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SusanV I'm SusanV, and I love good food. Join me as I create delicious dishes made with whole foods and without a lot of processed fat and sugar. Want to know more? Check out my FAQs, look through my recipe index, or get inside info on Facebook. Like what you see? Then subscribe to receive email updates. But above all, enjoy!


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Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Blueberry-Banana Bread

Blueberry-Banana BreadQ: What's black and yellow and soft all over?

A: The bananas on our kitchen counter when we got home from the beach on Sunday.

Of course, when we left on Thursday, the bananas were firm and yellow, even a little green. I'd meant to take them with me, but in the rush of packing I forgot. By the time we got home, our bananas were so overripe that I could actually smell them as we entered the door.

But you know the old saying: When life gives you mushy bananas, make banana bread! Well, I may have just made that "old saying" up. Nevertheless, it's true that the riper the bananas, the better the banana bread, so finding several overripe bananas on my kitchen counter was not a hardship at all but an opportunity to make a treat for the family. And since it's blueberry season here, I saw it as a double opportunity and filled my banana bread with some of the plumpest, sweetest blueberries I've ever tasted. The result was incredible: The bananas make the bread extremely moist and lightly sweet, and the blueberries add a fruity surprise to every other bite. If you like bananas and blueberries, I think you'll love them together.

Before I hit you with the recipe, I want to let you know that the Tried & Tasted roundup has been posted over at Holy Cow. I mentioned before that people would be making recipes from this blog and then sharing them on their own blogs. Well, I'm just overwhelmed at the response: I counted 39 different entries, some of them of recipes I'd forgotten I made. It's going to take me a while to go through them all, but I will! Please visit some of them yourself--and tell them I sent you.


Blueberry-Banana Bread

Blueberry-Banana Bread
(printer-friendly version)

3 large over-ripe bananas
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup (80 ml) vanilla soymilk (or apple sauce)
1/2 cup (120 ml) agave nectar
2 cups (240 g) white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat flour)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (240 ml) blueberries

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray or wipe a 9x5-inch loaf pan with oil (I used a silicon loaf pan).

Mix the soymilk with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and let stand until it curdles. (If using apple sauce, skip this step and add the lemon juice to the bananas.)

In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add the remaining lemon juice, soymilk, and agave nectar. Stir well to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, and stir just until the mixture is well-combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting and serving.

Servings: 12

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1/12 of a recipe (3 ounces).
Recipe Nutrition

Percent daily values are based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.

Though MyPoints are calculated using a formula similar to Weight Watchers Points TM, this site has no affiliation with Weight Watchers and does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.


Blueberry-Banana Bread

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Sunday, March 04, 2007

Carrot Spice Muffins

Carrot Muffins

Here's one way to get your kids to eat their vegetables: Bake them into muffins (the vegetables, that is, not the kids!) I baked these muffins over the weekend, and my daughter E. didn't even bat an eye at the shreds of carrot in them, despite the fact that she's never even had carrot cake, as far as I know. They turned out very dense, slightly sweet, moist and tender and gently spiced. Best of all, since I used white whole wheat flour and only a bit of sugar, they're healthier than most muffins, even fat-free ones.

Carrot Muffins

Carrot Spice Muffins
(click for printer-friendly version)

Dry ingredients:
1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour (or a mixture of whole wheat and unbleached flours)
1/4 cup natural sugar
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup soy yogurt*
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cup shredded carrots (about 3)
1/4 cup raisins
Optional topping: Vanilla sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray or use muffin liners. (I used silicone muffin pans.)

Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the liquid ingredients. Add the liquid to the dry and mix just long enough to combine. Add the carrots and raisins and stir to combine.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups--it will be very thick. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar, if desired. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

*People sensitive to soy may try substituting rice milk or other non-dairy milk.

Makes 12 muffins. Each contains: 132 Calories (kcal); 1 g Total Fat; (4% calories from fat); 3 g Protein; 30 g Carbohydrate; 0 mg Cholesterol; 244 mg Sodium; 3 g Fiber

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Sunday, December 31, 2006

Sunshine Citrus Bread

Sunshine Citrus Bread

I had a great time visiting with my parents and my sister and her family for a few days, and though I've been taking a much-needed vacation from the computer, I just couldn't resist adding one final recipe for the year. Besides, I just came back from Louisiana with more bags of citrus fruit than I brought home last time, and I need to start finding ways to use it up. Also, I finally managed to buy some of the King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour that I've been reading about for a while, and I wanted to try it out. So, I thought, how about a quick-bread made with...calamondins!

