Gnarly Superfood Muffins

Have you ever seen The Swan Princess? It’s one of my favorite childhood movies. In fact, the king’s dying words, “Nothing is as it seems…eck, cough“, totally affected me. Yes, that’s right! I have been shaped by The Swan Princess. That’s why I make healthy foods that my family and friends deny justice. And also why I turn into a swan daily.

Gnarly superfood muffins with quinoa might look wild and tasteless, but…

Nothing is as it seems!

Meet Sir Snail here. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have taken his picture if he had been (shell-less) Sir Slug. Well, he’d really be Mr. Slug. I’d have told him, “Yuck” and moved on with my life. But the snail version excited me!

The moral of the story: slugs are fancy and knighted when they have shells.

Oh, and don’t judge a book by its cover.

Pretty inspiring, huh? Snails, vegan muffins, cliches: it’s what all those religious scriptures are missing.

See that quinoa? The turbinado sugar and blueberries? Yep. Today’s breakfast, Sunday morning’s psalm.

It’s also a new planet.

Gnarly Superfood Muffins

makes 12 muffins

total time involved: about 1 hour

recipe adapted from BitterSweet

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• (suggested) 1 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp flaxseeds (to become flaxmeal…like a swan becomes a princess)
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 cups cooked quinoa (1/2 cup uncooked to 1 cup water)
• 1/4 cup canola oil (I subbed extra virgin coconut)
• 1/2 cup agave syrup
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar (for a sweeter muffin)
• 1/4 cup plain soymilk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond)
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• handful turbinado sugar for topping (optional, but def recommended)
• some baby spinach would be totally radical!

Directions

1. If you don’t already have cooked quinoa on hand, grab that grain (1/2 cup) and add it to 1 cup boiling water. It should be ready to go after about 10 minutes, then coo.
2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and prepare/lightly grease a 12-doodle muffin pan.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Transform your flaxseed into magical flaxmeal via a powerful blender or coffee grinder; add to dry ingredients.
5. Toss the ol’ blueberries and walnuts in as well.
6. Separately mix the orange juice, quinoa, agave, brown sugar (if using) and milk. Once uniform, spatula the wet ingredients into they dry, stirring only enough to evenly distribute.
7. Get yer batter into the muffin spots. They don’t rise significantly, so I recommend filling them to their tops.
8. Sprinkle turbinado sugar like there’s no tomorrow!
9. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into a muffin center. 20 minutes did the trick for me!
10. Let cool for a bit, then swap ‘em out to a wire rack.
11. Enjoy with some juice! A quick zap in the microwave makes day-olds marvelous.

-Bette Jane

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