Bran Apple Muffins

Hello to another vegan recipe that will help me get through the week. I’m planning on eating these as breakfast or snacks in between studying and writing papers. Finals are almost here, and ohh joy, am I so excited.. I have no motivation and it sucks. I’m gonna have to bust my butt tomorrow to get a lot of stuff done so I don’t have to wait till absolute last minute.

Tonight are supposed to be some crazy storms and tornados in the Midwest, I heard? Crazy… Apparently this is the second time the Weather Channel has issued a life-threatening 24 hour warning for tornados today and tomorrow. Good thing I live downtown Chicago, there won’t be any tornados here. I’m not afraid of no rain. It’ll help me write! Rain always relaxes me. But I hope no one gets hurt and I hope the weather channel is exaggerating, as they usually are.

These muffins are made with dried tart apples I’ve been dying to use in a recipe for the past few days. They are amazing by themselves but I thought they would taste even better in a baked recipe. This is a perfect breakfast on the go. Plus it’s vegan! Yay!

Also, I just wanted to say how much I love doing recipes which don’t require a use of a mixer. I much prefer to mix everything by hand. Quieter, easier, less messy. For me anyway. I don’t even have a stand mixer, I use a hand mixer when I need to mix/beat ingredients so it’s a pain. But yeah, no mixer necessary for this one! Yay!

These turned out so beautifully. Crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. By themselves? Amazing. Topped with maple syrup? Amazing.

Coconut Muffins

So here is the second thing I made with light coconut milk which thankfully also turned out well! Surprisingly though, I STILL have like half a can of coconut milk left! I already made the apple oatmeal mini muffins with light coconut milk and I was sure I would be done with it after this recipe. Although, I did only end up making 6 muffins from this one, just because I like variety and one of my roommates is allergic to nuts so she wouldn’t even be able to have any of these. I didn’t want to tempt her too much with these. If you’re into coconut, you will enjoy these muffins!

With a bit of greek yogurt, shredded coconut, and maple syrup as topping.

Benefits of Coconut Oil

Since I started my blog, I’ve also been actively following and exploring different health and food blogs as well. Most of the blogs I follow are focused on healthy eating, some of which are vegan and gluten free. I am neither one of those but I think it’s good to introduce all kinds of different meals into your life. I consider myself a pescaterian – mainly vegetarian with some fish in there, however I also enjoy some turkey, beef, and veal in there as well on occasion. No chicken though. I’ll talk about that another time though.

Today I wanted to focus on discussing and exploring coconut oil. I have found that many of the recipes these healthy blogs post require coconut oil in them. And I’ve briefly heard some positive things about coconut oil as well. A few days ago, I bought my first jar of coconut oil from Trader Joe’s and I even used it in my Peanut Butter Cups. I thought it’s a good idea to actually research and find out as much as I can about this product.