If you've been reading here for a while, you'll remember calamondins. They are small citrus fruits, bigger than kumquats, smaller than clementines, that people often grow as ornamental plants. I enjoy their tart taste as an alternative to lemon in tea and pies, but I realize that they aren't available to most of you, so the following recipe is written so that you should be able to use oranges, tangerines, or kumquats. Like kumquats, calamondins don't have to be peeled, so if you're using oranges or tangerines, be sure to chop up some of the peel to add to the bread.

This recipe makes one very large or two regular-sized loaves, something I didn't realize when I tried to pour all the batter into my one medium-sized loaf pan. I ended up dipping out some of the batter and putting it into muffin cups, which led to the loaf not rising as high as it should have in the middle. But that was the only problem with this bread—and it didn't affect the taste at all. It was light, tender, and strongly citrus-flavored, and my husband and daughter could not tell that it was made with whole wheat flour and without oil. It's a new family favorite that I think we'll make a winter tradition. And during cold season, who couldn't use a little extra vitamin C?

Sunshine Citrus Bread

Sunshine Citrus Bread

1 cup citrus puree (see instructions)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup soymilk (or other non-dairy milk)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups white whole wheat flour (or a combination of whole wheat and white flour)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup raisins

For calamondins: Cut about 12 calamondins in half and remove the seeds. Place them in a food processor and pulse to chop completely. Measure out 1 cup of puree and reserve the rest for another use.

For kumquats: Place about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of kumquats into food processor and pulse to chop completely. Measure out 1 cup of puree and reserve the rest for another use.

For oranges or tangerines: Peel 2 large or 3 medium oranges or tangerines and cut them into quarters. Remove seeds, if necessary, and place the fruit into a food processor. Pulse to chop completely. Measure out 1 cup of puree and reserve the rest for another use. Grate or chop 2 tablespoons of the peel, and add it to the recipe along with the cup of puree.

Preheat the oven to 350 F and oil or spray one large (9 X5X3-inch) or two medium loaf pans. In a large mixing bowl, combine the puree, sugar, soymilk, and apple sauce. In another bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients and mix well. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir just until all the flour is moistened. Do not over-stir.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan(s) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes for one large pan, less time for smaller pans. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

Each serving, using pecans, contains 197 Calories (kcal); 4g Total Fat; (17% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 282mg Sodium; 4g Fiber

Each serving, without nuts, contains 163 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (3% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 38g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 282mg Sodium; 4g Fiber

Reindeer line

Let me take a minute to thank all of you wonderful readers and fellow bloggers for making 2006 a great blogging year for me. I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to get to know you through your comments, emails, and blogs, and I look forward to what 2007 will bring. Happy New Year to you all!

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Pumpkin Bread Gift BasketReading other food blogs over the past couple of weeks has made me think a little about how being vegan has influenced my gift-giving. While lots of cooks, vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike, merrily bake and pack up goodies to give as gifts, I've become a little hesitant about giving gifts of food. It's not that I don't think that vegan food can be as tasty as non-vegan—I've had plenty of people ask me for recipes, not even realizing that the dish in question was vegan. It's just that being vegan has made me see that we all have different food preferences, restrictions, and needs and that what might be a treat for me could be a disappointing reminder of something they can't eat to people who have, for instance, diabetes or celiac disease. I've been on the receiving end of many gifts of goodies that I don't eat, and while I'm happy to pass them along to someone who will appreciate them, I would hate to give a gift that resulted in someone else being disappointed.

On the other hand, there's just something about a homemade gift of food that is so much more personal than anything you can buy. So, when I saw these cute ceramic loaf pans at Michael's, I decided to put my concerns aside and make little loaves of pumpkin bread, one of my favorite recipes, for my daughter's teachers and bus driver. I put them into baskets, along with a few Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate Squares* and some candy canes:

I'm just going to hope that none of the recipients are following low-carb, gluten-free, or sugar-free diets or are allergic to pecans or pumpkin. But I figure that even if they have to pass the edibles along to someone else, at least they'll have the little loaf pan and basket to enjoy or re-use .

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Pumpkin Spice Bread
(click for printer-friendly recipe)

When cooking this for other people, I usually use a little oil, as noted in the recipe below. It makes the loaf lighter and less likely to sink or be gummy in the middle. But you can make it completely fat-free and still have a tasty treat.

