My kids and I have been experimenting with creating healthy versions of recipes for years. In my post “Happy Families Can Have More Than One Diet,” I told about my husband’s and my vegetarian diet (for 38 years now) and our adult children’s lifelong vegetarian diet.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Vegetarian and Vegan Recipe Posts
“Activity of the Week – Homemade Ice Cream Right Now! No Machine Required!” has a vegan version I discovered through experimenting. “Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes and Family Cookbook” has a vegan nut-loaf recipe and vegetarian fruit salad that have been part of my family’s favorite Thanksgiving meal.
Gluten-Free Recipe Experiments
My latest experiments have been with creating natural, gluten-free recipes. Although no one in my family has celiac disease, books such as Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis, MD, give compelling reasons to try healthy, gluten-free recipes.
My adult daughter, Christina, in particular, might have a sensitivity to gluten. So, for a couple of months, Christina and I have been experimenting with gluten-free recipes. While some gluten-free flours are still unhealthy, we’ve especially tried to use brown-rice flour as a substitute for wheat flour. Christina seems to feel healthiest and has an extra glow when she eats natural, gluten-free foods.
Gluten-Free Chocolate Oat Bran Muffins
I’m a real fan of chocolate muffins (and chocolate anything!), so I’ve been working to create a healthy chocolate muffin. I do use regular oat bran, which might have a slight amount of gluten. You can find certified gluten-free oat bran.
To make the recipe both healthy and gluten-free, I used vegetable oil instead of butter, brown-rice flour instead of processed flours or whole wheat flour, honey instead of sugar, and unsweetened dark chocolate. Because I raised athletes, I like to add protein powder to baked goods. I typically use whey powder, although soy powder (and egg substitute) can be used for a vegan recipe. I use natural, vegan chocolate chips as well.
Here’s a printable recipe I created for natural, gluten-free, chocolate oat bran muffins.
To download recipe (without watermark), click here, then right click on the image and choose “Save Picture As . . .” (Note: If you’re wondering what scrapbooking software I used, check out my post about My Memories. I LOVE it … so quick and easy to use!)
Enjoy! And if you find a way to improve the recipe, please let me know! 🙂
Linked to The Mommy Club Resources and Solutions at Milk and Cuddles and Crystal & Co.
***
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting with the theme “Experiments in Natural Family Living.” This month our participants have reported on weeklong trials to make their lives a little greener and gentler. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
- Make your own moisturizer! — Megan at boho mama whips up a winter skin-friendly moisturizer.
- Cold Water Only — Brittany at The Pistachio Project talks about how you do not need hot water to wash laundry.
- Family Cloth… Really?? — After lots of forethought and consideration, Momma Jorje finally decides to take the plunge with family cloth.
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle : 5-5-5 Things A Day — Luschka from Diary of a First Child writes about decluttering her home in an attempt to create a gentler living space. She takes on a new project where she sets a goal of reducing, reusing and recycling every day.
- Pros and cons of family cloth — Lauren at Hobo Mama would love to continue replacing paper products with family cloth … if she could only get over how damp she feels.
- Craftily Parenting — Kellie at Our Mindful Life finds that crafting makes her a better parent.
- Changes — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen couldn’t choose just one area to experiment with, so she wrote a long post about all the fun changes initiated in her life!
- Life without Internet: Not all it’s Cracked up to Be — Adrienne at Mommying My Way tries to go a week without the Internet, only to realize a healthy dose of Internet usage really helps keep this stay-at-home mom connected.
- My Progression to Raw Milk — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares her natural parenting progression all the way to trying raw milk.
- mama’s new little friend. — Sarah at Bitty Bird tries a menstrual cup to “green her period,” and is pleasantly surprised when she falls in love with the product!
- Before you throw it out, try homemade laundry soap! — Jennifer at Practical OH Mommy shows visual proof that homemade laundry soap is cheaper, easier, and works better than the store-bought chemicals!
- Oil, Oil, No Toil, No Trouble — K from Very Simple Secret talks about her foray into the oil-cleansing method.
- I Need a Hobby — Amanda at Let’s Take the Metro couldn’t decide which experiment to run, so she did them all.
- 7 days of macrobiotics for a balanced family — The Stones make a [successful] attempt to release the “holiday junking” with 7 days of macrobiotic meals to balance their bodies and souls. Elisabeth at Manic Mrs. Stone includes an explanation of macrobiotics.
- Chemical Free Beauty Challenge — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction turned to natural alternatives for her daily beauty and cleaning routine, with great results.
- Greening my Armpits!? My Green Resolution — Shannon at The Artful Mama talks about how she decided to give up her traditional antiperspirant and make the switch over to crystal deodorants and definitely isn’t looking back!
