Banana Espresso Muffins

We recently sold our vintage camper. If you’re new to my page you can read on her and her remodel here. To be completely honest with you.. my heart is kinda broken. I really really loved that camper and wasn’t ready to say good bye to her. I really wanted to work on her a little longer. We went camping a few weeks ago and talked about putting her up for sale. By the time we got home I thought I would post her on good ol craigslist. We had 6 people interested in 24 hours and she was sold in 48 hours. It happened so fast my feelings didn’t have the chance to get in the way. It was happening. And we doubled our money on our investment after owning her for 2 years. And she was gone. Just like that.

So we bought a fifth wheel. Daniel has wanted one for years. It tows great and fits our family perfectly and I can see where it will accommodate us better especially on long trips (we go on these often). No more eating a meal indian style on our bed like college kids. We actually have a dining room and chairs… and our own bedroom. To me the majority of campers have such ugly upholstery prints. Why?? Really, is it that hard to find some decent non-floral pattern? And soft material? I seriously think our 1975 Avion had better looking original upholstery than these modern day campers. But maybe thats because I’m an old soul and love anything vintage. Truth is… my heart belongs with a vintage camper. I plan on remodeling this camper in the Fall. Maybe a little paint, butcher block counters, new floor (toss the nasty carpet), different curtains, upgrade the tv and such. I’m thinking maybe a outdoorsy theme… beige (or white), burlap, and flannel of some sort. Rereading that sounds so tacky but I’m sure I can pull it together.

Okay, I’m sure you’re bored with my camper talk. Muffins. These seriously are so good they have a texture more of a dense soft (this made me giggle) cupcake. Idk they are amazing. And talk about a crowd pleaser! People KEEP talking about these! I think the first time I made these they were gone in two days. Yikes!! They aren’t gluten free. Not yet at least, but I am working on it.

Banana Espresso Muffins

Preheat oven to 350 F

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup sugar
1 farm raised egg
2 tablespoons brewed espresso
1 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, mix ingredients together in the order they are listed. This recipe makes 12 standard muffins. Distribute the batter evenly amongst the 12 lined muffin tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until center is firm. Be careful not to over bake.

So simple. Enjoy this delicious treat!

Hemp Heart and Carob Muffins

Over the course of the seven years that my husband and I have been together we have eaten pretty well. Probably above average, mainly because my parents eat a very strict diet due to undeserving ailments. There has always been room to “clean up our diet” regardless of how well we thought we were eating. So we tried.. Mediterranean, paleo, gluten-free, vegetarian… all in all, I hate diets and I don’t want one. Bye Felicia – I want to have a healthy lifestyle. Period. Whether it be being active outside or fueling my body with micronutrients. I want that. I don’t want to have to think “am I allowed to eat that? What does the book say??”. I want to be able to sit firmly in my clean diet to where the bull isn’t desired or even craved.

Each time we would start a diet. We were all in and with such a big change I found that we couldn’t hold on to it. We would fall off especially on the weekends succumbing to the fast food fillers and sugar- the dietary crack. Which made every change and meal that we ate throughout the week completely redundant.

We watched some documentary on Netflix a little bit ago taking about the benefits of a plant-based diet and everything made so much sense. I started meal planning more vegetarian meals with a few meals containing animal protein – no big deal. I typically buy 1 lb of turkey and fish [always checking that it is wild caught in the USA] of some sort for our weeks meals.  Just yesterday I read in Mens Journal [probably the best magazine ever] how red meat consumption raises the risk of developing diverticulitis- each serving by a whopping 18%. You can read the whole article on page 49 of the April 2017 issue. It seems like there is always some new study showing more raised risks with animal protein consumption. Hmm weird.

With all of that aside, I love meat. Would I ever turn down a beautifully charred steak? No probably not. But over the past 3 weeks we have eaten minimal animal protein and have focused on eating more vegetables- wide range of colors [I’ve aways heard to eat a variety of colors] and always making a point to grab a new never tried veggie which forces myself to try a new recipe. I always shop at Trader Joe’s. You seriously can’t beat their produce prices unless you’re growing it yourself. Not to mention the quality is so much higher [in my opinion] than other supermarkets.

By cutting out gluten [we very rarely eat it], refined sugar, and eating more vegetables my husband and I over the course of 3 weeks now have lost a combined weight of 25 lbs. Which is amazing! We are not on some crazy “diet” that you have to buy into or eat a crazy meal plan with fancy protein shakes or pre workout drinks. I fix simple paleo based meals [often leaving out the meat] that are delicious and crazy easy. More than likely you have everything in your fridge already. And also let me say that we aren’t on a crazy workout regime. I have a steady yoga practice and my husband does body weight circuits. Nothing crazy.

This is probably the most dedicated we have been to a regime and in fact I would like to call it a lifestyle. Can you call it that after just 3 weeks? Its hard not to be dedicated with such quick results and when you and your taste buds aren’t starving.

With all of this gibberish behind us let’s make some dope muffins.

Hemp Heart and Carob Muffins



Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup hemp hearts

1/4 cup chia seeds

3/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup coconut milk, full fat if you have it
 if not no biggie

6 Tablespoons carob powder

1/4 cup coconut sugar or honey

6 eggs, whisked – farm raised please

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1/4 cup walnuts, or nut of your choice or carob chips – a little extra to garnish if you choose

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Line muffin pan

Please pay attention because this is where it gets tricky.

Mix all ingredients together. Once combined spoon into lined muffin pan. This recipe makes 12 muffins. So distribute batter evenly amongst the 12.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

These are so dang good and you won’t feel bad about eating them! Happy munching!