Wet ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup canola oil (or apple sauce)
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed well with 4 tablespoons water

Dry ingredients:
1 2/3 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil 1 regular sized loaf pan or 4 small ( approximately 3 1/2 X 5 1/2-inch) loaf pans or a dozen muffin cups.

Combine the wet ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl and blend well. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the liquid mixture to the dry, and stir well. Stir in the nuts, if desired. Pour the batter into the pan(s) and place on the center rack of oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean--about 15 minutes for muffins, 35 minutes for small loaf pans, and 60-70 minutes for one large loaf. Allow to cool before removing from pan. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving, with oil and 1/4 cup pecans, contains: 318 Calories (kcal); 10 g Total Fat; (26% calories from fat); 3 g Protein; 57 g Carbohydrate; 0 mg Cholesterol; 237 mg Sodium; 1 g Fiber.

Each serving, without oil and with 1/4 cup pecans, contains: 264 Calories (kcal); 3 g Total Fat; (8% calories from fat); 3 g Protein; 59 g Carbohydrate; 0 mg Cholesterol; 237 mg Sodium; 2 g Fiber.

Each serving, without oil or nuts, contains: 239 Calories (kcal); trace Total Fat; (0% calories from fat); 3 g Protein; 58 g Carbohydrate; 0 mg Cholesterol; 237 mg Sodium; 1 g Fiber.

Gingerbread Line

I'm sorry I don't have a gluten-free version, but if any of you gluten-free bakers out there have any suggestions, I'd love to give them a try.

It's been a while since I've contributed to Sweetnicks' Tuesday round-up of antioxidant-rich recipes, but it looks like I'm posting this right in time. Did you know that pumpkin is high in folate as well as beta-carotene? Or that cinnamon reduces blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes? Check out the other healthy but tasty fare over at Sweetnicks later tonight.

* Lindt Excellence chocolate is non-dairy, though made on equipment used to process products containing milk.

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Thursday, October 05, 2006

Fresh Peas and Corn Cakes

Pinkeye Purple Hull Peas
Pink-eye Purple-Hull Peas, Steamed Broccoli, and Corn Cakes

It's been a crazy, hectic week here. Our 9-year-old E. is in an opera! She and several of the students from her school are part of the children's chorus in a local opera production, which will (finally) be performed this weekend. Between driving her to and from rehearsals and staying up late to make sure she gets her homework done, D. and I are almost as tired as she is. So our meals have become simpler as our lives have become more chaotic.

One of my favorite fast-but-healthy meals is fresh peas, a steamed vegetable, and a starch. If you can get fresh peas of any kind, the taste is just miles better than the canned version. Here in Mississippi, farmers' markets and farm stands often sell already shelled peas in several varieties--lady cream peas, pinkeye purple hull peas, and baby lima beans are among my favorites. Whatever the variety, my technique for cooking them is pretty much the same.

First, I chop an onion and sauté it in a non-stick saucepan until it starts to caramelize. Then I add a little garlic, and cook for another minute. Then I add the peas (about a pound for the 3 of us) and enough water to cover them by about an inch. I season them well with whatever herbs I've decided to use. This time around, I cooked the adorable pinkeye purple-hull peas with thyme, rosemary, and fresh French tarragon, but for lima beans my favorite combination is thyme and marjoram. Sage, parsley, pepper, basil, oregano--all of these herbs have made their way into my peas at one time or another, and they're all good.

Once the peas and seasonings are in the pot, I cover it with the lid slightly ajar and let the peas cook until tender. It depends a lot on the peas whether this takes 20 minutes or an hour, so I plan for about an hour. I watch the pot and add water as necessary. When they're done, I add salt to taste. I sometimes thicken the cooking liquid by adding a cornstarch mixture or by simply mashing some of the peas to release their starches; this makes a wonderful gravy, suitable for "sopping up" with a piece of cornbread. (I skipped this step this time, choosing instead to serve the "pot liquor" in its natural state.)

While the peas are cooking, I prepare my side dishes. Steamed broccoli is a favorite around here, so it's my fall-back vegetable. As far as starches go, we're usually potato people. Mashed or baked potatoes both go well with peas, though sometimes I will opt for hash browns. On this occasion, however, I took a little extra time and threw together some corn cakes.

Corn cakes are great when you're in a hurry; they cook much more quickly than a pan of corn bread, though if you're feeding a crowd, a pan of corn bread will save more time. I make corn cakes a little differently each time, but here's the version I made most recently, which should be gluten-free if you use brands of corn meal and flour that are certified gluten-free.

