Sweet Little Mini’s

I remember the days when we would drive all the way down to Buffalo to grab a box of hostess mini muffins at Wegmans. It was the concept of mini that was so enticing and the fact that you could only get them in the USA. They also tasted pretty good and you could pop at least five of them and not feel guilty, because they were small right? Well of course the processed ingredients in these boxed muffins didn’t matter at that point in my life. But now they do, and many moons later, I still love muffins and especially mini ones. I have my own mini muffins tray – so I can now put dollops of delicious, wholesome and healthy batter in and make batches of goodness whenever I feel the urge. Actually, these past couple of weeks seem to be all about muffins and snacks. I can stop making them! Maybe because it just that time of year that we want a little more sweetness and more things to munch on. Or maybe I am just making up excuses. Because the truth is they are so much fun to make! Muffins are especially interesting as I always like to come up with new combination’s! One of my favourite muffins back in the day, and still to this day are apple cinnamon.  There is something about just a bit size muffin that is so much fun – and they honestly taste better. That’s because so much stuff is packed into such a small space. Especially these ones, which are bursting with apples, cinnamon and currents in every bite. The other best part about mini’s, other than them being super cute, you can pack them up and take them with you on the go! They also make a great snack! They also taste especially delicious with almond or sunflower seed butter.

MINI APPLE CINNAMON MUFFINS

What’s in it?

1 cup spelt, kamut or oat flour

½ cup oats

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp sea salt

¼ cup oil (coconut or grapeseed)

¼ cup maple syrup

1/3 cup apple sauce

1 apple, seeded and cut into small cubes (you can even leave the skin on!)

½ cup rice milk

½ raisins or currents

****Trade in the apples for bananas and raisins or currents for chocolate chips or blueberries and make a different variety!

How it’s made!

Preheat oven to 350F

1. Measure and combine dry ingredients, flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda cinnamon and sea salt
2. Mix wet ingredients, oil, maple syrup, apple sauce, apples and rice milk.
3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well, making sure there are no lumps. Stir in raisins.
4. Spread mixture evenly among 24 mini muffin holes in the tray.
5. Bake for 12 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, let sit for a few minutes and remove and cool muffins on cooling rack or tray.

To make 8- 12 full size muffins – bake for 20-24 minutes!

Sugar n’ Spice

If there were two words to sum up the month of October it would be sugar and spice. Sugar is what makes Halloween so popular. It is not the fun and cute costumes, the pumpkins or the decorations, it is the empty calories that fill up the bags for millions of kids all across North America that make this holiday so memorable. If you were to rethink the concept of Halloween -you could change this and still make it fun and full of “sweetness”. Not to mention, you would be doing teenagers and kids all over a huge favour in the long run. In case you didn’t know, there are so many delicious healthy treats that you could be giving out on Halloween. If you’ve got kids of your own, you could be doing what a friend of mine does, Halloween in reverse. Invite all of your kids friends over…and make them most decadent chocolate cake, cookies etc. using natural organic ingredients, whole grain flours, maple syrup, real cocoa powder and then later have your kids hand out naturally sweetened lolly pops, chocolates, gummies, or anything else that is fun and naturally “colourful”. That way your kids can still dress up, get in their dose of sweetness and have a great time!

On a whole other topic…there is spice…the almighty contrast that compliments sweetness. Spice is thrown in the mix because the fall season begs for warming spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom. All delicious and all can bring flavour and natural sweetness to anything created in the kitchen. One of my favourite things to make this time of year that blends both worlds together is cinnamon baked apples. Not only are you getting the natural sweetness from the apples, which of course would sweeter if they are local, but they are full of fiber and taste delicious when they are baked. Then you top them off with a scrumptious mixture of maple syrup, brown rice syrup, raisins and some nuts such as almonds or walnuts. There is no healthier way to have dessert, snack or breakfast then to bake up some apples and top them with this glaze and spices such as cinnamon and ginger. These spices are warming and compliment the apples – what better combination than apples and cinnamon ?

So get your sugar n’ spice on and have fun with some “natural” alternatives to sugar and some warming spices and make this time of year, happy, healthy fun for the whole family!

Happy Halloween!

Baked Cinnamon Apples

Ingredients:

6-8 organic apples (braeburn, fuji, honey crisp, royal gala)

¼ cup chopped raisins

1 cup almonds or walnuts, chopped or ground

1 tbsp brown rice syrup

1 tbsp maple syrup

½-1 cup apple juice

1 tbsp cinnamon

Fresh ginger

(optional extras clove powder, cardamom pods,  allspice)

1 Tablespoon Coconut oil

Preheat oven to 375F

1. Core apples, leaving the bottom intact to prevent leakage
2. Finely grind or chop nuts by hand or in a food processor. In a medium bowl, combine ground nuts, cinnamon, raisins and syrups and mix well.
3. Stuff the mixture into each of the apples and place them into a small glass baking dish.
4. Pour the apple juice on top of the apples and into the baking dish.
5. Bake in flat corning ware greased with coconut oil, uncovered for 20 minutes and baste apples with juice at bottom and continue to bake for another 20-30 minutes or until tender.