Quesadillas and Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

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I was inspired by Vivacious Vegan's post on quesadillas here. You can make them with almost anything, but I used a low carb tortilla with refried black beans, fresh salsa from whole foods, black olives, and jalapenos. I thought about sauteing some spinach but I was soooo hungry. I served it with a simple tomato, cucumber, avocado salad dressed with some lemon juice and zest. Fold in half and toast in a non stick plan-I did not use oil but I guess you could. TIP: if you need to make a lot of quesadillas for a party (see my Superbowl post on sweet potato quesadillas) set the oven to 350. Lightly spray a cookie sheet and place quesadillas on it. Flip after 5 min and cook 5-7 minutes more. Let cool a bit and slice with a pizza cutter.

Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby and we will be going out to western MA to party hardy with my family. I wanted to bring something yummy but not too sweet for an afternoon garden party. I've made a lot o cookies lately and so I decided to make my favorite muffins. I made these a lot this fall because they are great around the holidays, but I missed them so they are coming out one last time before summer!
Pumpkin Cranberry Orange Muffins
2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ea. cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg
1 cup maple syrup
1 can of pumpkin
1/2 c applesauce
Juice of 1/2 orange and zest of whole orange
1/2 cup orange flavored cranberries (from Trader Joe's or just use regular ones)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
NOTE: You can use pumpkin pie filling and omit spices and 1/2 cup maple syrup

Set oven to 350. Mix wet ingredients, then add dry, fold in nuts and berries, and fill lightly greased muffin cups 1/2 way. Bake 14-17 min.

Almond Joy Cupcakes

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These cupcakes are gluten free and taken from a recipe my aunt made last week. The frosting is from Licking the Beaters, a low fat vegan cookbook. You really don't need the frosting because the cakes are moist and delicious and healthy enough to eat for breakfast.

Gluten Free Almond Coconut Cakes:
1 1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 cup organic unrefined sugar
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

2 TBS canola oil
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 TBS flax seed meal mixed with 3 TBS HOT water (Let sit for 10min before adding to wet ingredients)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Add wet to dry, and mix until combined. Fill lightly sprayed foil muffin liners with a heaping TBS of batter. Bake 20 min. Makes 6-8 muffins.
Note: Using these muffins for breakfast would be great since they are pretty healthy. I would like to try adding some cinnamon and raisins.

Chocolate Almond Butter Frosting: Lickin' The Beaters: Low Fat Vegan Desserts by Sue Moffat
Combine the following ingredients in the bottom of a sauce pan:
3 TBS soy milk
2 TBS almond butter
4 TBS cocoa
6 TBS maple syrup (I used agave nectar because I didn't want the taste of maple)
Whisk together the ingredients until smooth. In a separate bowl mix together 4tsp arrowroot powder and 1/4 soymilk. Pour into chocolate mixture in pan. Heat on medium low and stir occasionally until thickened for 10 minutes. Let cakes and frosting cool before frosting.

Peach Molasses Corn Muffins

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Inspired by last weeks brown sugar peach muffins from Vegan Yum Yum, I decided to make a corn bread based version to go with our chili last night. Again, this is based off of Veganomicon's skillet corn bread, but with no oil and molasses added also a little more sweetener!

Ingredients
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
4 TBS maple syrup
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/3 cup oil (I filled the cup half with apple sauce and half molasses)
1 large peach chopped into pieces

Set oven to 350. Mix soy milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. In another bowl mix dry ingredients. Add maple syrup, molasses, apple sauce (or oil) to soymilk mixture. Mix wet into dry until combined. Fold in peaches and spoon into sprayed muffin tins. Bake for 18-20 min. This recipe made nine muffins.

Banana Walnut Oatbran Muffins

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My dad has been making oatbran muffins for the last 15 years as a way to lower his cholesterol. I made these muffins from the book The 8 Week Cholesterol Cure vegan with a few easy swaps. The banana keeps them from being too dry like normal oat bran muffins but Tom says they taste very "healthy". My mom and I love em as a healthy breakfast before the gym in the morning. Remember, not everything can be a chocolate chip muffin (although those are good too!)