Easy Corn Cakes

1 cup yellow corn meal
1/2 cup hot water
3/4 cup chickpea flour (besan) or rice flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. Ener-G Egg Replacer
1 cup soymilk
2 tsp. lemon juice

Mix the corn meal with the hot water until crumbly. Add the remaining dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Mix the soymilk with the lemon juice and pour it into the dry ingredients. Mix well, and set aside while you heat your skillet.

Spray a non-stick or cast iron skillet with a little canola oil. Get it hot, and then cook the corn cakes like pancakes, allowing about 1/4 cup batter per corn cake. Cook until well-browned on each side. Makes about 8-10.

It's going to be a long weekend, so I'll see you after the opera! :-)

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Thursday, April 13, 2006

Cherry-Walnut Banana Bread

What do you do when the bananas are so over-ripe that they're practically inedible? In my house, there are basically two choices: freeze them for smoothies or make banana bread. So I put it to a family vote, and the response was unanimous: Banana Bread!

I've been making the same banana bread for years. The recipe comes from my dog-eared, much loved copy of Laurel's Kitchen, the very first vegetarian cookbook I ever bought. I've adapted the recipe over the years, and the book's margins show it. There are notes giving the nutritional values with oil and with butter (from before I was vegan) and with reduced amounts of oil, butter, and light margarine. But there are no notes about completely eliminating the fat; I usually make the recipe for guests, and I tend to allow a little oil or margarine when cooking for others. I wanted to make it fat-free this time, so I looked for guidance in another old, but new to me, book that I picked up last week at an antique store: the 1994 edition of Fat-Free Baking by Sandra Woodruff, RD. It's not a vegan cookbook, but its recipes really are fat-free and many look to be low in sugar, too. So I looked at what I like about the Laurel's Kitchen recipe and I looked at Ms. Woodruff's recipe, and I sort of combined the two.

And then I threw in my own twist: dried cherries. This was a last minute decision on my part. I was trying to decide whether or not to include dates when I remembered that I had a package of dried cherries I'd bought to make Pop-Ems. So I threw them in. Feel free to throw them out, but be warned--you'll be missing a treat if you do. The cherries add a wonderful sweet-tart taste to the bread that you might not want to miss.

Cherry-Walnut Banana Bread

Cherry-Walnut Banana Bread

3 over-ripe bananas
2 tbsp. lemon juice
4 ounces unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup dark sugar (brown sugar, if you have it; I used demerara sugar)
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup dried cherries (optional, though leaving them out will require a name change)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (ditto)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add the lemon juice, apple sauce, and sugar. Stir well to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, and stir just until the mixture is well-combined.

Spray or wipe a loaf pan with oil (I used non-stick spray on a silicon loaf pan). Spread the mixture evenly in the pan and bake until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Note: Fat-free quickbreads like this really benefit from being allowed to cool completely, which is why they often taste better the next day. The crust, which is chewier than breads with oil, will gather moisture and softness over time. Ignore the tempting aroma; pleasure delayed will be pleasure multiplied.

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Friday, February 17, 2006

Let's Call it a Cheese Sandwich

Cheese Sandwich

Recently Pete Wells, a writer for Food and Wine magazine, wrote an article that described most food blogs as opportunities for "hundreds of pointless cheese-sandwich meanderings." To illustrate what he considers a boring "cheese sandwich blog," he pulled quotes out of context from several blogs and caused a big stir among food bloggers. As a protest, Cheese Sandwich Day was born.

Well, I never eat cheese, and I rarely eat sandwiches, so I don't think what I write could properly be called a cheese sandwich blog. In fact, I'm sure that Wells, a guy who once wrote that "lard is the most elegant fat I've ever met," would consider my blog something much worse than a cheese sandwich blog: a freakishly health-conscious, nutritional yeast-pushing, fat-fearing, tofu salad sandwich blog!

I guess I should have made a tofu salad sandwich to express my solidarity with other food bloggers. They probably would have understood: I don't do cheese, and tofu is really soy cheese. But no. I had "a sense of purpose," which Wells says a blog needs. I wanted to rise to the challenge and make something vegan, something cheesy, and most of all, something not boring.

