Soul Creative came from my desire to share ideas for boosting creativity and ways to nurture our minds, bodies, and lives. This blog is my way of connecting with our community.
This recipe for gluten free date sweetened muffins is a great way to nourish your sweet tooth without any refined sugar cane.
Cooking and baking relieves stress and boosts our creative thinking. During this difficult time a lot of us are in the kitchen in order to pass the time and quiet our minds. When we focus our left brain on a certain activity in which we feel safe and have done it countless times like walking, taking a shower, driving, washing the dishes, and cooking, we enter into a calmer more meditative state. When our left brain is focused on recipe measurements, mixing, cutting, and stirring, our right brain is free to roam about and spew forth creative thoughts and ideas.
As an added benefit to cooking at home, substituting unrefined natural ingredients in recipes keeps our immunity strong. Sugar throws our hormones out of wack, increases blood sugar, causes weight gain, may increase your risk to cancer, accelerates skin aging, may cause depression, increases cellular aging, drains energy, accelerates cognitive decline, and may increase risk to heart disease. I don't want to scare the crap out of you but reducing sugar is one of the biggest ways you can stay more vital and youthful. I am a huge proponent of chocolate though and smart eating means no guilt when you do partake in sugar laden treat.
There is a happy and fulfilling world without sugar though and by necessity I've had to enter that world. I've been plagued with IBS and digestive issues since I was a teenager. In my younger years I could still eat whatever I wanted, like a fast metabolizing trash can, and 80 percent of my diet was carbohydrates. It wasn't until I entered my 40's that I was unable to continue to eat and drink my favorite foods and beverages like pasta, bagels, pizza, and beer. Cutting out refined carbohydrates, gluten, sugar, dairy, and alcohol, my main colon inflammatories, was like waging a battle every day against my newly realized sugar addiction. It was brutal. Eventually I told myself to pull myself out of my self pity puddle of, I wish I could still eat whatever I want, this sucks mentality.
I then got inspired and I got creative. I realized that I could still eat foods that I loved and at the same time eliminate my brain fog and sluggish energy that came whenever I consumed sugar.
Date paste has become one of my favorite substitutes for sugar. Many of you may use raw honey and real maple syrup as a sugar substitute and I salute you for using these healthier options. Honey and maple syrup are still too high glycemic for me, so dates have become my baking savior.
Here is my yummy recipe for gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, date and banana muffins,
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 mashed banana
6 Tablespoons date puree
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil or olive oil
2/3 cup favorite berries
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin sheet with butter or use lactose-free ghee.
If using coconut oil, melt the oil to a liquid in a sauce pan or in the microwave. Put approximately 6 dates in a blender or food processor and add a couple tablespoons of water. Blend the dates until a liquid-like paste forms, some small date chunks are fine. Mash one banana with a potato masher or a large spoon.
Whisk the banana, date paste, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Fold in your favorite berries. Pour into muffin sheet and bake for 20 minutes.