Guilt-Free Cinnamon Roll Muffins

These are super good... And Harlee ate like 3/4 of a muffin with Mom's approval!  I already ate, like, three muffins myself... But the greatest thing is I don't FEEL like I ate that many, because nothing in these weighs on you heavy and makes you feel like crap!  Yay!

We've been trying to make better eating choices at home lately... Ever since I cut out carbs for about a month and lost quite a bit of weight from it I've been feeling more motivated about making this a lifestyle change.  But it sucks not being able to enjoy all the guilty pleasures my former carb-a-holic lifestyle allowed me to eat like pastas and breads and pastries...

So I started looking into ways to still enjoy these things without "breaking the rules".  I mean, this is just a choice for me, but there are people out there who HAVE to live this way due to health reasons.  I'm sure they don't want to feel restricted, so what do they do?  I discovered the blog Against All Grain which was written by exactly that kind of person - a woman with a health issue who didn't want to feel restricted.  She's got some great recipes!  From there stemmed a search for other recipe sites, and there are tons out there!  Suddenly I'm feeling more ambitious about this - a whole new avenue of cooking/baking has been opened up to me!  I'm experimenting with almond flour and coconut flour, which are great alternatives to wheat flour and they're gluten free (and carb-free :-D) and baking with stevia or other alternatives to refined sugar.  But NOT Splenda or Sweet 'n' Low or Equal or Nutrasweet or whatever.  Those are man-made and not good for you.  Just because they're zero calorie doesn't mean they're not having any affect on your body!  Aspartame is in a lot of those zero calorie sweeteners (and diet soda too).  Here is a great article about the dangers of aspartame and how it damages brain cells and leads to all kinds of problems, the least of which are headaches and migraines.  But anyway, this post isn't about all the scary crap that's in the food we eat, I can save that for another day or two!

This is about some yummy cinnamon roll muffins I made today with coconut flour and butternut squash.  I took the recipe from Paleo in PDX, and here it is:

Topping:

• 2 Tbsp melted butter, ghee or coconut oil (I used coconut oil)
• 2 Tbsp raw honey
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

Muffins:

• 1/2 cup butternut squash puree (fresh or canned, but to make fresh just halve the butternut squash, scoop out the seeds, place cut-side down in a baking pan of 1/2 inch of water and cover with foil, and bake at 375 degrees F until soft, about 30-40 minutes.  Scoop out the "meat" and puree in a blender)
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup melted butter, ghee or coconut oil (I used butter)
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup raw honey
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup raw pecans for topping, optional

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients together — except pecans–in the food processor and process until a smooth, fluffy batter forms. Alternatively, you can mix all the dry ingredients together, whisk the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl, and then whisk the wet ingredients into the dry.
2. Grease muffin cups or line with parchment paper liners. Fill each with approximately 1/4 cup of batter.
3. Spoon cinnamon mixture over each muffin and top with pecans, if using.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Enjoy!   Justin suggested I find a recipe for a cream cheese frosting to put on top next time... I think I agree with him!  I think next time I'll also mix cinnamon into the batter as well, so the flavor is more even throughout, though they were pretty yummy already anyway.  And now my house smells yummy too!