With our bellies full of oatmeal protein pancakes, Ryan and I headed out to the 9 a.m. service at our church this morning.
Please note all the rain on the windows. The sun hasn’t peeked out even once today! Gray day.
Baking Sunday
After church, we went grocery shopping. (Update: Our new grocery shopping strategy is working wonders for both of our sanity.) Yesterday I took some time to find a few recipes online for healthy muffins and declared today “Baking Sunday.”
Last week I felt like I snacked on a lot of less-than-healthy foods solely because they were convenient and easy to grab.
I figured, what’s easier to grab than a muffin and set out to make myself a couple of batches of healthier muffins to snack on through the week.
I wanted to try my hand at baking with almond flour and followed Tina’s recipe for Paleo Pumpkin-Walnut muffins for my first batch. They came out very dense and very moist. Big fan!
For batch number two, I thought about making my oatmeal banana flax muffins, but felt like experimenting a bit when I saw a couple of zucchinis in the fridge. I made zucchini pumpkin muffins with almond flour, applesauce, almond butter (which I could not stop “sampling”) and some spices.
The muffins came out pretty well, but the texture was a little too eggy. I’ll still eat them, don’t you worry.
I have a feeling that after a few tweaks, these muffins could be ridiculously tasty, so I hope to play around in the kitchen a bit and get you guys a recipe for them sometime in the future… especially those of you who have requested some gluten-free recipes! For the lovely bakers out there well-versed in baking with almond flour, any tips or tricks I should consider?
While I was baking, I had some pretty stellar entertainment…
Diving! The former high school diver in me always gets excited when diving is on TV. Gotta love the Olympic Trials! Ryan and I have enjoyed tuning into little bits and pieces of the trials all weekend.
I can’t wait for the Olympics to officially begin at the end of July. Woo!
Now it’s time for dinner. Ryan is in the kitchen making steak and it’s smelling fantastic. I’m also hoping the rain lets up eventually because Sadie is going bananas without any exercise so far today. There are only so many round of indoor fetch we can play!
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BOTH muffins look delish. Now I’m craving dessert already 🙂 might have to bake after dinner, to have breakfast for the week!
Loveee the olympics! that’s pretty cool you were a diver in HS! I’m always amazed what they can do!
I think you’ve inspired me to make some healthy muffins as well! they sounds great as a snack for the week 🙂
I just started experimenting with Almond Flour and Almond Meal to make healthier cookies and muffins. Love the taste and it’s hard to stop eating them!
Can you post the zucchini recipe? Thanks!
Speaking of protein, I’m a nurse and the doctor I work for is real big into protein! He’s got me into drinking a protein/nutrition shake every morning with 25 grams protein each! I’m in love with them…but what’s your take on protein?
O-M-G, those pumpkin muffins sound delicious!! I think I need to put these on my “to bake” list, but every time I bake it leads to endless sampling of things, which in turn leads to the Sugar Monster getting loose. lol
BTW, love that you have a shopping strategy! My strategy is to just shop alone. lol
the pale muffins look to die for 🙂 must bake them soon 🙂
Paleo
It’s baking Sunday at my house too! Chocolate quinoa bars are in the oven 🙂 It’s been too long since I’ve made muffins though!
I LOVE watching the Olympics & get super into every time. I work 3rd shift & even make sure I’m off the night of the Opening Ceremony so I can watch the whole thing. I’m looking forward to gymnastics, swimming and diving 🙂
I totally hear you about the snacking, that’s why I always try to make sure that the easiest things to grab are healthy!! These muffins look great and can’t wait to see the recipe 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your Sunday evening!
Yum! I love all things pumpkin. You should definitely try Mama Pea’s Apple spice cake (I’m sure you could make it into muffins if you wanted) http://peasandthankyou.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6000734
It’s so delicious! I’m not well versed in gluten-free baking yet, but I do know that oat flour (grinding up oats in a magic bullet) makes things fluffier. Looking forward to some recipes!
As a former swimmer, I love the Olympics because it allows swimming to be in the spotlight!
The trials are right in my home state! I had a fun time watching the trials!
Mmm those muffins sound so good! I just bought some almond flour to try and I’m so excited to get my hands on it and do some baking soon. I may have to give those pumpkin muffins a try!
I love baking with pumpkin, it makes everything so moist!!
As good as both these muffins looks, I must refrain from making ANY dessert like foods for the week week or two. I had more than my fair share of sweet treats this weekend!!
