Rolled oats, dark chocolate and strawberry muffins

The process of losing weight is never fun. Of course, when you get on the scale at the end of the week and see the progress you’ve made there is this moment of glee and happiness. But when you’re at a friend’s place and have to say no to cookies, snacks and have to think of cooking and eating healthy every single day it gets tiring and frustrating.

For me, it takes a lot of time, effort and perseverance to lose weight. Not because I’m not motivated, but because I’m not just looking to lower my weight temporarily. I don’t want a quick fix. I want to change my eating-habits, make them healthier so I know I’m taking proper care of myself and my body.

So, to give myself a break every once in a while I decided that I’m allowed to have a nice muffin or other delicious snack in the weekend. But eating a muffin filled with sugar and butter isn’t going to make me feel good about myself. So instead, I made myself these delicious muffins. They’re healthy, using olive oil and honey, and very tasty with the strawberries and chocolate in them. A very nice treat I don’t feel guilty eating!

Rolled oats, dark chocolate and strawberry muffins
Adapted from: Smulweb (a Dutch recipe website)
Makes: about 14 muffins

Ingredients

• 150 gram whole-wheat flour
• 125 gram rolled oats
• 12 gram baking powder
• 75 gram dark chocolate (broken into little pieces)
• 235 ml milk
• 60 ml honey
• 30 ml olive oil
• 2 egg whites
• Handful strawberries (sliced in quarters)
• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/430°F and put the paper cases in a muffin tray.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients (including the chocolate) in a bowl.
3. Add the olive oil, milk, egg whites and strawberries and mix. If the mixture is a bit dry, add a bit more milk.
4. Fill the paper cases about 2/3 with the batter and bake in the oven for about 17 minutes and then transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool.

~ Enjoy!

Healthy apple and honey muffins

I love my muffins and cupcakes and this is the recipe I make when I'm in a heatly mood. They're very tasty muffins. When you eat them you can taste that they're healthy instead of filled with lots of sugar.  The good thing about this recipe is also that you can add any fruit you want. I made them with apple but you can also choose to make them with berries, bananas or any other fruit.

For this batch, I decided that I wanted my muffins to be a bit more fancy than they usually are. So, I added a glaced apple on top and not only did it look much nicer it also tasted great!

This recipe makes 12


Ingredients

Muffin
2 egg-whites
240 gram wholemeal flour
170 ml. milk
110 gram apple, in small cubes
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
4 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt

Topping
± 1 ½ apples
75 gram packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Recipe
Pre-heat the oven at 190°C and grease a muffin-tray with butter.

A side-note: I advice you put a small piece of baking paper on the bottom of the muffin-tray. I didn’t do this while preparing the recipe but I think it will help you lots in getting the apple-topping out.

Topping

• Combine the brown sugar, the cinnamon, and the melted butter and put the mixture on the bottom of the muffin-tray.

• Core the apples and cut into ¼ inch rounds (see picture below). I drew a circle around my muffin-tray to know how big the rounds should be. If you don’t want to go through the trouble, just cut the apple into parts and cover the sugar-mixture with the apple. It should be about a ¼ inch layer of apple that covers the mixture.

Muffin

• Lightly whisk the egg-white and mix the dry ingredients in another bowl.

• In another bowl, mix the milk, oil, honey and apple. Then carefully mix in the egg-white.

• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix until you get a light but firm batter.

• Fill the muffin-tray with the batter. Usually you fill them about 2/3 but I filled them up almost completely to the brim. That’s because when they’re done, you’ll need to cut off the top of the muffin in order to properly flip the tray over.

• Bake for about 20 minutes until the muffins are light-brown.

• Let the tray cool for about 10 minutes before running a knife along the top of the muffin-tray, removing the tops of your muffins.

• Flip the tray over above a wire-rack so the muffins fall out. If the apple sticks to the bottom of the tray, scrap it out and place on top of the muffins.

• These muffins are best while still hot with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

~ Enjoy!

Source: Kookjij a Dutch website with recipes