February 8, 2012 By
Leanne VogelSeptember 13, 2017
While visiting London this past November, a couple of colleagues and I quickly developed a morning ritual of meeting at the Starbucks on Berkeley Street before heading in to the office.
Since Starbucks doesn’t offer any gluten-free baked goods; and even if they did, I’m not sure I’d be inclined to pass up a homemade treat for processed gunk, I ended up packing a coconut muffin top in my purse so I could join in the ritual.
I sat with the group; Venti Calm Tea in hand, as they snacked on their scones, yogurt, and lattes. It made my morning.
During one of our visits Lea; my boss, decided to order a rise and shine muffin – a breakfast muffin packed with apple, raisins, carrot, pineapple, cranberries, sunflower seeds and pecan pieces. “A source of fibre” the little poster in the window claimed.
It looked good, making my sad little muffin top quite insignificant.
When I got back to my hotel room over 16 hours later, I still had that golden muffin on my mind – a surefire sign that I had to recreate it when I got back to Canada.
Then, I completely forgot about the recipe for a solid 3 months.
When planning the recreation a couple of weeks ago, I did a bit of research to figure out what I was up against. A good place to start was the nutrition facts from Starbucks:
448 calories – I little heavy for a breakfast muffin. To cut this down, I opted for less oil than usual, reducing the 18g of fat from the original as well.
6g protein – a perfect amount that I worked hard at maintaining in my recreated version.
31g sugar – I’d be a wreck if I had this much sugar in the morning. ZING! Instead of relying on refined sugar, I opted for sweetening with just a touch of maple syrup and dried fruit.
2.8g fiber – to keep this, I added flax seed instead of the oat bran and other glutenous ingredients used by Starbucks.
I wrote down the ingredients that I thought would yield a similar healthier, gluten-free alternative and got to work!
The result?
The best muffin I’ve ever made.
Seriously. I know I say that a lot, but I really mean it EVERY time.
… and if you don’t believe me, my neighbor; Shawna, said it was too.
Don’t let the bird food topping fool you. These muffins are so ridiculously tasty and don’t taste at all like they’re ‘good for you’. At just under 170 calories per muffin, you can feel good about indulging in one of these on your way out the door, packing in your child’s lunches, or just making a batch for yourself on a sunny Wednesday morning.
a Functional Medicine Practitioner, host of the Healthful Pursuit Podcast, and best-selling author of The Keto Diet & Keto for Women. I want to live in a world where every woman has access to knowledge to better her health.