Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Walnut Oatmeal Muffins...

Preferably enjoyed with coffee...

I’ve been on quite a muffin kick recently.  Muffins are appealing to me because they’re such a versatile treat.  They can serve as a wholesome, healthy snack on the go.  Or, they can be enjoyed on a leisurely weekend morning with a cup of coffee, some jazz, and a good magazine.

Of course, traditional muffins aren’t healthy at all…  made with ingredients such as eggs, butter, milk, and even oil, which contain liberal amounts of cholesterol and artery-clogging fats.  Even the alleged 'Heart-Healthy' oatmeal muffins available at your local bakery are usually a coronary disaster in the making.

However, by removing all of the animal products and added oils and replacing them with plant-based ingredients, you can make muffins that are healthy, as well as delicious.

As proof, I offer up my plant-based Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Walnut Oatmeal Muffins.  Are they breakfast?  Are they dessert?  Or are they just a side dish?  I don't know, but they’re absolutely delicious!

I developed the basic structure of these muffins after perusing and preparing several of Lindsay Nixon’s muffin recipes over at her Happy Herbivore blog, so I need to give her some credit as well.  Lindsay’s recipes are so functional that you can basically mix, match, and create your own muffin variations with very little effort.  As for my own version, it did take some trial and error on my part until I finally got the right proportions, especially after I added the peanut butter into the mix.

Of course, these muffins are vegan, so they're already healthier than traditional muffins.  What's more, they don’t contain any added vegetable oils or white flour.  Instead, they use apple sauce and peanut butter as binding agents.  For the flour, you actually use a food processor or blender along with old fashioned rolled oats to grind your own oat flour.  If you’re avoiding gluten for allergy or Celiac issues, you can easily make them gluten-free by using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats.

The basic ingredients are as follows:

Dry Things:

     1 1/2 cups oat flour
     2 tsp baking powder
     1 tsp baking soda
     1/2 tsp cinnamon
     1/4 cup brown sugar
     1/4 tsp salt (I use kosher salt)

Sloppy Stuff:

     1 cup unsweetened applesauce
     1/2 cup soy milk or other plant-based milk (I use WestSoy's sugar-free vanilla)
     1/4 cup maple syrup
     1/4 cup peanut butter

Delicious ‘n Dangerous Additions:

     1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
     1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Let’s get started.  First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, dump 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar.  Use a fork to mash out and break up any sugar lumps.

In a Queezinart (or a blender), dump 1 1/2 cups of old fashioned oats...  (NOT the instant kind).  Grind, punish, and beat the hell out of them until they can't take it anymore.  What you'll end up with is a course, gritty flour.  That's OK.  This will add wondrous density and sustenance to the texture of the finished muffin.  If you have a mini Queezinart like I do, I'd suggest grinding the oats in 2 batches.  (see below)

The texture won't be as fine as regular flour...  and that's exactly what you want.

Dump the ground up oats into the large mixing bowl with the brown sugar, along with the 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp salt.  Whisk it all together and set aside.

It's Double-Boiler Time!!!

Mmmmmm...  creamy!

Add an inch or so of water to a medium sauce pan, and turn it on medium/high.  Add 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter to a medium-sized, heat-resistant Pyrex bowl.  Once the water is hot and steaming, stack the bowl on top of the saucepan and stir the peanut butter around as it melts.  (see right)

Once the peanut butter has fully melted and vomited all over, take the Pyrex off the pot and set it on a hot pad on the counter.  Don't forget to turn off the stove.  You don't wanna burn your house down,  fool.

Into the bowl of peanut butter, add the 1 cup unsweetened applesauce, 1/2 cup soy milk, and 1/4 cup maple syrup.  Whisk together until a mixture of a diarrhea-type consistency has formed.

Assembly

Looks like a lactose-intolerant turtle
took a poo...

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and dump in the wet ingredients.  Using a big, rubber spatula, gently fold the dry and wet ingredients together until the mixture is just combined.

Add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to the batter.  Again, fold them in until just combined.  DO NOT OVER-MIX!!!

At this point, you'll notice that the batter is pretty soupy.  No worries...  your precious muffins will cook up beautifully.

Line a 12-muffin pan with paper liners  (use the liners with the inner flashy coating and they won't stick) and divide the better between all 12 wells.  It may seem like the muffin wells are over-full.  Again, no worries…  your precious muffins will be just fine.

