Goji Green Tea Raspberry Muffins

Ah, Saturday.  Unfortunately there is no sleeping in when one has an energetic 2-year-old, but at least it is a day of slower pace for me.  No rushing to get out the door and squeeze into an over-capacity subway train on the commute to work.  Not on Saturday.  I can relax and enjoy my 3 feet of personal space and fresh air today.

My Saturday started at 6:30am today.  As I said, it's hardly sleeping in, but the "Mommy, I'm hungry"chant over and over drove me out of bed and into the kitchen.  While Preciosa devoured a cup of soy yogurt, I made myself a cup of goji berry green tea and was inspired to incorporate the tea into a batch of muffins.

I've used tea in muffins before and I had a bag of frozen raspberries begging to add their intense flavour and natural sweetness to a sugar-free weekend treat. 

Goji Green Tea Raspberry Muffins
2 cups unbleached white flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 packets Stevia
2 tbsp agave nectar
3 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp water
1/2 cup hot water with steeped tea
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)
3/4 cup (frozen) raspberries

Preheat oven to 400F.  Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and stevia in a large mixing bowl.  In a seperate bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except raspberries.  Pur wet mixture into dry, and stir until just mixed.  Fold in berries.  Pour into lightly oiled muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from muffin tin, and cool on a cool slightly before devouring.

 

Preciosa could hardly wait for them to cool before she got her hands on one.  Halfway through eating her warm muffin, she asked me to put peanut butter on it.

And just a recap and some photos from my recent 10k run that I mentioned in a previous post:  I was one of 50,000 people that came out for the Sun Run on Mother's Day, May 9th.  At the finish line there was plenty of fresh bananas, oranges, water, juice, and live music.  And a very cute little girl waiting for her mama.  It was the perfect Mother's Day gift.

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Avocado Ice Cream & Chocolate Valentino Cake

 

Whew, this month flew right by.  It's already time to post February's Daring Baker's Challenge.  Rules being what they are, we're required to paste word-for-word the following sentence:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

 ***

The flourless cake that was chosen involved 5 eggs, so there were a lot of choices out there to make it vegan.  I chose to use silken tofu instead, which turned out all right, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other vegan daring bakers did.  For the ice cream, I decided to make vanilla ice cream with a twist ~ soy-free, almost sugar-free vanilla ice cream featuring...avocado!  It may sound a bit strange, but it tastes great and it has a gorgeous green colour.  I used my favorite agave nectar instead of sugar, so that's why I say "almost" sugar-free.

Holiday Yummies

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever you prefer.  I wish all of you a joyous holiday season and may you be blessed all year with good friends, family and yummy FOOD!

I've had to miss a couple of days of work due to some bad weather.  In fact, my flight to be with my family for Christmas was cancelled, so I'm spending the holiday with friends and hoping that my rescheduled flight on Boxing Day doesn't get cancelled. 

On the bright side, being snowed in and stuck at home leaves lots of time to bake some old favorites for our guests. 

I made a batch of Almost Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies subbing in almond butter...

And I made some of Dreena's Chocolate Mint Melties.  These are soooo good.  If you've never made them, you must find any excuse to do so.

And I also made a carrot cake.  I had an abundance of carrots from my weekly produce bin (Green Earth Organics) so carrot cake was the perfect way to use some of them.  I used a recipe from Martha Stewart's website and made a few substitutions.  You can refer to the original recipe here, but I'll list it with my substitutions below:

  

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 cup finely shredded packed (about 2 medium) carrots 

Quick Glaze, or confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil an 8 inch round baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk flax/water, sugars, almond milk, and oil until smooth. Gently mix wet mixture into dry ingredients until moistened; mix in carrots. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes (if browning too quickly, tent cake with aluminum foil). Cool in pan, 15 minutes. Turn out of pan, remove paper, and cool completely on a rack, right side up. Apply glaze, or dust with confectioners’ sugar. 

 Right now I've got a batch of Lavash baking, and I'll be making some lemon-dill hummus to go with it.

Monday Lunch

I went shopping today and spent about 6 hours on my feet walking and trying on clothes, so I feel like I kind of worked off that caramel cake.  But I really want to get back to healthy eating for now! Here's my breakfast/lunch for tomorrow, clockwise from the left:  Nature's Path Agave Plus granola, followed by unsweetened Almond Breeze, a salad of chickpeas, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, cilantro and some smoked garlic chipotle salt instead of dressing, an organic apple of some variety, a persimmon, and in the very middle there is a packet of acai berry tea.

Platinum Waffles with Blackberry-Lime Syrup

With the absence of banana, sugar, and dark vanilla, these waffles are not a familiar golden brown, but instead, a delicate platinum hue.  It creates a stunning contrast for the rich color of the blackberry-lime syrup.

PLATINUM WAFFLES:

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
3/4 tbsp stevia
1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp oil (canola, olive...)
3 tbsp ground flax
3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp white vanilla

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sea salt, and stevia.  In a seperate bowl, mix together almond milk, vinegar, oil, flax, water and vanilla; add to dry ingredients and stir until blended.  Pour onto lightly oiled, hot waffle iron.

BLACKBERRY-LIME SYRUP

2 cups blackberries, strained
1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup agave nectar

Simmer all three ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes or until thickened.  This is great on pancakes and waffles, and even ice cream!

What Is Agave?

Upon googling agave plant photos I discovered that there are many varieties, and most of them seem to resemble an aloe-vera-like cactus, although it is not in the cacti family at all. 

The core of the agave plant is called a piña (and it really does resemble a pineapple!)  It is pressed and the extracted juice is heated, in a process similar to making maple syrup

The piña core of the blue agave plant is distilled and roasted during tequila production.  The tequila manufacturers must have caught on to the fact that people are using  agave as a substitute for sugar and honey because they've also been selling blue agave nectar.  Hmm...if I leave it in my cupboard for a long time will it ferment and turn into tequila?

Agave registers 27 on the glycemic index, as opposed to honey which rates 83 (out of 100)  To be considered "low" on the GI it must be 55 or less, so agave seems to be a great alternative sweetener for diabetics.  However, its natural sugars are high-fructose so it's probably best to use agave in moderation.

If you'd like to learn more about Agave there is an excellent article here.