My mom is back with another great recipe. It has been awhile since she has shared her favorite recipes that she creates or modifies in the testing kitchen. I have had these muffins a couple times and I would say they taste “good” or “healthy,” not quite like biting into a nice soft chocolate chip muffin, but definitely good tasting and packed with protein, fiber, healthy fats, and whole grains. Here she is! Well, Dustin ate salads on the 4th as a bit of a mini cleanse; today we will add a whole lot of fiber to those salads in the form of a healthy muffin. My friend Terrie would sit beside me at my woman’s group at church and share her awesome muffins with me-I finally got her recipe (originally from Prevention but she changed it up too) and played around with it and here is what I have come up with so far-trying to work in extra protein and coconut as well as the fiber 
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Terrie’s Muffins: 2 peeled oranges 1 c. honey or sugar 1 c. coconut milk 1/2 c. applesauce 1 mashed banana 2 eggs 1 tsp. baking soda Put all in the food processor and mix 1 1/2 c. oat bran 1 c. ground flaxseed 2 scoops prot. pwd. 1 c. oat flour 1 c. unsweetened dried coconut 1/2 c. ground almonds 1/2 tsp. seasalt 1 Tbsp. baking pwd. 1 Tbsp. cinnamon 
Stir and add to liq. mix. Add up to 3 c. of any combination of the following: raisins, chopped dried apricots, chopped dates, raisins, chopped dried apples or peaches, sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, or whatever else you have around! (scissors work well in snipping dried fruit) Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min. Makes around 30-35 small muffins. If you make them bigger, be sure to bake them longer-there is so much liquid that they can remain mushy inside. I like to bake one trial muffin to be sure to get the time right and not ruin a whole batch! When I experimented with this recipe, I just tried to keep the same ratio of liq./dry ingred. The applesauce was in place of the original half cup. of oil…..use coc. oil if you wish, or, I also used 2 bananas last time instead of the applesauce. Sweetness: I first made it with some org. sugar (I like Sucanat), and last time with honey. Dustin and I agree that the batch with honey could be sweeter, but two more taste testers, Sabrina and Charell, said sweet enough! So far I have not been into baking with stevia, but have read those cookbooks and need to try. For the oranges, I peel just a thin layer off and leave as much of the white stuff that has the flavanoids; if you don’t have a food processor, blend them, then just use your beaters for the rest of the liq. ingred. For the coc. milk, I like to use the Thai Kitchen brand, full fat; shake up the can good before opening, in case you haven’t used it before. I realize you could freak out at the fat content and calories, but go to www.itsyourplate.com and let Tracie educate you about coc. products.…they are wonderful! The original recipe calls for buttermilk….you could use a combination. 
For the dry ingred., just use what you have around in whole grain things; again, Tracie has suggestions about grains that are easier on your digestion than others, but in the meantime, start with what you have. For the oat flour, I just use my seed grinder and organic oats. Skip the prot. pwd. if you don’t have any around-PLEASE don’t go out and buy some with fake sugars!! This should be gluten free as is, I think, providing those oats are not contaminated by equipment…..those of you into this can correct me! I actually did spend the time and figure out all the carbs and fats, etc., but with all the variables, I’ll just let it go at the cals being under 200, if not huge, and know that sometimes a healthy investment is worth a smoothly running digestive system . Dustin likes to grab these on the run to bootcamp in the morning….I was able to send out a batch last week when “little” bro Chris came to spend some vacation time with you all in beautiful Madison! He had an awesome time, inspite of the fact that big bro dominated in MANY games of frisbee golf!
Well, time for you to share your experiments-my favorite part, you know .
Keep eating…..healthy! Dustin’s Mom~Joy
Here are some of my mom’s past recipes.
30 Healthy Snacks, 21 Healthy Snacks, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Tofu Pie, Pureed Vegetables, Roasted Veggies, Quinoa, Chicken, Omelet, Pizza, Guacamole, Hummus, Carrot Soup Campfire Food Protein Bars 7 Day Meal Plan
Do you have a good granola recipe? These muffins look wonderful. Is it possible to give them to us in recipe card format? Thank you for your hard work in testing the recipes and making them healthy.
I forgot to mention that I also like to sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and sugar (a “healthy” kind of course-ha!) before baking. Also, I noticed above that I had a recipe for choc. tofu pie; that was before we started hearing the bad rap on soy products-was that Tracie who educated us about that too?
Well Dustin, hope you got to enjoy some good California sun and beach before the work began!
One reason the original recipe used buttermilk is that it interacts with baking SODA to give a rise to muffins. Since the recipe uses baking POWDER now, it’s not required. Buttermilk gives a different tenderness and richness to baked goods because of the lactic acid in it. If the recipe is low fat, buttermilk is a good trick to fool the palate. Since this recipe has the goodness of coconut oil, it wouldn’t be needed.