Bake at 350 degrees for at least 20 minutes.  Whenever I make them, it usually takes around 22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  After letting them rest for a minute or two, remove the muffins from the pan and arrange them on a wire rack to cool off.

While it's tempting to enjoy warm muffins right out of the oven, I'd wait at least a few hours before eating one.  In fact, they're most flavorful after 12-18 hours.  When you first take them out of the oven, they might feel as if they're too soft and ready to crumble or fall apart.  No worries...  they'll firm up quite a bit after they cool off.

Just a word of warning...  Don't expect a dozen of these to last more than two, maybe three days, at most.  They're that good.  And the best part is that they're actually healthy.  Next time a friend, relative, or some other house guest asks you for a chocolate chip cookie, give them one of these beauties instead.  They'll scarf it down and never look back.

Believe it or not, these are actually very good for you...

Lindsay's Double Chocolate Muffins...

Yes...  Those are monkeys in the background.

This morning, I placed a container of 8 muffins on the file cabinet by Betsy's cubicle, and I sent the following email to all 8 of my co-workers in my department:

Good morning,

There are some homemade chocolate chocolate chip muffins over by Betsy.  You are all welcome to help yourself, as there's enough for everybody.  They contain no white flour, no eggs, no butter, no oil...  but LOTS of flavor... 

Oh, wait...  I seem to remember a few days ago that Emily made some comment that chocolate chips shouldn't be in muffins.  With that in mind, we have one extra.  We'll have a drawing at the end of the day to see who gets the extra muffin... 

Help yourself!

Within minutes, I had a handful of emails in my Inbox from appreciative co-workers, thanking me for the mid-morning goodies.  And then, the floodgates opened up, as the positive feedback came roaring into my cubicle from all directions.

     "These are DELICIOUS!" said Ashley.

     "Dave, these are really good," Evan added.

     "Wow...  These ARE good...  No eggs?  No BUTTER?"  Even our supervisor Lisa was impressed.  "Let me guess...  Applesauce...  right?  That's gotta be applesauce."

     "Good guess," I said

     "Did yo' wuf make veeve?" Abby asked, with her mouth full.

     "Uh, no.  I made them.  I CAN cook, ya' know."

     "I've got to try one of these," said Emily, as she headed over to the muffins on the file cabinet.

     "Um...  Emily.  YOU don't get a muffin," Abby piped up.  "Didn't you read the email?"

     "But I was talking about chocolate chips in store-bought muffins.  I'll try ANY homemade goodie."

     "Whatevs," Abby said, rolling her eyes.

     "Of course you can have a muffin," I said.  "Help yourself.  Abby, stop being such a miserable human being."

     "It's what I do, Dave."

With that, I emailed the following update to all my co-workers:

We have an update regarding the Muffin drawing.  Unfortunately...  it's been canceled.

Emily just clarified with me that she doesn't usually care for chocolate chips in 'store-bought' items.  However, she's always glad to sample chocolate chips in homemade goodies.

So there will be no muffin drawing...  but enjoy the sunshine!

More monkeys...

My co-workers were right.  These muffins ARE delicious, and they don't contain any oil, butter, eggs, white sugar, or white flour.

The recipe comes courtesy of Lindsay Nixon over at her Happy Herbivore blog.

During my three-month hibernation, I did quite a bit of reading about the liberal use of olive oil in cooking and baking, why olive oil is not really a heart-healthy food, and how even small amounts in our food may be doing us more harm than good.  I first stumbled upon Lindsay's cooking over at Dr. McDougall's website, where several of her recipes were referenced here, in McDougall's January '12 Newsletter.  John and Mary McDougall gave Lindsay a hearty endorsement, praising her for the absence of any oil and extra added fat in most of her recipes.

I immediately headed over to her blog and decided to pick out a few random recipes to prepare.  Everything I tried was delicious, including the chocolate muffins.  Eventually, I ended up purchasing her most recent book, the Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook, and my wife and I have been enjoying her simple, healthy recipes several times a week.

