If you haven’t gotten on the quinoa train yet, now’s the time. It’s versatile and nutrient packed – I’ve been using it as a blank canvas for whatever I have sitting in my fridge (dinner the other night consisted of quinoa, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese, arugula, chicken, and balsamic dressing). I realize there have been about 17 new trendy ‘powerfoods’ since quinoa became a fad (amaranth? lentils? buckwheat?), but I’m still hooked on it. When I get wild enough to figure out a recipe for that bag of green lentils in my pantry, I’ll let you know.
While I’ve been using it in a variety of lunches/dinners, I never thought to use quinoa in baked goods until I came across Lindsey’s recipe on Pinterest. I was a bit skeptical after reading the ingredient list. Can a muffin that has no oil and very little sugar actually TASTE good? It can, they’re healthy, and you should go make them right now.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon applesauce – I used unsweetened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup skim milk
1/3 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup sugar
1 heaping tablespoon of creamy peanut butter, slightly melted
1 egg
1 cup cooked quinoa – I used Trader Joe’s Tricolor Quinoa
1 banana, mashed
Dash of salt
1 cup uncooked quick oats
3/4 cup flour – I used whole wheat
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Chocolate chips – I added these to half of the muffins
1 1/2 cup blueberries
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. If you want to use baking cups, place them in a standard muffin tin and spray lightly with oil. Or, just spray the pan if you aren’t using cups
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, vanilla, honey milk, greek yogurt, and sugar. Once sugar has dissolved, add peanut butter, egg, quinoa, and banana. Stir together
3. In a separate bowl, combine salt, oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Stir together.
4. Pour flour mixture into the wet mixture and stir to combine.
5. Toss the blueberries separately with about a tablespoon of flour (this helps to keep them from sinking in the batter; I read it once here and have never forgotten this tip). Add the chocolate chips and bluebs to the batter. Bake for 16 minutes.
Enjoy! Quinoa Muffins. Your healthy breakfast for the next week.
