Cranberry oatmeal coconut muffins

I went grocery shopping the other day and lo-and-behold, fresh cranberries!! Who can resist? (I did... Cause I have about 4 bags in my freezer... Still! T'is the season!)

I found this recipe on this site:

http://www.eatgood4life.com/2011/11/cranberry-and-oatmeal-breakfast-muffins.html

and decided to health-ify it even more than it was! This recipe is awesome for fall, easy to personalize and makes an awesome healthy breakfast! (I have a feeling you could omit the flour or at least replace it with oat flour to take out most of the gluten. They were dense enough that something could be removed)

My first change was (obviously) to coconut oil and coconut palm sugar.

If this is your first time reading my blog, know that I only use a health food if I can get it at Costco or bulk barn. These aren't hard-to-find ingredients I am working with here! 

In this case, my palm sugar is from bulk barn (it is made from the tree sap as opposed to coconut sugar which is from the flowers: resulting in a tree that will not make coconuts because all it's flowers are gone). Coconut palm sugar has a much much lower glycemic index than sugar, while giving a nice brown sugar flavor). This means it has less calories, a little less sweetness, and your body digests it slower than refined sugars, which helps your body to use it for energy as opposed to fat-storage. 

and my coconut oil is from Costco. It's so cheap there, and once you start replacing all your fats with it you go through the stuff very fast! I won't even get into the health benefits of coconut oil because there are so many. It's suffice to say its an excellent omega 3 and lots of people eat several tbsp straight-up coconut oil a day for medicinal purposes alone. Yes it has calories, just like any other fat, but they are the kind of calories your body needs, unlike other fats. 

I creamed these together, and added an egg, then the mashed banana and vanilla. 

I decided to use coconut milk since I was using coconut oil. Coconut milk is awesome for baking because it is thick and creamy while being dairy free!

Once this was done, I added all my dry ingredients. 

I decided to add some healthy extras since I increased the amounts of coconut oil, milk and cranberries. I added 1/4 cup extras (ground chia and hemp seeds) and 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (bulk barn). 

Sometimes when I bake with coconut oil or milk, I just add in some coconut too, so that the coconut isn't an unwanted flavour, but a feature. This works really well even with breads and cakes if you just sprinkle a bit on top right before baking. Then people know they will be tasting coconut, if you are wary of offending un-expecting taste buds. By this point, the batter resembled cookie dough more than muffin batter.

 I decided to add an extra 1/2 cup cranberries (2 cups) because of this, since oats keep on soaking up liquids.  Honestly after baking them, I think you could cut out half the flour if you wanted to. They tasted great as is, but if you are looking for a flourless recipe this would be easy to eliminate it in. (Blend up half a cup of oats into a flour and you are good to go). You could also just add more moisture (such as an extra banana, then eliminate the sugar all together)

Anyway!! I then put it into greased muffin tins (I have an olive oil cooking spray from Costco that I always use, even in paper liners so they never are hard to peel)

Then baked them! This recipe makes 1 1/2 dozen, so if you only have 12-er muffin pans, put about a tbsp water in each empty tin for even baking. I don't actually measure this though. 

And there you have it! A great dessert, snack, breakfast or freezer muffin! Guilt free and good for you!

Cranberry oatmeal coconut muffins

INGREDIENTS:

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1  organic egg

1/3 cup coconut oil 

1/3 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup coconut palm sugar (or brown sugar)

1 cup whole wheat flour. (Or 1/2 C oat flour)

1  3/4 cup quick rolled oats

3 tsp baking powder 

1/4 cup healthy add ins (ground chia, flax, hemp seeds etc...)

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

1 1/2-2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (not dried craisins)

Pinch of cinnamon

Cream oil and sugar. Add egg and mix. Add mashed bananas and vanilla. Mix well. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, healthy add-ins, and coconut, and mix into wet ingredients. Stir in cranberries, and divide batter into 18 greased paper-lined muffin cups. 

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes and enjoy! (Careful the cranberries will be hot!)