Oatmeal flax seed meal muffins (a.k.a. Meal in a Muffin)

Oatmeal Flax Muffins (a.k.a. Meal in a Muffin)

Plus a little lesson about flax seeds and flax meal. Bonus!

Adapted from Bob's Red Mill Bran Flax Muffins

Yield: 21 muffins; 3 points each muffin

I call these "Meal in a Muffin" because they include all of the food groups, including chocolate!!


I adapted these muffins from the Bran Flax Muffin recipe on the back of Bob's Red Mill Organic Flax Seed Meal package. Flax seed meal is really just flax seeds that are ground up very finely. I tried making my own flax seed meal a while back from whole flax seeds with no success. I ran some whole flax seeds in my food processor for a very long time and wound up with really scraped up, but still whole, seeds.


Why the flax seed meal? Why not just eat the seeds whole? Well, flax seeds are very good for you (see the product details section of the Flax Seed Meal link above), but if eaten whole, they pass straight through without being digested. So their benefits are literally being flushed down the toilet. The meal is digested by your body and you can reap the great benefits of these wonderful tiny brown seeds. Ok, ok... now on to the receipe!


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups white flour (Bob calls for whole wheat, but I think it might make the muffins too dense)
• 3/4 cup flax seed meal
• 3/4 cup rolled oats (Bob calls for oat bran cereal, but rolled oats work just as well)
• 1/2 cup sugar (Bob calls for 1 full cup of brown sugar)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 medium/large carrots, shredded (I use the food processor's shredding blade for ease)
• 2 medium apples, cored and shredded (Again, I use the food processor. Bob's recipe calls for the apples to be peeled, but I don't do that. It takes too much time and the peel of the apple has a lot of good nutrients that I don't want to miss out on!)
• 1/2 cup baking chocolate chips (I use these in place of the 1 cup of raisins)
• 3/4 cup chopped almonds (Bob calls for 1 full cup)
• 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (Bob calls for 3/4 cup of milk, but I like using yogurt for some of the milk)
• 1/4 cup 2% milk
• 2 large eggs, beaten (though if using a KitchenAid mixer, you don't need to pre-beat the eggs).
• 1 tsp vanilla
  

Directions

• Mix together flour, Bob's Red Mill Flaxseed Meal, oat meal, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
• Stir in carrots, apples, chocolate chips and nuts.
• Add yogurt, milk, eggs and vanilla.
• Mix until ingredients are moistened. DO NOT OVER MIX.
• Fill muffin cups using a 1/4 cup measuring cup.
• For a gourmet look, sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a small amount of dry rolled oats.
• Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes.
• Yields 21 muffins (Bob's recipe reads that it yields 15. I don't think I fill the muffin cups as full as Bob does.)

Chocolate-Coconut-Flax Seed Meal covered pretzels

OK so this these FAR from nutritious, but very delicious. I wanted to make a chocolaty snack for a road trip and just made this up on the fly.

Ingredients:

• 48 Snyder's Pretzel Snaps (obviously you can use any type of pretzel)
• 3/4 cup of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 1 Tbs 1% milk
• shredded coconut - not much, maybe 2 Tbs?
• flax seed meal - again not much... maybe 1 - 2 Tbs?

Directions:

• Melt chocolate in sauce pan over low heat, stirring continuously to prevent sticking and burning.
• Add milk and mix thoroughly.
• Add pretzels and stir to coat. They will NOT coat completely.
• Spread pretzels out onto a wax-paper covered cookie sheet. You might need to sort of reallocate chocolate from pretzels with a lot of chocolate to pretzels with not so much. Sort of like a culinary Robin Hood. Green hat and tights optional. ;)
• Sprinkle coconut and flax seed meal over the pretzels*
• Place in freezer until cooled. I left them in overnight, then put them in a bread bag (trying to reuse stuff more often!)

*One thing I would change is to add the coconut and flax seed meal to the chocolate while it's still in the saucepan, before adding the pretzels. Even though I sprinkled these on while the chocolate was still hot, most of the coconut fell off after I placed the pretzels in the bag. Even so, these are VERY delicious. Nice balance of sweet, salty and crunchy!! (And by adding the flax seed meal I feel like they are somewhat healthier!!)

Curried Lentils

This is one my my new favorite recipes to make. It is super easy, low in points and SO delicious! I could eat this every day. This can be made in the crock pot or on the stove.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of dry red lentils, rinsed
• 1 cup of dry green lentils, rinsed
• 4 cups of vegetable broth (I use "Better than Bullion" to make the broth)
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 - 2 red bell pepper, diced (I've also added chopped carrots to the recipe.)
• 1 Tbs curry powder (or to taste)
• 1 1/2 cups of water

Directions

• Add all ingredients to pot (for the stove) or crock pot (if using slow cooker)
• Stir to mix thoroughly
• If using a slow cooker, cook on high for about 3 or 4 hours. DONE!
• If using the stove, bring to a boil, then lower heat. Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour until done. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
• Add more water during cooking if needed.

This is very good served over brown rice or all alone. This recipe has been a HUGE hit with anyone who has tasted it!

4 points for 1 cup.