Banana & Macadamia Muffins (Grain Free)

It's school holidays in Melbourne and so far this first week has been miserable weather. Luckily today the sun is shinning and I can actually see blue sky! For some reason this makes me want to bake so I've just made up a batch of these yummy muffins to have with a cup of tea this afternoon and some extras to put in the freezer for school snacks. They are a bit healthier then your average muffin so great to have on hand.

Enjoy xxx



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Protein Packed Banana and Flaxseed Muffins

 

Today we are discussing healthy baking options. I know ..... shock, horror, there will be no butter, sugar or (shudder) frosting involved! (insert gasp here)

You see I've been on a bit of a health kick of late and although I indulged in a range of sugary and buttery delights on Sunday whilst celebrating my daughter Emily's 6th birthday I knew that come Monday morning it was time to get back on track.

I have committed myself to a 14 day slim down challenge. This involves completing regular exercise challenges and completing a 'clean eating' program.

If your wondering what exactly I've gotten myself into, Clean eating is about eating foods in their most natural state.  This means avoiding processed foods, foods with loads of preservatives, foods with lots of added sugar, and foods with high levels of bad fats (some saturated fats/all trans fats).  Its about eating unrefined, whole-grains, lots of fresh vegetables, drinking plenty of water or other no-calorie drinks and making healthy cooking choices, such as baking, steaming, and light sauteing whenever possible.

I know, I know, sugar is not exactly clean. But, I am allowed one free meal a week so I'm just going to  have to make do with some experimental healthy 'clean' baking until the weekend.

So last night I began my experiments. My aim was to come up with a muffin that I could use as one of my high protein snacks post workout. I had visited my local health food store and bought a few ingredients not really knowing what I intended to create but purchased them more based on the health benefits of the items. I left the store with whole flaxseed (otherwise known as linseed), chia seeds, raw cacao nibs and no added sugar apple sauce.

After much thought I decided on 2 flavour combinations, banana and flaxseed, and orange, cacao and chia.

The banana a flaxseed was a complete success although the orange, cacao and chia muffins were made with oat flour (ground rolled oats) and were a little to dense for my liking so I will keep working on them because the flavour combination was a success.

Back to the banana and flaxseed muffins. Considering they have no butter, no flour and no sugar they are delicious, filling, and the exact same texture as a regular full fat, full sugar muffin.

Flaxseed is known to assist in burning body fat, being high in omega-3s and charged with fibre, these little seeds can really fire up your metabolism. Bananas are a storehouse of essential nutrients like potassium, magnesium, dietary fibre and B vitamins and with the added benefit of protein powder these muffins fill you up.

So make yourself some of these fantastic healthy muffins, even my children love them!

Enjoy
xxx

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Buttermilk

Photo credit: getwelllivewellbewell.blogspot.com

Making a recipe that calls for buttermilk? This simple substitute will mean you wont get caught out again:

Ingredients:

• Milk (just under one cup)
• 1 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice

Preparation:

1. Place a Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup.
2. Add enough milk to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line.
3. Let stand for five minute. Then, use as much as your recipe calls for.

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Dusting Sugar

Photo credit: www.123rf.com

Tip: Ever wonder why your icing sugar seems to disappear in to your slice or cake within hours of dusting it on? 

The pure icing sugar you buy from the supermarket is very finely milled (10x) so it is easily adsorbed in to the cake. Dusting sugar can be purchased from cake decorating supply shops and is coarser (6x) than icing sugar, it also contains maize starch to stop it from absorbing in to food.  Woolworths and Coles (Australian Supermarkets) now stock 'Queen' vanilla bean dusting sugar which you can try, but be aware if you are dusting more than one cake it can be a little pricey. If you cant get dusting sugar near you try using icing sugar mixture. This is the same texture as pure icing sugar but contains a small amount of cornflour (about 3 percent), this makes it better for dusting than the pure icing sugar. Also if you dont have icing sugar mixture on hand just add 1 teaspoon of cornflour to 1 cup if pure icing sugar and sift it together.

I find the best way to apply dusting sugar is with a small hand held sieve or sifter.

Enjoy xxx

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