Plantain Chocolate Chip Nut Muffins

Happy New Year to you all! I’ve been in the kitchen quite a bit lately and have come up with a couple of new, easy snack type foods that meet my gluten, dairy and legume free requirements. One is a lettuce wrap that I fill with ham, turkey, salami, cucumber, onion and carrots mixed with homemade mayo & homemade Italian dressing. Yum! Quick, veggie rich and reminiscent of a drippy sub sandwich. The other a muffin recipe which I posted below.

I really want to go on a rant about eating real food and how overweight, unhealthy people could immensely improve their lives by making changes to the food they put in their pie-hole. However, I’ve decided to make my New Year’s resolution that I won’t talk about food. Hence the recipe and not the rant.

My blossoming interest for the year is learning more about how we can repair the land and environment through restoring grazing animals to the grasslands. I read a great article in Harper’s magazine a couple years ago that piqued my interest and after listening to a great podcast on Robbwolf.com I realized I need to know more. Alan Savory’s TED Talk on the subject is on my to-do list for the week. http://robbwolf.com/2014/12/06/episode-248-soil-carbon-cowboys-russ-conser-peter-byck/

I came across a gf banana bread recipe, made several modifications and it has become a great treat food at our house. They actually cook up like muffins! (If you are a seasoned paleo baker, you know how miraculous this is.) I’ve made them with and without the nuts and chocolate chips and they are tasty either way.

Plantain Chocolate Chip Nut Muffins

2 medium sized yellowish plantains cut into chunks

3 eggs

1/2 cup sunbutter

3 TBLS melted coconut oil

3 tsp lemon juice

1/3 cup tapioca flour (or gf flour substitute)

¼ maple syrup

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

½ cup chopped walnuts

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Put all but the walnuts and chocolate chips in a food processor and process well (1-2 minutes, scraping sides as needed). Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips. Scoop by the ¼ cup into a greased 12 muffin baking pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes a dozen muffins.