These Dragon Fruit Muffins are adapted from my Homemade Muffin and Bakes category. The red hue is coming from red dragon fruit puree.
Basically, I used a foundation oat muffins recipe for this Dragon Fruit Muffins. Instead of mashed ripe banana that is usually added as natural sweetener, dragon fruit smoothie pack (100% dragon fruit puree) is used instead.
Whole-grain oats is a great way to get soluble fiber in your diet. Research suggests that increasing your intake of soluble fiber each day may result in a drop in "bad" LDL cholesterol.
Rolled oats are usually incorporated as breakfast foods e.g. Homemade Granola or Muesli, High-Fiber Breakfast Oats with Milk. However, not restricted to morning consumption, you can also add rolled oats when making multi-grain rice for lunch or fish + oats egg frittata that tops a lunch protein bowl.
During the course of making these homemade healthy bakes such as Eggless Banana Cacao Oatmeal Cups, Banana Bran Muffins, Eggless Pineapple Cacao Muffins, Peanut Butter Powder Low-Fat Low-Cal Muffins, a personal baking-style has also evolved - call it easy, fool-proof style. Today's bakes returns to this basic, simple ingredients Rolled Oats Muffins - truly easy and fool-proof.
Recently, our family made use of a Prime Day offer and went on a Amazon Prime 30-day free trial, a great opportunity to test out some of the perks especially free next-day delivery without a minimum purchase. A 30-day trial is a good gauge to find out if Prime is FOR us, will it be relevant for our family needs or just an excessive "feature" - good-to-have but nothing lost if missed. The free delivery service (no minimum purchase vs non-Prime account holders who have to go by a $25 minimum purchase for free shipping) did come in handy when we purchased groceries such as organic rolled oats and organic chia seeds. Prime Day might be over but the Amazon Prime 30-day free trial is still available. Try it for 30 days and if it's not for you, cancel it before it expires.
Likewise, once in a blue moon (mood), I'll go experimental with cookies-baking, just like a trial.
I don't usually bake in restrictive manner but in this case, there is no butter, no egg, no added sugar, so it's vegan. Some skeptics may equate no butter, no egg, no added sugar with no taste but these cookies are great-tasting with natural aroma and flavor from coconut and sesame seeds.
This is not apple pie because there is no butter bottom crust. It is also not apple cobbler because it has no butter crumble topping.
This small-batch Chickpea Flour Cacao Nib Cookies was gone quick. Chickpea flour is making a comeback in these Garam Masala Spiced Cookies.
What?? Garam masala are used in Indian curries, not cookies!
Does this French toast look like a popover? or maybe, again, resemble a muffin?
Another easy way to make individual servings French toast is to use a muffin tin or ramekin.
If you prefer to serve family-style, make French toast in a shallow baking dish, like a casserole.
No matter how they look, these French toasts are made from leftover French bread loaf after making Garlic Bread Toast. This is a great way to revive days-old dry bread and bring boring to life!
Medjool and Deglet Noor dates are good sources of potassium and a form of simple sugars that can be easily consumed after exercise to quickly replenish energy in the body.
Personally, dates as they are, are too sweet (for me) to snack on. But I have found a way to use them in these homemade energy bites as healthy workout snacks e.g. Hazelnut Oats Energy Balls, Pumpkin Seeds Stuffed Dates.
Besides spelt, buckwheat and quinoa flour, this higher-in-protein garbanzo bean/chickpea flour (1/4 cup is about 7g protein) is also one of the alternative "flour-bases" I have recently used in these healthy muffins and bakes.
I actually prefer baking muffins to cookies, because one or two muffins can fill me up as post workout-snacks (two cookies can't! ).
Muffins another day, let us make Chickpea Cookies today.
How is everyone doing? Wherever you are, I hope you are healthy and staying healthy especially in these unprecedented times due to the pandemic.
Here in California, our "shelter-in-place" or "stay-home" order has been in effect since middle of March and looks like it's not going to end anytime soon. Routines have changed and we are all adjusting to the new normal. A lot of us are finding ways to stay sane especially when we have to stay home most of the times.
Baking is definitely an activity that some of you find therapeutic. So let's bake the blues away with these Pineapple Cacao Chocolate Oatmeal Cup Muffins. They are perfect for breakfast, snacks or during these times - DESSERTS ! that lift up your mood!
As always, I've kept baking very simple; adapting from my very own homemade healthy bakes such as Banana Cacao Oatmeal Cups and Banana Bran Muffins.
Practice makes perfect. Such a comment made after my first attempt making these energy bars. However, since I made these No-Bake Protein Bars (far from perfect, texture-wise), I have not tried making them again, until today.
Today is the day. The day for some homemade energy bites, especially after T passed me some of her homemade peanut butter and chocolate chips energy snacks after our workout session. Thank you, T!
