Healthy, Yummy, Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins

I’m a chocoholic. But I want to eat a healthy, balanced diet. And I want to add super foods like blueberries into my diet. So I was very excited to discover that these protein-rich blueberry muffins satisfy even a chocoholic like me. And my almost-2-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, loves them! These gluten-free blueberry muffins are both healthy and tasty … even a bit addicting! One of these blueberry muffins with soymilk (especially chocolate soymilk!) makes me a happy camper for the morning!

As I said last month, we have a number of food allergies in our family. On top of that, my husband and I have been vegetarians for over 40 years, our kids are lifelong vegetarians, and we have more than one family member with low thyroid (including me). So it’s challenging to come up with recipes that work for all our family members. These muffins are popular with everyone in our family.

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Our Baking Activities

These muffins are a great recipe to make with kids. The recipe is fairly simple, and children can be quite independent in baking them from a relatively early age. Zoey has experience measuring, pouring, and stirring from previous practical life and baking activities as well as making playdough together. Zoey always wears the apron from the Montessori By Mom Helping Hands Toolbox when we bake. I really recommend having a child-size apron for any cooking or baking activities. It also helps that we use the Learning Tower so that Zoey can safely and comfortably reach everything.

I don’t use perfect judging standards for my baking … I just care that it’s relatively healthy and my family enjoys it. We’re always happy with how this recipe turns out.

How to Make Healthy, Yummy, Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins

This recipe is a mixture of a number of my muffin recipes.

Because we have more than one family member with food allergies and low thyroid, I almost always bake gluten free. I also add oat bran to almost everything I bake since it helps reduce bad cholesterol (so I’ll be linking to gluten-free oat bran in the ingredients list).

I add protein powder to almost everything I bake, too. I started doing that as a mom of elite athletes, and I’ve continued to use it as part of my regular baking practices. My daughter-in-law doesn’t eat dairy and my husband and I eat dairy-free five days a week. So I use a vegan protein powder for baking. Whey protein also works great if you don’t mind dairy.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups oat bran (gluten-free oat bran if you want your muffins gluten free)
• ½ cup brown rice flour (or garbanzo bean flour if there’s a rice allergy)
• 1 heaping scoop vegan protein powder or whey protein powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs (or 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal + 6 tablespoons water for egg substitute)
• ½ cup coconut oil
• ½ cup honey
• 1 cup soymilk or almond milk (I use unsweetened organic soymilk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F and add 16 muffin cups to muffin pans (or use a cooking spray to spray each cavity). Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients to a separate mixing bowl and mix well. Add dry to wet ingredients and stir just to combine.  Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin pans, filling each cavity to 2/3 or 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until the tops of your muffins are set and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool muffins in pan for 10 minutes. Freeze or store in an airtight container.

Zoey always places the muffin cups in the muffin pans. She likes to count them as she places them in the muffin pan.

She stirs the dry ingredients together in one bowl.

Cracking eggs independently is a great skill for toddlers to learn. (Note: I always add the eggs first in case any shells need to be fished out!)

Zoey adds the wet ingredients, including unsweetened soymilk, to the mixing bowl. (Note: You don’t have to use a mixer. It’s alright to simply stir the wet ingredients together.)

Zoey’s always proud that she can turn on the mixer by herself.

Just before adding the blueberries, Zoey stirs together the wet and dry ingredients.

Here’s your printable Healthy, Yummy, Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffin recipe (printed copy will include a blueberry muffin image):

This post is part of Kids’ Kitchen Monthly Series

Check out all the fun kid-made breakfasts this month!

• Kids’ Kitchen: Apple Breakfast Loaf Recipe | Sugar, Spice & Glitter
• Easy Eggs Benedict | Royal Little Lambs
• Healthy, Yummy, Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins | Living Montessori Now
• Banana Bread with a Hint of Maple Syrup | A Little Slice Of Us
• Buttermilk Pancakes with Strawberry Compote  |  Royal Baloo
• Tex-Mex Migas | The Gifted Gabber
• Pear and banana breakfast oat and almond muffins | Kidgredients
• No Bake Energy Bites | Mess for Less
• Cheesy Chive Scrambled Eggs | Kitchen Counter Chronicles
• Easy Omelet Recipe | Sugar Aunts

Enjoy! 🙂

 

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