One of my less fun indoor tasks for the weekend was cleaning out the cabinet I use to store serving dishes, wine glasses and recipe books. As I was going through my clutter of assorted recipe books and cooking magazines, I realized how nice it is that my focus in cooking hasn't changed much over the years. I'm as much about tasty, simple and healthy food today as I was ten years ago. This makes it really interesting to go through all of my recipes, as I tend to find forgotten, delicious gems.
The recipe I'm sharing today literally fell into my lap. As in I was sitting on the floor, pulling down recipe books, and a recipe that I'd printed out years ago but never tried fell from the stack and landed in my lap. When I read it and realized that it incorporated zucchini and a very ripe banana (of which I had one of each that needed to be used up) as well as quinoa (which I love), I knew it was meant to be.
Thanks to the footer on my print out, I was able to trace where it came from. The Healthy Foodie created this recipe, and when I browse around their website they seem to have created many more tasty creations in the years since!
Naturally, I put my own tweaks to it, and the result is perfect for little ones. I find these muffins hearty and moist, and both lightly sweetened and spiced. Best of all, they have no added sugar, lots of veg, and all the goodness of quinoa. Quinoa is a grain that I'd really like my kids to eat more of, but I haven't had much luck at incorporating it into finger foods until now. No matter how well formed and sturdy my efforts seemed to be, they end up disintegrating into a mess of individual grains as soon as little fingers grasp them. Happily this recipe bucked that trend so I know it's possible. If you have an awesome recipe for quinoa based finger foods, comment below please! I'm interested!
In terms of sweetness, I kept my batch plain and found the flavours to be subtle but pleasant. If you like your muffins a little sweeter or your flavor profiles more complex, consider adding a bit of maple syrup, raisins or both to your batter.
Zucchini Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins
 |
| Zucchini Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins - fresh out of the oven |
2c whole wheat flour
1 tsp gluten flour (optional)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1c zucchini, grated (about 1 medium zucchini)
1c pumpkin purée
1c cooked quinoa
1 large, very ripe banana
2 eggs
2/3c 2% milk
Optional:
1/3c raisins and/or 2tbsp maple syrup
1. Preheat oven to 425F and line muffin tins.
2. Blend first seven ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.
3. Grate zucchini, and squeeze away excess water.*
4. Combine zucchini, pumpkin and quinoa well. Then, add well mashed banana, eggs and milk. Include maple syrup in wet ingredients if desired.
5. Pour zucchini mixture into bowl with dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Add raisins if desired.
6. Divide among muffin tins, and bake for five minutes at 425F. Then, decrease temperature to 375F and bake another 17-20 minutes until lightly browned and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. Enjoy warm or cooled, they're lovely both ways!
Makes 16-18 muffins
* I've only recently come to appreciate the difference in final texture that squeezing moisture out of zucchini lends to my baked goods. I simply transferred my grated zucchini to a clean tea towel, and squeezed it out over the sink. It's amazing how much liquid a zucchini contains!
Little Smiling Man had one with dinner and his narrative was along the lines of "Harum, mum mum mum mum!", which I think means "Mmmm, mmm, mmmm"!
No comments:
Post a Comment