- Going Raw (for a while) — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares her family’s experience with raw food.
- Do we get to eat gluten today? — Sheila at A Gift Universe has been trying to figure out if her son does better with or without gluten in his diet … but it’s really hard to tell for sure.
- Hippies Can Smell and Look Fabulous Too! — Arpita of Up, Down And Natural details her experience of going shampoo-free and overhauling her cosmetics to find the balance between feeling beautifully fabulous and honoring her inner hippie.
- Our cupboards are full…but there’s nothing to eat — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud takes on the challenge of chomping through the contents of her storecupboard rather than going shopping — but there’s something that she just can’t bring herself to do …
- Elimination Experiment 3.0 — MudpieMama recounts the messy adventures of her baby daughter trying to be diaper free.
- Family Cloth Trial — Amyables at Toddler in Tow talks about making and using family cloth wipes in the bathroom for the first time.
- Taking a Hiatus — Amy at Peace 4 Parents shares how her experience of much less internet interaction affected her family and how it will change her approach in the future.
- Trying Out the Menstrual Cup — Lindsey at an unschooling adventure ditches the tampons and gives menstrual cups a try.
- Managing Food Waste in Our Home — Tired of the holiday waste, Robbie at Going Green Mama takes a weeklong focus on reducing food waste in her home, and learns some lessons that can take her through the new year.
- Going Offline, Cloth Tissues, and Simplicity — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama muses over her time away from blogging and social networking. In addition, she shares her newfound love of cloth tissues and simplicity.
- The Oil Cleansing Method — Erica at ChildOrganics explores an easy, organic and natural way to tackle skin care.
- Experiments in Natural Family Living – Natural Toys! — Lani at Boobie Time enjoys the silence of natural toys and being more present with her son.
- Discovering a New City and Organic Foods — Amy at A Secure Base describes her family’s switch to and search for organic foods for one week.
- My Experiment in Homemade Bread — Crunchy Con Mommy tried — and loved — baking her own homemade bread.
- Menu Planning: Stop the Excuses — Gaby at Tmuffin stopped the excuses and started planning her weekly meals, drastically cutting her grocery budget and stress level and improving the quality of foods she fed her family.
- My First Menstrual Cup — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children was pleasantly surprised with her first experience using a menstrual cup.
- Reducing our exposure to toxins found in plastics — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins throws out the melamine and BPA plastics which have been hanging around the kitchen for too long.
- Duh! — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment shares how she began the process of helping her 2-year-old son stop physically acting out.
- Experiments in Natural Parenting: Starting, Stopping, and Gaining Perspective — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings explains how pregnancy brain interfered with her attempts to complete an experiment, but how she gained some interesting perspective as she started and stopped several.
- From Experiment to Lifestyle — Abbie at Farmer’s Daughter shares her experience avoiding processed foods for a month, and deciding to make it a permanent lifestyle change.
- From Disposable Paper to Reusable Cloth – AGAIN! — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle stops flushing trees down the toilet and switches to the softest ever butt-wiping material: cloth.
- Extra! Extra! Water Heater Turned Down, Mom Doesn’t Notice! — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis finds an energy-saving experiment that’s so easy she didn’t even realize it was happening.
- Worm Tea — CatholicMommy isn’t sure how successful her worm bin will be, but she’s having fun anyway.
- Miles to Go … — Rachael at The Variegated Life learns that when it comes to sleep debt, she’s in real deep.
- My Month With Water Kefir — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries experiments with a new fermented probiotic drink homemade in her own kitchen.
- OMG Mom is Home… All Day Everyday: A Week-Long Experiment in Connecting — What a difference a week makes! Ana at Pandamoly is afforded a week off from work and takes the chance to reconnect and reattach with her 16-month-old son through an experiment in simply being there.
- Creating Healthy Family Recipes — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares her experiment with healthy, gluten-free recipes and a chocolate muffin recipe that was created during the experiment.
- Adventures in Alternative Haircare: No ‘Poo — This guest post at Natural Parents Network from Amy at Anktangle chronicles a months-long journey into the world of no ‘poo.
- My Experiment in Natural Family Living: Natural Family Planning — Birth control options are seriously limited for those of us trying to live a little closer to the earth, so Mama Psalmist experiments with natural family planning.
Mmmm! You had me at chocolate.
I’m glad you said that about oat bran because I was at the store looking for oatmeal and saw there was a gluten-free version and wondered just that thing (as in, wouldn’t oats already be gluten-free?).
I also need to check out that book you suggested, because I’ve been wondering why everyone’s gluten-shy recently. Thanks!
