glutenfree – Nat's Ladle

It’s my birthday and I brought you muffins! Not any old muffins, but the most delicious, moist, fruity, fudgy, crowd-pleasing vegan glutenfree lowfat pear streusel muffins! Yes, that’s right. While anything involving the word “streusel” would usually conjure the idea of either vegan, gluten free or lowfat, these babies are exactly that. No white flour, butter or refined sugar involved, and with fat only coming from the fat naturally occurring in oats. Who is in?

These little delights were born out of the necessity to do something with a huge bag full of pears that our supermarket gave away for next to nothing as they were approaching their use-by date. Ever since my teenage years, I have enjoyed making muffins. It is such an easy way to use up whatever fruit you have on hand, it is quick, virtually fool-proof and the results never disappoint. Using fruit in muffins is also a great way to lower their fat content as the fruit keeps the nice and luscious.

Back to my bag full of pears and my obsession with muffins. So vegan glutenfree lowfat pear streusel muffins it was. I had never attempted streusel before so I am quite pleased how these babes turned out after the first attempt. As I said, they are ready in a jiffy and not complicated at all. Perfect if you just want to whip up something quickly for surprise guests or the 3pm munchies.

As my daughter and hubby (who are not into health food at all) devoured them, I can’t really say how long these will keep…:-)

Vegan Glutenfree Lowfat Pear Streusel Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

For the streusel:
1/4 cup oat flour
1/3 cup coconut sugar
2/3 cup oats
1/2 cup applesauce
cinnamon

For the muffins:
one cup soy milk or other plant milk
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups oat flour
1/2 cup coconut sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon
4 pears, diced

Preheat oven to 180 °C and grease a muffin tin or line it with liners. In a large mixing bowl, mix the milk with the vinegar, vanilla and applesauce and set aside for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the streusel by mixing all the streusel ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

After 15 minutes are up, add the oat flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and gently stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated and you have a smooth batter. Fold in the diced pear. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin, then divide the streusel on top of the muffins. Bake for 20-25 minutes and let cool in pan for another 10 minutes before taking them out. Best to store in the fridge in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Unless you lived under a rock this past year, you would have probably tried a smoothie for breakfast. You might have had a smoothie on top or instead of your usual meal. Maybe you’ve read that it’s a great way to get nutrients in. After all, you can pretty much put anything in it. Or maybe you wanted to try this lowcarb double chocolate weightloss shake your co-workers are raving about. After all, it was half-price at the supermarket this week. Chances are, you were hungry again one hour later and reached for your colleague’s snack size mars bars or got some exercise by getting that enticing blueberry muffin in the café down the road. With a large full-cream latte and two sugars, of course). Bye bye, healthy goals for the new year! To avoid scenes like that from now on, here comes my blueberry muffin smoothie shake!

The truth is, while I am a big fan of smoothies for breakfast or any time of the day for various reasons (as demonstrated here, here, here and here), blended fruits and vegetables are not a complete meal, not even if you add protein powders. It’s healthy, slow-burning carbs from starchy wholefoods such as grains and legumes that keep you full until lunch (and away from the patisseries and vending machines). This blueberry muffin smoothie contains fruit, your favourite milk and favourite protein powder just like any other smoothie, but with the addition of oats (preferably soaked overnight for an ultracreamy texture). I can’t praise the benefits of oats highly enough, and one of their definite perks is that while they do contain carbs and fat, you get a lot of satisfaction per calorie so to speak as they keep your belly full and happy for many hours and are therefore a health geek’s BFF.

I called this a blueberry muffin smoothie shake as it tastes a bit like a blueberry muffin, though much much better for you. It is thick, creamy and immensely satisfying. Customise this according to your liking. Sub your favourite fruit, milk, sweetener or protein powder. Add your supplements and/or some greens to supercharge your breakfast or afternoon snack. If you want to take this a step further, you could use soaked buckwheat groats instead.

Blueberry Muffin Smoothie Shake

Serves 1

Half a cup rolled oats, soaked overnight in water or plant milk (use certified gluten free if required)
a handfull of frozen berries
one scoop of protein powder (if using plain protein powder, add some vanilla and stevia or your favourite sweetener to taste)
half a tsp of cinnamon
any supplements (maca, probiotics etc.)

Simply blitz all ingredients in a high-powered blender and enjoy! You probably don’t need any more liquid as the soaked oats will be liquidy, but feel free to add more plant milk to achieve the desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Tag: glutenfree

Vegan Glutenfree Lowfat Pear Streusel Muffins

Vegan Glutenfree Lowfat Pear Streusel Muffins

Blueberry Muffin Smoothie Shake {vg, gf}

Blueberry Muffin Smoothie Shake