Summertime Blues

Yesterday, I made the tastiest, moistest (decided it's a word for muffin purposes), flavorful and healthy blueberry muffins. I didn't think it was possible for a vegan, gluten free, and sugar free baked good to taste like this!

I love sweets, and this recipe allows me to indulge without overdoing it! Please enjoy! Recipe below

INGREDIENTS:

For the muffins:

1 chia seed egg (1/2 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 tbsp water)

1/2 cup almond milk

3-4 tablespoons 100% maple syrup

2 tablespoons oil (I  used grapeseed, canola would be fine too)

1 cup white rice flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 lemon for zest and juice

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

optional: walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Lightly grease a 6-cup muffin tin.

Prepare the muffins:

1. In another small bowl, combine white rice flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Carefully stir in blueberries and walnuts.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the "egg", milk and oil until well blended. 
3. Add in the dry ingredients and mix just until smooth.
4. Pour into the prepared muffin tin, filling each well about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are slightly browned. Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the tin.

Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients: 

1 large eggplant sliced into rounds

1 roma tomato sliced 

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 cup of fresh basil leaves

2 cups of shredded parmesan 

1 cups of shredded mozzarella 

1/3 cup of olive oil 

salt and pepper 

favorite spaghetti sauce

Italian breadcrumbs 

Skillet, 13x9 rectangular pan, square baking pan

Directions: 

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Cook all of eggplant rounds in oil until noticeably softened. Place cooked slices on a plate and set aside. 

Place breadcrumbs in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. You can add cheese to your coating if you'd like. Place each slice of eggplant in the coating, covering both sides and lay flat on rectangular pan. 

Heat oven to 400° and bake each side of the eggplant covered in coating for about 10 minutes on each side. Slices should be noticeably browned. 

Take your square pan and line the bottom with coated eggplant slices until completely covered. Prepare baking dish in the following order: Eggplant, tomato slice, sprinkle of garlic, basil, parmesan, and mozzarella. The top of your dish should be covered with only basil and parmesan. 

Bake for 20-30 min at 400° until cheese is browned.  Serve over pasta with more sauce as needed.