If you're not familiar with Lindsay, pay her a visit at Happy Herbivore.  In the meantime, go ahead and make these delicious muffins.  The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

• whole wheat pastry flour
• unsweetened cocoa
• baking powder
• salt
• unsweetened apple sauce
• raw sugar
• chocolate non-dairy milk
• vanilla extract
• vegan chocolate chips

What ya do:

Heat up a stainless steel skillet on medium heat and saute the pastry flour, unsweetened cocoa, and baking powder in the vanilla extract until tender.  Once the baking powder is translucent and flaccid, remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.

Add the salt, unsweetened apple sauce and raw sugar to a waffle iron lined with parchment paper and puree for 60 seconds.  Add the chocolate chips one-by-one and continue to puree until evenly mixed.

Wash an unclean ice-cube tray and line it with the chocolate non-dairy milk, taking care not to...

It's the Muffin Mash...  fresh out of the waffle iron.

Ya know what?  I'm yankin' your crank.  This isn't really how to make these muffins.  I suppose I could cut and paste the actual recipe right here, but that wouldn't really be fair to Lindsay...  would it?

I give these wonderful muffins two thumbs up, and I encourage you to make them.  But to do so, you'll need to go over to Happy Herbivore and get the recipe straight from Lindsay.

Click HERE for the link to the recipe.

The cat wouldn't relinquish the computer until I promised
not to plagiarize Lindsay's recipe.

Spicy Black Bean Sweet Potato Chile...

Cheech 'n Chili...
What could be better?

My sister and I gave up meat at approximately the same time, in August of 2010. Actually, she's the one who inspired my wife and I to give it a try. Ever since that time, we've been sharing recipes with each other, as well as new ideas and techniques for preparing and cooking our starches, grains, and veggies.

Last week, she gave me a call to tell me about a delicious chili recipe she'd stumbled upon. Not only did she think it was delicious, but her husband and two growing boys (8 and 10) also approved. We've made it twice during the past ten days, and I'd have to agree that it's absolutely fantastic.

With that, I give you the following recipe for Spicy Black Bean Sweet Potato Chili.

I've made a few modifications to the original recipe to make it more healthy. As such, I can now call it my own, and I encourage you to make it your own, as well.

The biggest change that you may notice is the absence of any olive oil as part of the saute process. During the past few months, I've been reading up on quite a bit of research and information about why olive oil may not be the 'health elixir' that the media cracks it up to be. And I will share some of this information with you in a future post.

In the meantime, you may rest easily at night knowing that you can saute vegetables in just about any liquid, be it water, vegetable broth, white wine, balsamic vinegar... beer... anything wet, really.

As with any chili recipe, you can throw it together at the last minute, cook it for 35 to 40 minutes, and then chow down. However, your best bet is to make it several hours (or even a full day) ahead of time and let it simmer on low for a loooooooooooong time. That way, all the flavors and spices have a chance to meld together.

Ingredients:

• 2 small onions, diced
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 smallish sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped up
• 4 medium carrots, sliced
• 1 bell pepper (you pick the color), chopped
• 2 cups of vegetable broth
• 2 15-oz cans of black beans, drained
• 2 15-oz cans diced tomatoes (no sodium)
• 2 TBS chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (or a pinch to taste)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

What ya do:

Line a stock pot with a thin layer of the vegetable broth and crank heat to medium-high/high. Once the broth is steaming, add the garlic and onions and saute for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. If all of the vegetable broth evaporates, add a bit more to prevent sticking.

Add the sweet potato, carrots, and bell peppers and continue to saute for about 7-8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft and limpid.

Add all of the spices and stir them in until all of the veggies are evenly coated.

Add the beans and diced tomatoes, along with the rest of the vegetable broth, and stir until the veggies are well-coated with the spices. Once the chili returns to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for an hour or more. If you cook it for an hour, that's just... good. If you can simmer it on a really low setting for 3-4 hours, that's... even better.
 

Simmering...  simmering...  simmering some more...

Or, if you simmer it down for a few hours, let it cool, and keep it in the fridge overnight to serve the next day... all of the ingredients and flavors will have a chance to engage in a low-down, dirty orgy together during their scandalous, one-night stand in the fridge. The offspring of this filthy rendezvous will be... sinfully delicious.

This chili easily stands on its own, with homemade bread, as a complete meal. However, it also works really well when dumped over brown rice. If you'd like a spicier end-product, feel free to add your favorite hot sauce to the bowl.