I follow Paleo and have made many a muffin with almond flour, but coconut flour is actually better for baking muffins because it produces a much lighter muffin – while almond flour makes a heartier, dense muffin. But, that being said, almond flour is great for pancakes and banana bread!
awesome! i just bought some yesterday, so i’ll have to try baking with it soon. thanks for the thought, maria!
I too bake with coconut and almond flours since we try to follow the Paleo/Primal lifestyle as much as possible. Just a tip for using coconut flour – you can’t substitute it directly for almond flour – it just won’t work. Coconut flour soaks up a lot of moisture so any recipe you see with coconut flour usually also calls for a lot of eggs or other type of liquid. Elana’s Pantry (http://www.elanaspantry.com/) is an amazing blog with tons of recipes using both flours (and she explains tips on working with each). Good luck!
I just found out that one of my former classmates, Brittany Viola, just made the women’s diving team. We went to Lake Highland Prep in Orlando- actually, your old work friend Katie was in our class for a while too! I’m not that into sports so it’s nice to have a personal investment in the games as an incentive to watch this year 🙂
no way! that’s too cool!!
Since you were a diver, do you do any swim workouts? Now that is summertime, doing some cardio-revving laps in the pool feels exhilarating!
i actually played water polo, too! i love swimming! i should really incorporate it into my workouts… i miss it!
Diving and gymnastics are my favorites to watch! I was watching a bit of the diving today at my brothers, sadly I don’t have a TV to watch it on at my apartment!
I am so excited to try your pumpkin muffins! I have been looking for a protein pumpkin muffin and can’t wait to make them!
Mmmm those muffins sound amazing! My mom made muffins a couple of days ago that we had at breakfast this morning…bomb. So, so good.
I generally do half almond flour, half oat flour and the combo works well!
I’m going to be in London during the Olympics- it is going to be total chaos but I’m super excited!
I am pumped for the olympics too!!! They start when we are on our honeymoon so I’m hoping our resort broadcasts them. And now I want pumpkin muffins. Yummm!
hey, i thought you would enjoy (laugh at) the a cappella cover as much as i did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM7jFrPEeu0
I just made Apple Butter Muffins using the recipe for Paleo Pumpkin Walnut Muffins and substituting apple butter for the pumpkin, They were so good!
I use almond flour in my baking almost 100% of the time and it consistently gives that somewhat eggy texture. Maybe using some type of liquid fat would help like coconut oil or a dab of real butter. To give the impression of a traditional texture to baked goods, I opt to use half whole wheat pastry flour and half almond flour.
I’ve been loving watching the Olympic trials! I love the competitive spirit even though I’m not the greatest athlete myself!
i love diving too! athletics and artistry in one fabulous sport! and those muffins look fabulous!
The muffins look great! And I like your new grocery shopping strategy… my boyfriend HATES the way I wander around a grocery store. He even packs the bags super fast (he worked as a cashier at a big grocery store when he was a teenager) and I pretty much just get out of the way! It’s really irritating sometimes – I like looking at new foods and checking labels and so on but he’s always in such a hurry. One of these days I’m going to go grocery shopping by myself… it will probably take me 2 hours! lol
When I bake, I usually use half whole-wheat flour and half almond flour to balance things out. It works nicely and tastes delicious!
sounds like a smart idea to me!
Both muffins look lovely and I love the idea that a muffin is easy to grab and CAN be healthy!
Thanks for sharing :O)
Those oatmeal banana flax muffins sound so good. I shall have to try the recipe. I should of baked some muffins myself yesterday, oh well maybe tonight. Thanks for sharing, have a great week.
Those muffins look great! I love the idea of Baking Sunday. I would love to do that. I don’t bake enough.
i actually tried to make some paleo apple banana muffins yesterday, but i think i missed the mark. i didn’t have almond butter on hand, so i tried to make my own by processing whole almonds in my food processor. i think they were a bit old though and had lost most of their natural oils, because the whole thing just would NOT get to a butter consistency! the muffins aren’t hard to eat, so i’ll be nomming on them all week.. but i definitely want to try those zucchini muffins you made!
Julie,
A BIG thank you for trying some GF options, about a year ago I was diagnosed with Celiacs and it’s really hard to find GF options that are tasty, healthy, and not $$. I love baking so I’m looking forward to trying your muffin recipes.