Only), GAPS (Hash Only) and SCD (Hash Only), friendly recipes that will surely satisfy. Saturday morning, I made a Swiss Chard Hash. Then, on Sunday, I was craving waffles, so I made my usual waffle recipe but substituted grain-free flours. The waffles turned out great! For toppings, I used Tula's CocoYO and my spiced plum compote.

Swiss Chard Hash
Ingredients
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 tbsp Ghee
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp The Spice House Spanish Smoked Paprika 
4 eggs

Process:
1. Heat ghee in a pan
2. Chop Swiss Chard finely
3. Once ghee has melted add Swiss Chard, salt and paprika
4. Saute Chard for 6-8 minutes
5. Add eggs in sunny-side up fashion, cover, cook for 5-7 minutes or until whites are fully cooked
6. Enjoy!

Grain-Free Vegan Waffles
Ingredients
1/2 cup chestnut flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 cup water
2 tbsp raw honey
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Process:
1. Mix all dry ingredients together and separately mix all wet ingredients together
2. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium speed with a mixer
3. Scoop heaping 1/4 cup of batter onto oiled waffle maker
4. Depending on your waffle maker, cook for 8-10 minutes
5. Add your favorite waffle syrup or toppings
6. Enjoy!

If you are interested in learning more about going grain-free, Jill at Real Food Forager is teaching a class to help you. If you want to sign up for the class use the coupon code NOGRAINS and receive an additional $20off. The coupon expires September 25th. And don't forget about my Spices Contest!