So I threw myself into the task with zeal. First I made my own "cheese." Then I made my own whole-grain/sweet potato flatbread (gluten-free, even, as though I don't already operate under enough food restrictions.) And finally I grilled my vegetables, because everyone knows a vegan, whole-grain, gluten-free cheese sandwich must have grilled vegetables!

In the end, my kitchen looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy had spontaneously exploded. Pots were coated with sticky "cheese" sauce, hand blender and food processor were caked with starchy residue, pans and cutting boards and serving bowls took up every bit of counter space. My husband, AKA "the dishwasher," was not amused. He would have preferred tofu salad. (Actually, he would have preferred bibimbab, which uses an equal number of pots and appliances to greater effect.)

So, was it worth it? How did it taste?

It wasn't bad. Actually, the "cheese" sauce was great (though I'm sure Mr. W. would quite literally rather eat lard). The vegetables, my standard recipe using rosemary, garlic, and balsamic vinegar, were good. The bread could have been better. In fact, my three components, sauce, bread, and vegetables, didn't really mesh well together. I think my sense of purpose may have led me astray this time.

Here's the rundown on what I did:

Millet-Sweet Potato Flatbread

I cooked one medium sweet potato and mashed it. Added about 3/4 cup of millet flour, 3 tbsp. corn starch, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Tried to knead it in the food processor, tried to roll it into a flat bread and put it in a skillet, but it fell apart. Put it back into the food processor with 1/4 to 1/2 cup water and 1/2 tsp. baking soda. Spooned it into a hot skillet and cooked it on both sides until done. (Next time, I'll add some cumin and serve this as an accompaniment to Indian foods. It wasn't really large enough to use as a wrap.)

The Vegetables:

Eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper, onion, portabella mushrooms grilled like this.

Mozzarella-Style Cheeze

1 cup water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cashew butter

Blend all the ingredients with a hand blender until smooth. Pour the mixture into a small sauce pan, and stir over medium heat until it starts to thicken, then let it bubble for 30 seconds. Whisk vigorously. Whisk in 2 T soymilk (or water). Drizzle immediately over vegetables or other food. (If you let it sit too long, you'll have to blend it again.) For vegan, almost fat-free cheeze, this was a real winner. I will be using this recipe in the future to make my daughter's beloved Mac and Cheeze.

So... I agree that it's important to try not to be boring. But a writer from a food magazine is not the final arbiter of what's interesting in a food blog. When you write day after day about what you're cooking or eating, chances are you're going to bore someone sometime. What's important is to love what you're writing about, and enjoy writing it. People who appreciate your ideas and recipes will find you and stick with you through the boring parts.

That's what Mr. Wells didn't understand: you can't evaluate a blog based on one line, one paragraph, or one entry. You have to look at its entirety--the body of knowledge it shares, the particular voice of its writer, and the responses of its readers. I just started this blog last month, so I'm still finding my voice. I just hope I'm around as long as some of the other blogs that fancy food writer found boring.

And now I must get back to cooking. I think I owe my husband some bibimbab!

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Monday, January 16, 2006

Banana-Date-Walnut Muffins

I've been thinking about banana bread ever since I saw this banana bread recipe on the Knocked Up Vegan blog. This morning I had a houseful of girls: my daughter E. had her friends J. and K. over to spend the night since today is a school holiday. I decided that instead of filling several breakfast orders (one loves grits, one likes cereal, one says she always eats bacon...) I'd make muffins. I took a look at Miriam's banana bread recipe (above) for ideas and then took a look at some of the muffin recipes in Vegan with a Vengeance for more inspiration. I then decided to wing it! The result was these amazing, tender, fat-free muffins.

Here's how I did it:

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup natural sugar (I used the large crystal, unbleached kind)
3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1-1/4 cups)
1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
1/3 cup natural apple sauce
2 tbsp. agave nectar
1/4 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (omit to reduce fat)

Preheat the oven to 400 and spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray. Sift together the flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, mash the banana with the sugar, soymilk, apple sauce, and agave nectar.

Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Add in the dates and walnuts, and pour into 12 muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve to everyone who came running toward the aroma of fresh baked banana muffins!

These came out very light and sweet; J. actually asked if I had any "regular" muffins because "these are too sweet." You can probably reduce the sugar with no ill effects. Enjoy!

Makes 12 muffins. Each (including walnuts) contains 144 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; (10% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 31g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 171mg Sodium; 2g Fiber.

Without walnuts: 128 Calories (kcal); trace Total Fat; (2% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 31g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 171mg Sodium; 2g Fiber.

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