Now, I am "motivated" to make my own homemade energy bites ONE MORE TIME! Not just ONE MORE TIME, but THREE! Yes, practice makes perfect, hopefully.
The first "flavor" will be these Nutella-Inspired Energy Balls.
Many times, I find store-bought baked goods overly sweet for my taste buds (also because I don't have a sweet tooth). Typically, muffins and cookies from big-box stores are laden with processed ingredients we all want to avoid e.g. sugar, corn syrup, fructose. Even if natural and healthy bakes can now be found in specialty artisan bakeries, the bakes usually do not come cheap. $4 for a healthy muffin? Two such healthy muffins can be equivalent to a take-out meal! I will not splurge on baked goods unless there is a reason or occasion to do so.
Now, all fingers pointing towards - making (baking) my own!
It is still banana-based sweetened muffins today, with the success of these Bran Buckswheat Banana Muffins. Banana, because it is a convenient choice as we always stock up on bananas at home. You can also use apple puree or apple sauce) or sometimes dried fruits (e.g. raisins, dates) as natural sweeteners instead of using sugar or syrup.
The Banana Cacao Oat Muffins/Oatmeal Cups today are basic yet classic, just so because I love dark bitter chocolate (so much so that 85% dark works way much better on me than 72%). Instead of melting pieces of dark chocolate, I am going to use 100% raw cacao powder to up the "chocolatey" flavor in this recipe.
High-fiber-and-protein, low-fat low-cal snacks such as these No-Bake Protein Bars and Buckwheat Quinoa Flour Bran Banana Muffins are great on-the-go workout snacks.
Today's convenient and portable bite-size snack (or sweet) is Seeds-Stuffed Dates. Though walnut-stuffed dates are widely-seen as the similar, seeds are definitely a feasible (stuffing) alternative.
Besides bananas, Medjool and Deglet Noor dates are also good sources of potassium and a form of simple sugars that can be easily consumed after exercise to quickly replenish energy in the body.
Due to precise measurements involved, I don't usually bake. Unlike baking, I use my taste buds to adjust the flavors of the dish in the cooking process; and rely on palm-, fist-, sometimes finger-size, as a guide to estimate the quantity of ingredients - for example, vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower florets, sliced cabbage are, added by "handfuls" into the pan or pots.
Such a cooking-style does not apply to baking. This beginner/ newbie/ noob gets it. Therefore, when I bake, it ABSOLUTELY has to be basic, simple, and easy. A good example of simple and easy baking is the low-calorie, high-fiber, protein-packed Bran Buckwheat Banana Muffins.
Wake up to a healthy start in the morning and power up with this breakfast oatmeal (a combination of homemade muesli and milk, boosted by antioxidants-rich fresh fruits and BetterBody Foods Superfood Blend) and peanut butter on whole-wheat bread.
In our family, we have peanut butter on toast almost every day. Since it is a breakfast staple, a healthier peanut butter like PBfit Powdered Nut Butter - with 87% less fat than traditional peanut butter and 1/3 the calories - makes a great alternative.
Powdered peanut butter also means more versatility in usage; as peanut butter can now be easily added (no more sticky spoons or scoops!) to smoothies and your favorite bakes - cakes, cookies, and muffins.
Imagine...no more waiting (and waiting...) for the creamy peanut butter to drip down slowly the tablespoon, and no more trying to get the last bit wiped off completely from the spoon or scoop!
These muffins may look like regular muffins but they are not your standard wheat-flour, butter-filled sugar-laden muffins.
Using wheat bran, buckwheat and quinoa flour as the alternative flour-base and bananas as natural sweetener, these dense and moist Buckwheat Quinoa Banana Muffins are higher in fiber and protein, which make them healthier and more nutritious than regular muffins.
With coconut flour and coconut oil, these muffins also bakes out with a nice aroma. I definitely enjoy a dense, hearty, healthy and delicious muffin anytime. How about you?
Alas. Desserts.
Finally. Cakes.
I seldom (never) bake. So my bad, for not paying attention to details. I can only focus on making the cake work, not make it beautiful. I drop some chocolate chips to the bottom of some of those molds (to get some chocolate versions), pour the cake batter over, and allow it to steam. My Steamed Egg Cupcakes 鸡蛋糕 - made simply with egg/flour batter. Find it at Chapter 19 : Desserts - Steamed Egg Cupcakes in The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook (Everything Series)
The other egg-dessert that you may want to try is Steamed Egg and Milk Custard/Steamed Milk Pudding. It is not difficult to make your own at home. Previously, I made another version of egg-custard: Steamed Ginger Egg Custard (姜汁炖蛋.
The only "special tool" you need is a steamer (of course, rice cooker with steamer insert, works too).
Tag: rice cooker, rice cooker cakes, steamed cakes
