Who said carrot cake had to be unhealthy?
These breakfast carrot cake muffins are packed with fiber, goodness and spices plus low in added sugar!
They’re great for batch cooking so that you have brekkie covered for a few days, they go really well with some nut butter and you can decide how sweet you want them!
Plus they contain lots of nutrition from both fruit & veg and have a decent amount of anti-inflammatory spices in them for good measure!
This is my selection of snacks that aren’t filled with chicory inulin as some people can’t tolerate lots of prebiotics without symptoms and it seems like it’s in everything these days!
Every protein bar i pick up seems to have a tonne of chicory in it which means anyone sensitive to this ingredient cant eat an entire bar and so will need to find a different option. Here’s a rundown of the ones I like and use regularly.
Boostballs: These contain natural ingredients for sweetness and protein so don’t contain refined sugar and the keto version is good too, they do have some acacia gum fiber but its not triggering like chicory so I also love those ones too
Find at Holland and barrett or Boots, Superdrug etc
So this recipe is exactly what it says on the tin. Protein powder (plant version) mixed with crumbled up cookie/biscuit and shaped in a cupcake tin then topped with chocolate.
You can adapt this with whatever you like, some suggestions I got on my insta stories were raisins or popping a berry in the middle or on top etc.
So you may have heard of kimchi before and how it can benefit your gut, you may have considered buying or already have got a jar of it in your kitchen but are wondering what on earth to do with it?!
Firstly, for those who may not be too familiar with it, kimchi is a spicy, fermented mix of veg usually cabbage, carrot, raddish etc which comes from Korea and has a heat and pickled taste to it. As it’s fermented it’s high in probiotic bacteria, the best way to maximise on this is to source a good quality one that hasn’t been pasterised although even the type that has gone through this process and therefore is stored at room temp will still have benefits.
There are many ways to use kimchi, it’s so versatile and because it doesn’t require any cooking or prep it’s pretty easy to incorporate into food, but here are my top and favourite ways to consume it:
1) In a burger/veggie burger
People often look toward sauces for adding flavour to burger but a great way to add more veg and fiber to this meal is by adding a handful of kimchi, it gives lots of spice and tang, think about the traditional sauerkraut on hotdogs type of thing! For this recipe I used “Yumchi kimchi” which you can get in Planet organic/Wholefoods and on Amazon.
I purposely made this recipe with two different flours meaning it’s suitable for many different types of diets/requirements.
I’m quite fond of spelt flour but this time I used buckwheat flour instead so that it would be gluten free (but if you tolerate gluten and can only find spelt then you can use it instead), I’ve also included a coconut flour recipe meaning that this version is grain and gluten free but also lower carb and suits paleo/grain free diets.
Coconut flour low carb version
Healthier Buns
Out of curiosity I decided to look into the specific nutrition of each version using an online nutrition calculator and found that they are far lower in sugar, calories and fat than your typical store bought ones, plus they’re made with real food ingredients and sweetened mostly (or completely if you omit the honey) with fresh fruit making them a far healthier option in my opinion and also contain quite a bit of fibre to boot!
For the calculation I used the options of 1 tspn honey and medium fat milk, the results per bun are:
Buckwheat version
-122 calories
-12g carbs
-4.7g sugar
-6.6g fat
Coconut version
-103 calories
-8.2g carbs
-4.9g sugar
-6.7g fat
Buckwheat flour version
Recipe Notes
The major key to the distinctive bakewell taste of this recipe is the almond extract as this gives the unique marzipan flavour, without it they’ll still be nice buns but the flavour won’t be as good or as distinctive so I highly recommend getting it which should be easy as I found mine in a big Tesco store in the baking aisle.
I used a reduced fat coconut flour meaning that you need to source yours carefully as some still have all the fat in it meaning the recipe won’t work the same. I used The Groovy Food company’s coconut flour which I managed to find in a large Tesco store on offer too! So do keep an eye out for it, you don’t always have to go to health food shops to get ingredients like this anymore.
As always I prefer to use as little added sweetness as possible so I’ve tried this recipe with and without honey so simply adjust it to your sweet tooth.
As mentioned before I used buckwheat flour this time so it would be gluten free but if you only have spelt flour then that will work too.
I'm Siobhan. Thanks to my Masters in food security I love learning about what food does for our health & believe that knowing how our food enriches us, makes it easier to live healthier.
I want to learn as much as I can about food, health & wellness, so figured why not share this with others? I also love to make delicious treats that are healthy to eat!
