Blueberry Butternut Squash Muffins

 

  

This is a recipe I've been playing around with for some time.  The  original idea came from this recipe.

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I love Meghan Telpner and often use her recipes, or bits and pieces thereof :-)  This one actually came from one of her assistants.  I started off using 2 kinds of sweeteners, as the original called for, but found we didn't think it needed that much.  So I've made it with maple syrup, or coconut palm sugar (my fav. low GI sweetener) and this time I tried it with raw honey.  I've also used various kinds of flour in this recipe, including oat, brown rice, premade gluten-free blends, arrowroot, tapioca, etc...  This time I used a mix of besan (ground chickpeas), oat and brown rice flours.  I think this might be the one that's baked up lightest and fluffiest so far.  This is also the first time I've used blueberries in this particular recipe.  I usually use dates or raisins.

Here's what I did...

 Cut in half a beautiful butternut squash I bought at our favourite organic farm (Simpler Thyme in Waterdown, On.)

 Roasted it for 45 minutes in a 400F oven (on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper)

 Cooled, then mashed the squash

 Put it into the bowl of my stand mixer with 2 organic eggs

 And 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (I usually use coconut oil for this, but thought it would make a change) and 1/2 cup raw honey

 Mixed it all together 

 Then added 1/2 cup oat flour (I just ground the oats myself), 1/2 cup chickpea flour and 1/2 cup brown rice flour

 Added 3 tablespoons lucuma, 2 tablespoons chia seeds, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 2/3 tsp. Celtic sea salt, 1 tablespoon ground ginger, 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon & 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

This is lucuma.  Some info. on it can be found here.

 Then I added 2/3 cup chopped, raw walnuts

 And one and a half cups frozen blueberries

 Folded them in gently and then dolloped the mixture into large muffin liners

 I baked them for 28 minutes at 350F (rotating trays halfway through cooking time)

Finished!!

Salad in a Jar!

When I read about this idea on Twitter last week, I was totally blown away.
  What a simple, but brilliant way to package salad for Perry to take to work with him!
I didn't use any leafy greens in this particular salad, so it probably wasn't as vital to keep the veggies away from the dressing as it would have been had I used lettuce.  Regardless, it's an awesome idea and I'll continue making these.

Here's what I did...

 To a small bowl, I added balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, Dijon mustard, Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 Whisked it all together to make a dressing

 Poured the dressing into a large mason jar

 Added some grape tomatoes

 Diced celery

 Chopped red peppers

 Chopped cucumber and sliced green onions

 Lots of grated carrot

 And topped it all with pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts and pine nuts

Voila!!