With the beginning of March in sight, we are feeling antsy for the official arrival of spring! Perhaps it was our monstrous snow storm this year or the crazy number of snow days that the boys have had away from school, but we are so over all things winter and are ready to welcome the return of green grass, flowers, sunshine, birds chirping… And we are especially ready for the lighter flavors that spring brings!
Here this week with the perfect springtime treat to refresh your palate, is Lori with a recipe share for Lemon Lavender Muffins. If you weren’t already fantasizing about sitting in the park with the sun on your skin, this recipe will certainly get you there!
Enjoy this amazing recipe below and be sure to visit Lori’s site, Healthy Wholesome Me, for even more amazing recipes and healthy living resources!
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Hello there everyone! I’m Lori Newlon, a Registered Nurse for fifteen years and a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP). Ten years ago I made the decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery. I underwent what is called the roux~en~y procedure in which (to way oversimplify it) a section of your small intestine and stomach are re-routed and bypassed to create a “pouch” to serve as a new stomach.
In the years following surgery came the desired weight loss (160 lbs!), but it also brought a long sequence of surgical complications and nutritional deficiency related health problems that I was entirely unprepared for. Several of these issues were life threatening, and often there was no effective treatment available to rectify them.
Overtime I became increasingly unwell, and at the point I was the most seriously ill and malnourished, it was incredibly frightening to find so little medical help available to improve my situation. I was desperate for help and dismayed at the lack of effective help available through the medical community. I tried everything suggested and continued getting sicker. I could not help but feel that there had to be something that I could do to improve my nutritional state and begin to crawl toward becoming as healthy as I possibly could. I began to research on my own and eventually discovered the real food, paleo and whole food community that I have come to adore and to whom I feel I owe my tremendously improved state of health today!
I have learned so much about the importance of following a real food lifestyle, especially as a gastric bypass patient facing a lifetime of micro and macronutrient deficiencies because of the nature of gastric bypass surgery. There are some health issues that I will never be able to fix, but I have experienced such a radical improvement in my health and well being since adopting a real foods lifestyle, I knew I had to share my journey with other gastric bypass patients who may be facing similar problems! I created my blog, Healthy Wholesome Me, to share nutritional education, bariatric friendly recipes and my ten years of experience through the struggles and successes of weight loss surgery. You can find out much more about me and read my detailed story on my blog. And you can follow me on Instagram and Periscope as @wholefoodiern. I hope to see you there!
Though we are still desperate for more rain here in drought stricken California, I find myself very excited and a little guilt ridden for LOVING the Spring-like weather we’ve been enjoying here in Sacramento! One flavor that really evokes warm temperatures and sunshine for me is lemon. We are huge fans of lemon anything in this household, so I came up with a delightful Lemon Lavender Muffin recipe that I’m so happy to share with you! These muffins are wonderful to eat any time of day, but we especially love them for breakfast with some hot English Breakfast or Earl Grey tea! These lemon lavender muffins are gluten and refined sugar free and have only 1/4 cup of honey. To me, the addition of the lavender just adds a little something special, and I think the flavor compliments lemon very well. But if you aren’t a fan of lavender, you can omit it completely without compromising the texture or bake time. I hope you enjoy this recipe and that it brings a little Springtime to your world!
Ingredients
- 3 cups of almond flour
- 1 TBSP coconut flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1 1/2 TBSP poppy seeds (add more or less to your liking)
- 1-2 TBSP lavender. Run it this through a mini food processor or a coffee bean grinder to make it as fine as possible, you could also run a knife through it to mince it finer. (I used 2, TBSP you can decrease if you like)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (organic is my preference)
- 2 TBSP lemon zest (roughly 2 large lemons, organic is my preference)
- 1/4 cup plus 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice (I used organic)
- 3 eggs (pastured and organic are my preference)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup ghee (Tinstar foods Brown Butter is what I use and recommend!)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin (12) with parchment muffin liners. You can make these without but you will need to coat each muffin "cup" with some kind of fat, like coconut oil, butter or ghee.
- In a large bowl add together your dry ingredients: almond and coconut flour, salt, baking soda, poppy seeds, lemon zest and lavender. Use a fork to mix everything together.
- In another bowl beat the 3 eggs and add in the vanilla extract. Melt the ghee and if your honey is really thick you can warm it a little to help make it easier to incorporate when adding it all together.
- Add all the ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix to incorporate well.
- Use a "scooper" to evenly portion out the batter into the muffin tin.
- Bake in the 350 degree oven for up to 18 minutes. I made these three times and never baked them longer than 18 minutes. I started checking them for doneness after the 15 minute mark. Remove them from muffin tin and cool on a rack. These will keep in the fridge for a couple days, if you don't eat them all up right away!!
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://paleoparents.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Lori-Newlon.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]I created my blog, Healthy Wholesome Me, to share nutritional education, bariatric friendly recipes and my ten years of experience through the struggles and successes of weight loss surgery. You can find out much more about me and read my detailed story on my blog. Connect with Lori: Instagram and Periscope as @wholefoodiern. [/author_info] [/author]