This recipe is telling me that I really need to keep my eyes open for a good deal on a food processor. I’ll have to experiment with my blender for now, halving the recipe.
Thanks for the recipe Joy! I can’t wait to give it a try. I love all your healthy recipes. Thanks for going through all the “testing” to make them so healthy and great tasting too.
Wow, does that muffin sound yummy. Thank you for thinking more healthy for us people who can’t eat all those nitrate things. Check my video on my space. I’m a big fan of yours. Shalom, Esther
Cheryl, sorry I didn’t respond to your post–I was writing mine at the same time as you were, and talking to Dustin; but yeah, I agree, a better format for printing would be way better-we’ll work on that. For a granola recipe, go to the search bar and type in granola and it will take you to some really great recipes! One is from June 5, ’09 by Laura Divine in a post; her recipe also tells how to make it into granola bars; then right below hers is Angie’s…looks like that is for bars too, but easily changed up into granola. And, maybe a reader will help us out here with their favorite recipe!.
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Dineen, thanks for the reminder about the soda and buttermilk-you are so right, skip the b. soda in the first part when not using the buttermilk! Food processors are nice for lots of things, like hummus and quacomole, but til then, just throw your oranges in your blender and then mix your liquids like usual with your electric beaters. Thanks, Esther, let us know how you like them when you make a batch-or what you substituted
Here’s my Granola Recipe:
3 ½ cups rolled organic oats
3 tbsp. ground flax seeds
½ cup nuts – I typically do a mix of pistachios and almonds
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tbsp. real maple syrup – local
2 tbsp. honey – local
¼ cup coconut oil
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups mixed dried fruit – organic raisins
½ cup organic coconut flakes
Preheat the oven to 325. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the dried fruit. Stir well to incorporate. Spread the mixture evenly on the lined, rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir, then bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack. (I’ve found it works best to carefully remove the granola on the parchment paper from the baking sheet onto the rack to cool. Otherwise, the granola continues to brown.) Once granola has cooled add the dried fruit. Store in a sealed container.
Thanks a lot for sharing, Caroline! I tried your granola recipe last eve.-very quick and just right-not too sweet or oily. I did end up adding an extra half cup of nuts….I had raw walnuts and slivered almonds on hand.
@Cheryl Hoerres: I make our granola since we were never happy with the store-bought versions. This was based on “Melissa’s Granola” recipe. Here’s my version:
Pat’s Version of Granola
3 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup broken up pecans
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup flax seed
scant 1/4 cup cooking oil (not olive)
1/2 cup honey or real maple syrup (or mixture of both
Mix the oat, nuts and grains in a large bowl. Measure oil into the measuring cup and swirl it around before adding the honey or maple syrup. I heat this in the microwave for about 30 seconds before pouring into the bowl. Toss or stir everything together until evenly coated and then pour out into a baking pan. You can use a large roasting pan, or a big cookie sheet with a lip. If you use the cookie sheet with a lip you have to stir it slightly more carefully. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, turning it with a spatula every ten minutes or so. You want everything to be an even golden brown.
When it is finished baking, you can returned the baked granola to the mixing bowl, add the raisins and fruit and stir to combine. Stir gently several times as it cools, so that it doesn’t clump together too much. I keep the granola stored without the fruit since we all like to add different things to it. We like it with no-fat yogurt. You can add dates, bananas, raisins, craisins, or any kind of fresh fruit (cut-up apples are great).
Pat’s Version of Granola
3 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup broken up pecans
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup flax seed
scant 1/4 cup cooking oil (not olive)
1/2 cup honey, real maple syrup or agave nectar (or use alone or any mix of these).
You can also add unsweetened shredded coconut
Mix the oat, nuts and grains in a large bowl. Measure oil into the measuring cup and swirl it around before adding the honey or maple syrup. I heat this in the microwave for about 30 seconds before pouring into the bowl. Toss or stir everything together until evenly coated and then pour out into a baking pan. You can use a large roasting pan, or a big cookie sheet with a lip. If you use the cookie sheet with a lip you have to stir it slightly more carefully. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, turning it with a spatula every ten minutes or so. You want everything to be an even golden brown.
When it is finished baking, you can returned the baked granola to the mixing bowl, add the raisins and fruit and stir to combine. Stir gently several times as it cools, so that it doesn’t clump together too much. I keep the granola stored without the fruit since we all like to add different things to it. We like it with no-fat yogurt. You can add dates, bananas, raisins, craisins, or any kind of fresh fruit (even cut-up apples are great).