Quinoa, Sweet Potato and Date Muffins

I have been lax in my journal over the last 2 months, due to my having relocated from the cold chill of Ottawa. Now, in my new Peterborough home I finally have unpacked enough stuff that I can begin to catch up on some of this back log of journals! This one is from the beginning of August, but is a nice comfort food for the cooler airs of October.

After a dirty 4 days of camping out at an annual music festival we returned with new recipe ideas to develop, or destroy! To begin I will leave you with some muffins I made to bring camping at an annual music festival.

I adapted this recipe from Shirley Plant's book Finally Food I Can Eat (which is a terrific book if you have just been diagnosed with food allergies and sensitivities and are trying to navigate your way through the initial confusion). The recipes are nearly fail proof and lend themselves easily to changing and substituting. The original recipe was called "Banana Muffins".

I am in muffin love, these things turned out awesome for me and I hope you get similar results. I will warn you, they have a slightly odd smell, very, um...earthy I suppose. They also freeze and thaw beautifully without altering taste and texture. You have to eat these babies fast if you don't freeze them because they get stale and moldy in 4-5 days due to lack of preservatives.

Quinoa, Sweet Potato and Date Muffins

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups Quinoa Flour
2tsp baking soda
½ tsp vitamin C crystals
¼ tsp guar gum
2 tsp cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
¼ - ½ cup water (I usually end up having to add ½ cup, you need this mixture to be moist)
1 can sweet potato
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
½ cup safflower oil (or other oil)
1 tbsp maple syrup (you can use 2tbsp for a sweeter muffin)
1/2 cup chopped dates (could likely substitute raisins or prunes)

Directions:
1. Oil muffin tins and preheat oven to 375C
2. In a bowl add water and sweet potato, oil, syrup and vanilla(optional)
3. Add all dry ingredients and mix well
4. Add dates
5. Bake for 15 minutes (or longer is necessary)
6. Cool in muffin tin for 5 minutes and then remove and enjoy!