Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Muffin Recipe and a GIVEAWAY!

I have something fun planned for today. First, a wonderful gluten-free, casein-free, refined sugar-free muffin recipe to share that is full of healthy ingredients. No starches, no xanthan gum, just a few whole food ingredients. The recipe isn't mine though, it comes from another lovely food blogger, Kelly of The Spunky Coconut! And second, I'm giving away a free copy of her cookbook, The Spunky Coconut Cookbook (a $30 value). Read on to learn how to enter the drawing.

Kelly's cookbook contains 115 Gluten-Free, Casein-Free, and Sugar-Free recipes with 65 color photos. There are 100 vegetarian recipes and 30+ raw inspired recipes. She does use eggs in many of her baked treats though. But there are still plenty of egg-free recipes for those with sensitivities or who are vegan.

As the name of her book and blog suggest, many of her delicious recipes involve coconut; whether it is coconut milk, coconut oil, or shredded coconut. Here is a taste of a few of her recipes: Butternut Souffle, Chicken Meatballs, Creamy Pea Soup, Caesar Salad, Funa (fake tuna salad), Chocolate Chip Bars, Vanilla Toffee Cake, Pumpkin Ice Cream, Mango Lemon Sorbet, Banana Bread (grain-free), Quinoa Almond Muffins, Creamy Bean Dip, and much much more!!!

You can view a wide variety of sample recipes on Kelly's blog. This high protien, low sugar Vanilla White Bean Cake with Chocolate Frosting is my favorite!

Kelly began to study nutrition in Maryland when her girls were very young. Her daughter Ashley was a baby, and daughter Zoe was a toddler at that time. Both girls were not well. In order to help them, her naturopathic doctor worked with them to radically change their diet (by removing gluten, casein, and sugar). She and her husband soon realized that their own health problems could be resolved as well. It was very eye-opening to see how many kinds of issues could be treated. So, after years of research and experimentation, Kelly has created recipes so similar to the old ones that nobody feels deprived. Together, through diet and biomedical treatments, their family is overcoming celiac disease, gluten-intolerance, ADD, and autism with great success.

Cherry Almond Muffins

This recipe is on page 44 of Kelly's cookbook, The Spunky Coconut Cookbook. She suggests using 2 cups of blueberries, cherries, or nuts. I used 1 cup of chopped frozen cherries (the cherries we picked this past summer). Her recipe also calls for 12 drops of vanilla creme liquid stevia which I didn't have on hand. I omitted it and added a splash of vanilla and almond flavoring instead. I asked Kelly about decreasing the fat and she said that it would probably work to use half applesauce and half coconut oil. I agree and will try the recipe that way next time. For now, enjoy this very simple gluten-free muffin recipe!

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon melted virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup honey
3 eggs
12 drops vanilla creme liquid stevia (I omitted this)

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups almond meal flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups thawed blueberries, cherries, or chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl beat wet ingredients together. Add dry ingredients on top of the wet mixture and beat together with an electric mixer. Fold in berries or cherries.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan. Bake for approximately 24 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

This recipe is also on Kelly's blog. You can view it in her post from April of 2008 entitled, Almond Muffin and Potato Salad. Her photo is lovely. My muffins browned a little more than hers which is due to my wacky oven. The temperature can get too high sometimes during mid-baking.

To Enter Yourself in the Drawing for The Spunky Coconut Cookbook:

Please only enter if you intend on checking back. The last giveaway I did on Coconut Sugar, ended up with nobody receiving the 2-pound bag of coconut sugar. The winner never contacted me. If you leave a comment please check back next week to see if you won (then send me an email with your mailing address). If you don't want to keep checking the blog you can subscribe by email to get an update every time I post. I will have information about the winner in my next post.

Please leave a comment to enter yourself in the drawing. To enter twice you can tweet this post on Twitter or share on Facebook.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, how about we share what we are grateful for? I am grateful for my four children, their wit and compassion never cease to amaze me. On the flip side, my toddler twin boys never ease to amaze me with their fighting over the new potty training book! :) I am also grateful for being able to create delicious, healthy recipes for my family and for you! Thank you for your lovely emails and comments, although I don't have time to respond to all of them I truly enjoy reading them!

I will leave the drawing open until Monday, November 30th, 2009, 11:59 pm. Leave a comment to enter (use your name or initials to make it easy to identify you). **Note: This drawing is now closed.

Have a wonderful "Giving Thanks" day and stay tuned for a few more cookbook giveaways in December!

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