Simple Healthy Cornbread Muffins with Maple Drizzle

I think there comes a time in a girls life when she has to suck it up and address the fact that pumpkin season is over.


But I ain't about that life! Plus it's American Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving, Merica! I decided to go traditional and make a healthy cornbread recipe to share with you!

My first time having cornbread was when I was staying in the States -- I had never heard of it before! And I thought it was so magical. Since then I have been wanting to make it home.

I figured now would be the perfect time to share it with you!

I hope you all have a wonderful day to spend with loved ones, watching football and eating pie. Because that is what holidays are all about, right!?

And getting up early on black friday to risk your life   get some great deals ;)

Canadian retailers have actually started to jump on the Black Friday thing -- this year the local malls are even having longer hours! Not sure if I will be brave enough to go to the mall but I still do have Christmas shopping to do.

Any who, the recipe is super simple -- it took NO time at all to prepare and clean up was easy. This is perfect if you only have a few guests but you can easily double the recipe to make a full dozen!

Just in case you are panicking and need some pumpkin recipes, STAT! I have included some of mine:



I made No Bake Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Squares.

I made Pumpkin Pie Muffin Top Cookies!

I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones!

I made Pumpkin Patch Brownies...with PUMPKIN IN THEM!

I even made Pumpkin Pie!

Let's make muffins!

Peppermint Hot Chocolate Donuts

This is the time of year when limited edition goodies are out. The new lattes, the mint chocolate everything -- the...donuts? (P.S Don't forget I made Candy Cane Cheesecake Brownies!!!!) (P.P.S I installed a new feature on the website so you can pin/tweet/facebook my recipes and photos easier! What do you think??)

Well if you live in Canada then you know Tim Hortons. OH TIM! How I owe so many of my successful early classes to you. You with your reliable favourites and sadly gluten everything. Well I saw some of their holiday donuts and the chocolate candy cane one caught my eye. I swooned, I fell so hard I could barely see straight! But I knew for certain one thing was true: that donut would lure me in, it would whisper sweet nothings in my ear and then it would tear me up from the inside out!


So while that seems lovely in everything, let us instead take a more, ahem, gentle approach:

A yes...a soft, moist, rich velvety chocolate donut with a chocolate mint glaze and all the sprinkles a gal could ask for. Without the tummy ache. Sorry, Tim...I win this time!

The fluffiness of these donuts are something I have never before experienced. They are SO soft, fluffy and delicately sweetened. Ahhh....all that, and vegan too. How kind of you, little donuts. I appreciate you.

DO YOU SEE THAT SOFT BOUNCY TEXTURE!?

Plain is beautiful but those Tim's donuts have a gorgeous chocolate glaze and candy candy topping. And so, too, will mine. 

Because I never liked simple, anyways. Although if you want to forgo the chocolate, that's okay, too....I guess.

In the end they are beautiful whichever way you want them!

So while I dive into one of these bad boys with a warm cup of almond milk, I cannot emphasize enough how much you MUST MAKE THESE. You simply must. Really. 

Gingerbread Cookie Dough Protein Truffles

You know what I haven't done in a while?


IF ON THE OFF CHANCE YOU GUESSED PROTEIN TRUFFLES YOU WOULD BE RIGHT!


But, of course, we all know I have fully embraced holiday everything so I went for gingerbread. Gingerbread cookie dough. Yep yep YEP!


These are healthy, packed with protein and healthy fats and also -- of course, that wonderful gingerbread spice flavour.

More importantly, they are portable and adorable. Even better gluten free and if you use dark vegan chocolate, then they are vegan, too! Or you can leave them naked and then they are most definitely vegan and adorable and still delicious! You can even roll them in cinnamon sugar.... Ohhhh...why didn't I think of that sooner!

These portable holiday treats are perfect for a gym buddy, trainer, or, DUH...YOU! I think the flavour has the perfect balance of ginger, cinnamon and sweetness.

They are pretty much perfect and I love them forever and always and I want to put them in my pocket and keep them with me forever. Which in theory, I guess I could. But I would prefer to eat them and share them with you!

Let's see how to make these -- BTW it's VERY easy!

Candy Cane Cheesecake Brownies

I know what you are thinking -- Girl, calm down it isn`t even December!

To which I would reply -- I DON`T CARE I DO WHAT I WANT!


And what I want is chocolate mint EVERYTHING. Sorry pumpkin pie spice but this basic girl has officially replaced you with chocolate mint. Dark, rich, with that perfect coolness. Ahhh...that is the stuff.

And to commence this chocolate mint obsession (which in my case, never really ended anyways) are these healthy, delicious, wonderfully cakey and moist Candy Cane Cheesecake Brownies!

If you don`t want to veganize them simply use eggs and dairy cream cheese and normal ordinary whipped cream to top. On the opposite side of things you can use egg replacer, vegan cream cheese and coconut whipped cream.

Whichever way you choose is delicious. And most importantly full of amazingly wonderful chocolatey goodness.

Further, I don`t think it`s too early to get my Christmas on. First of all, it`s snowing in Canada. Second of all, it`s freezing. Third of all, Starbucks has it`s red cups out.

So it`s pretty much the holidays.


