Grain Free Chocolate Brazil Nut Muffins with a Cranberry Swirl

I love cranberries. So much that when I make a batch for the holidays, I like to make extra and freeze it in small jam jars, to pull out whenever a craving strikes. They are just too darn tasty to be relegated to the holiday season! I pulled a jar out earlier in the week and used some to top a meatloaf recipe that will be posted soon ( I will link here when I get it posted) . I wanted to make a muffin with chocolate and Brazil nuts, but knew they would need some sort of brightness to balance the flavours. Cranberry sauce to the rescue!  It added just the right amount of tartness to the muffin without overwhelming. I think these would be an awesome Christmas morning brunch muffin too!

Grain Free Chocolate Brazil Nut Muffins with a Cranberry Swirl

4 eggs, preferably pastured

1/3 cup coconut flour

2 T Sunflower Seed Flour

2 Tbsp Chickpea Flour

2 Tbsp Arrowroot flour

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

Generous pinch of Himalayan sea salt

¼ cup coconut sugar (or other sweetener of choice)

½ cup kefir or yogurt

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½ cup raw Brazil nuts, chopped

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Approx ½ cup premade cranberry sauce (see recipe here)

Preheat oven to 375F.

Place all ingredients EXCEPT the Brazil nuts and cranberry sauce into a medium mixing bowl, and mix well with an immersion blender , scraping down the sides as necessary.  With a spatula, mix in the chopped Brazil nuts (I chopped mine in my handy little chopper, you want to see some larger chunks to add a nice texture to the muffin) and stir well until combined.

Divide evenly between 12 muffin cups, either greased or lined.

Top with approx. 2 tsp of cranberry sauce (be generous!), and swirl in with a butter knife or the end of your measuring spoon.

Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove to a wire rack and cool for as long as you can before gobbling them up!

Roasted Orange Walnut Salmon with Rosemary

This is a bonus two-recipes- in-one post. We very often cook with pre-planned leftovers, to be used either as is, or changed up somehow to be used in our lunches for the next day.  After dinner, while we are tiding up (Jim calls me “Hurricane Janine” in the kitchen) we get our lunches ready for the next day to keep our mornings less hectic. Freezing 1 cup portions of quinoa gives a great salad filler for the extra veggies or proteins from dinner. If you freeze it spread out and flat in baggies, it thaws in no time.

I threw together this tasty salmon topping, and the pan juices become the dressing for the salad. Easy and tasty!

We served our salmon with some organic baby spinach sauted in butter, and these potatoes from my old blog. (Gluten warning: the malt vinegar mentioned in the linked recipe does contain Gluten, substitute a raw apple cider vinegar or a nice organic balsamic)

Roasted Orange Walnut Salmon with Rosemary

5 Wild caught salmon pieces or one very large piece, thawed if frozen

1/3 cup organic walnuts, finely chopped

Zest of ½ an organic orange

Juice of whole organic orange (mine was not very large)

1 T coconut nectar

2 T melted coconut oil or olive oil

1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 tsp Herbamare (or sea salt of your choice)

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, woody stems removed, finely chopped (or sub 1 tsp dried)

Preheat oven to 450F. Place Salmon, skin side down,  in an oven safe dish. Set aside.

Mix all ingredients together and spread evenly on top of salmon pieces. Bake on middle rack in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the salmon flakes easily with fork and is opaque thru.

Serve hot!

Salmon Quinoa Salad:

1 piece of the above salmon, plus the extra pan juices,

1 cup of pre-cooked quinoa

 2-3 cups mixed organic baby greens

Flake the salmon in a medium mixing bowl. Add quinoa, salad greens and the pan juices from the salmon. Toss well, makes two servings.

Chocolate Espresso Almond Power Balls

Chocolate Espresso Almond Power Balls 

1 ½ cups raw almonds

1/3 cup raw cacao powder

2 tsp finely ground organic espresso

9 medjool  dates, pitted

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp Chlorella or Spirulina powder (optional)

2 -4 tbsp raw honey

In food processor, grind almonds with cacao and espresso until very fine. Add pitted dates and pulse will very well combined. Pulse while adding vanilla, Spirulina/chlorella powder and just enough honey to make it start clumping together (this step may take a bit of pulsing to make it all come together)

Remove “dough” from processor bowl and roll into balls…mine made about 20 bite sized ones. 

Store in refrigerator. Enjoy!