Banana Walnut Muffins:
2 mashed ripe bananas (riper the better)
1 cup soy milk
1 TBS molasses
2 TBS applesauce or 2 TBS canola oil
1/4 cup agave syrup
Ener-g egg replacer equal to one egg
2 1/4 cup oat bran cereal
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup walnut pieces
1 TSP cinnamon

Mix wet in one bowl dry in another. Add wet to dry. Pour into 12 muffin cups. Bake at 425 for 15-17 minutes. These freeze well and reheat in the microwave a 1 min or 30 seconds if you keep in the fridge. My dad puts peanut or almond butter on these for protein. I like them with ice cold soymilk.

Muffin Madness

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This week I made two types of muffins for Tom to take to work. The first is a Banana Chocolate Chocolate-Chip muffin (picture above) based off of a recipe in Eat, Drink and be Vegan by the great Dreena Burton. Her's uses barley flour which I did not have and I added chocolate chips. The Second recipe Brown Sugar Peach muffins is from Vegan Yum Yum with some additional molasses and less oil.

Banana Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins:
1/2 cup and 2 TBS soy milk
2 TBS flax meal
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
1/4 organic unrefined sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup cocoa powder sifted
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 baking soda
1 cup mashed banana (you can leave this a little chunky so there are yummy lumps of banana in the finished muffin)
1/4 cup maple syrup or agave
1 tsp vanilla
2 TBS canola oil
1/4-1/3 cup semi sweet chips

Preheat oven to 375. Spray muffin tins with PAM. Mix soy milk and flax meal and set aside. In a seperate bowl mix flours, sugar,cocoa, spices, baking soda and powder and salt. To the flax mixture add, oil, banana, syrup, vanilla and stir until combined (there may be some banana lumps). Fold wet mixture into dry. Don't over mix just fold until dry ingredients dssappear. Add chocolate chips. and bake for 16-18 min.

Brown Sugar Peach Muffins:
2 cups Flour (white whole wheat or all purpose)
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup soy milk plus 2 TBS
1 TBS molasses
1/3 canola (I used 1/2 apple sauce and 1/2 canola)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup fresh peaches or nectarines (I left the skin on the nectarines but not the peaches)
Extra Brown Sugar, for sanding

Preheat oven for 400 and spray muffin tins. Mix wet in one bowl and dry in another. Add wet to dry and mix until combined. Fold in most of the peaches saving some for tops of muffins. Fill muffins 2/3 full and top with additional chunks of peaches and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Bake 16-18 min

NOTES: I found the cook times in both the original recipes WAY OFF and almost burned the peach muffins. It might be my oven so while I cooked both muffins for 16 minutes you may need to go to 18 or 20 min. We'll see how these work when we move and have a new oven. oh and here's a really bad picture of the peach muffins:

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

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Can't tell if these are muffins or cupcakes but I had 3 ripe banana I needed to use! I used THIS recipe and copied what I did below.

3 Ripe Bananas
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
1 teaspoon Salt
Replacer equal to one egg (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer)

1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/2 Cup Soft Whole Wheat Flour (I used 1 cup white 1/2 whole wheat)

1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Pieces

Preheat the oven to 350º.
In a large mixer, cream the bananas with the oil, sugar and vanilla.
Prepare the egg replacer as to the package directions and add it and the salt to the banana mixture.
Once well combined, add the baking powder and soda, followed by the flour, adding it in two batches, followed by the chocolate

Oil and dust a 12 muffins and bake 18 min

Check bounce at the center of the cake or insert and remove a toothpick. The cake is moist but it should come out fairly clean.

There are additional directions on making a cake or loaf if you click on the link. These were delicious and about 190 calories per muffin. You could replace the oil in the recipe with apple sauce which would make each 150 calories and low fat.