I promise, promise PROMISE you these are super easy to make and probably the most rich, dense and chocolatey brownie in the world. They are cakey and soft and go down like a dream and that candy cane love on top just elevates it all to another planet. I`m talking about COMET LEVEL BROWNIE GAME. If you listen to that recording of the noise the comet makes I am pretty sure there are talks of these brownies. No joke. Just try it!

Enough babbling though....once you see how healthy and easy these are you will have them for breakfast. Don`t judge me if I do!

Healthy Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

STOP THE PRESS!


There is no press to be stopped? Oh there IS a press but they don't care about little old me?



EVEN BETTER BECAUSE I HAVE BIG BIG NEWS AND NO TIME TO WASTE!



If you have ever tried to bake your own version of a classic with your own strict set of criteria you know how absolutely frustrating it can be when it doesn't turn out right.

Like I have mentioned before, there have been MANY creations that did not make the cut onto the blog. Some of them were giant cake-like balls of play dough, others were too hard, too soft, etc.


A crispy chocolate chip cookie is the the stuff of dreams. I mean a big gigantic cookie with crispy crunchy ends and a beautiful crumbly softness in the middle.


It has taken me months. Dozens of failed attempts. 1,400 tears (I counted) and sleepless nights wondering what on earth I did wrong before....I....well, by God I think I have done it!

The crispy gluten free, refined sugar free, dairy free chocolate chip cookie!



Oh the pain and suffering...all that time, all that money! ALL WORTH IT! OH MY GOSH!


Reunited and it feels sooo gooooddd! 


These taste EXACTLY like the crunchy chocolate chip cookies of my youth! Finally! I can have it all back!

Some key things you should know when baking gluten free:

• It is not the same as 'gluten-not-free' baking
• It can be hard
• It can make you cry
• To make gluten free cookies can also be hard and make you cry
• Baking gluten free and also sugar and other things free is even harder and makes you cry three fold

Oh...wait that wasn't what I wanted to tell you! For CRISPY healthy cookies you need: FAT! This will help with the crisp. You need FLAT! Crispy cookies get that way from the butter, sugar and flour. Without those three things you don't get that beautiful flattening in the oven. So you need to flatten those puppies out! And you need to get rid of THAT...liquid. So I nixed my usual liquid sweeteners because that was not helping my goals towards getting a crunch cookie. No siree Bob, it was not. 

So well I feel sad for my many tragic cookie fails, I feel so happy to share this recipe with you it makes up for all that other sadness. Every member of my family that walked by these babies as they were cooling couldn't resist coming back for one. Then another. And another....Oh my gosh. Honestly these make all my worries float away. I love you cookies. I love you so very much. 

Fun fact? These last up to a week in an airtight tin container. Even more fun fact? They are extra delicious after a few days when you pop them in the microwave for 20 seconds to pretend like you just baked them because it midnight and you have to work in the morning but you can't sleep because you have a migraine.

Wait...what?

Healthy Gingerbread Cookies

Oh HEY!


If you follow me on Instagram (which, duh, you should!) then you know I took a bit of a break last week. I was having a lot of kitchen disasters and overall losing confidence in my baking game. While I cannot say that those feelings have gone for certain I think taking a break from your passion can once in a while be refreshing. I still baked lots and lots but didn't stress about how it looked, lighting, or all those little pieces that my perfectionist brain stresses over. So HEY, I missed you. Let's talk cookies.


The second that Halloween is over, commercial and personal enterprises alike launch into the holiday season.

For our American brethren this is heightened by the fact that American Thanksgiving is in November and kicks off the Holiday season of food, food and...food. And family. And football. Lots of FFFF's.

In Canada this is true but to a lesser extent as we had our thanksgiving in October. But lo and behold two weeks before Halloween is even over the stores are cranking out their holiday garb and the sleigh bells begin to ring-a-ling!


Personally, I am A-OK with it. Despite never having celebrated many of these holidays growing up as a full-fledged adult human being nothing brings me more joy than snow fall, warm beverages, fancy desserts and all the singing, baking and holiday joy the season can muster!

What does this have to do with anything? VALID QUESTION! And I will happily oblige, of course.


COOKIES.

The mainstay of holiday bake-a-thons, gatherings and parties. I think cookies get their fair share of glory all year round but the winter holidays, to me, well, that is true cookie season. All the coolest cookies come out to play and one of the hallmark holiday cookies for me are cut-out cookies! Be they chocolate, vanilla bean or gingerbread -- the cut-out cookie allows us the base with which we can cut fun holiday shapes and decorate them with friends and family.



There is pretty much nothing healthy about THOSE cookies. Their ability to be pliable enough to roll out and cut and bake flat and crunchy enough to decorate with cookies is founded in the holy trinity of flour, butter and gluten.


Eep. My eyes and heart say yes and my tummy says nay. What is a cookie loving gal to do?



I present to you the cure for your holiday woes: The ultimate. The quintessential. THE GINGERBREAD COOKIE. Without the refined sugar, butter and other additives of course. All of the crisp sweet wonder of your favourite cut-out cookies that roll out just the way they should. Cut out whatever shapes you want -- holiday or anti-holiday (ya scrooges!) if you prefer.

These. Are. Perfection. The sweet fragrant smelling dough rolls out like a dream and they really could not be easier to make. Treat them just like you would your beloved holiday cookie and decorate them with your favourite icing!


P.S If chocolate roll-out cookies are your thing I made some healthy ones over here! And that recipe goes over my gluten free flour preferences, too!