Thanks, Lauren! I wondered about the gluten-free fad, too, and the information in the book makes a lot of sense. Even though my husband and I aren’t gluten-intolerant, we figure it’s a good idea to eat gluten-free as often as possible. 🙂
Those brownies look delish! Is vegetable oil really healthier than butter? I’ve always heard that vegetable oil is just fat, and to sub olive oil for cooking and applesauce for baking. Babyfood applesauce is the smoothest, but it can affect the texture of breads especially.
I’m going to have to buy some chocolate and try this!
Thanks for your comment, MamaPsalmist! That’s a good question about vegetable oil. I’ve read that applesauce is definitely the best, but I’ve used vegetable oil that doesn’t have saturated fats instead of butter. I know that margarine isn’t recommended over butter. It would be interesting to read more about that, and I’d love to hear if someone tries the recipe with applesauce. 🙂
Thank you for sharing the Chocolate Oat Bran Muffin recipe!
We’re trying to move away from (so much) wheat in our diets at home. We’re not gluten-intolerant, but I think there is a lot of value in cutting down and cutting out gluten and wheat in general.
I can’t wait to try this recipe : )
Thanks so much, Ana! My husband and I are trying to do exactly what you’re doing. Even though we’ve been into natural foods for years, it’s interesting that all the information about gluten-free diets is just really starting to become popular now. 🙂
Those look SO good (and your daughter is beautiful)! I was so nervous to cook when Amy of Anktangle visited for a week, b/c she is GF, but it was easier than I thought! I’m sure a gluten detox would do us all good now and then!
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Dionna … Christina will love to hear that! 🙂 I agree that a gluten detox would be good for everyone on occasion!
Oh I’m so trying that recipe! Now that I’m cooking more I want to try more vegan and vegetarian fare. I think we forget that you don’t have to “be” vegan to eat it. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for your comment, Paige! So true that you don’t have to “be” vegan to eat it. I eat mainly vegan five days a week and love it! 🙂
We’ve wondered on and off if my son has a gluten sensitivity, since he definitely has an oat sensitivity (only toddler I know who can’t eat Cheerios!). Of course, this rules out the oat bran muffins at our house, but thanks for some other great links!
Thanks for your comment, CatholicMommy! An oat sensitivity would make things harder. You should be able to substitute flour for the oat bran in this recipe. I actually substituted oat bran for part of the flour to add to the heart-health benefits. 🙂
Thanks!
I have also been trying to reduce our intake of gluten even though nobody in the family seems to outwardly suffer from intolerance. I haven’t always had much luck – for some reason, the gluten free flours that we have tried leave me feeling really bloated. I’m going to try baking those oat bran muffins with my boys.
Thanks for your comment, Syenna! I hope you have good luck with these! 🙂
Ooo, yum! THANK YOU for the muffin recipe!
And what vegetable oil do you use for baking, may I ask?
Thanks, Rachael! I typically use Canola oil in baking (olive oil in cooking) because of its reputation as a healthy oil, although I think there are a number of different opinions about vegetable oils. I haven’t researched vegetable oils lately, so that would be a good topic to study more. 🙂
I didn’t realize you were vegetarian, Deb! I knew I liked you 😉 Your recipe sounds delicious, and I love that your adult children are still up for spending time with you in the kitchen. I loved the family photo!
The (comments) discussion about oils is interesting, as I get so frustrated with the conflicting information out there – especially about canola oil. I have switched to using Coconut Oil in all of my baking (although I do love Earth Balance – but I don’t think it’s the best for me!), and it has worked great for us so far. I’m sure some new research will come out that will change my mind before long!
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Melissa! We really do have family fun together in the kitchen still … and I think it’s great that my adult kids never wanted to even try eating meat.
I’ve heard of people using coconut oil. I definitely should try that! Nutrition is such a tricky and ever-changing topic! 🙂
What an information packed post. And of course I’ll have to try the chocolate muffins just to see if they are healthy. Ha! I’m eager to check out all the natural parenting links, too.
Have a joyful day,
Pamela
Thanks so much, Pamela! I hope you have a joyful day, too! 🙂
Congrats on being the #4 most clicked post on Mommy Solutions last week! These recipes rocks! If you haven’t linked up anything new, yet, stop in the linky is hoppin’! http://www.crystalandcomp.com/2012/01/the-mommy-club-share-your-resources-and-solutions-27/
Thanks for sharing, Crystal.
Thanks so much Crystal! It’s awesome that my post was the #4 most clicked post! I already linked up for this week! 🙂
Hey…
My friend has allergy from gluten. I shared your muffin recipe with him. He liked it so much.
Thanks for sharing