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If you've read about my pumpkin spice muffins, you'll know I'm all about gluten-free and healthy recipes that taste like their non-healthy versions. I won't skimp on flavor just to get in some health points; I want to enjoy what I'm eating. So, I decided to expand my healthy muffin recipes and create gluten-free zucchini bread, too---full of magical nutrition, of course. Bust mostly, I want flavor. I want YUM. This gluten-free zucchini bread (or muffins if you prefer) are no exception to my rule. They're nearly a perfect breakfast food for us and we love them.

Zucchini Nutrition

Zucchini offers incredible health benefits such as vitamins B6, C, and K; folate, fiber, and lots of other vitamins and minerals. Still, I confess I never considered gluten-free zucchini muffins a viable breakfast option. I wrongly assumed I wouldn't want a vegetable all mixed up in my morning; I saved them for my dinner plate. (I love being wrong sometimes!)

zucchini bread muffins
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Healthy Flours for Healthy Breads and Muffins

I had to experiment a bit with gluten-free flours because I was tested as having "borderline" celiac disease, and I know I'm sensitive to gluten. I want to give my body every fighting chance it has to be as healthy as possible. As a result, I follow a gluten-free diet and take special care to find healthy recipes items that are specifically labeled gluten-free. People with celiac disease should absolutely and always use gluten-free flours, such as garbanzo/chickpea flour, almond flour, coconut flour, and many of the other alternatives out there (afflinks). And that said, presuming you don't have celiac disease, you could certainly use standard wheat flour in this recipe if that's your preference.

What This Recipe Doesn't Have

Ingredients for Gluten Free Zucchini Bread or Muffins

Prep time is about 10 minutes.

Optional: Substitute pumpkin spice for cinnamon and nutmeg. Just use the same quantity as the recipe calls for. if you don't want to add the nutmeg and cinnamon separately or want a slightly different flavor in your loaves, you can substitute pumpkin pie spice. Just use the same quantity as the recipe calls for, for the others.

Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread, Optional Add-Ins to Make This Healthy Recipe Even Healthier:

Baking Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Whisk together the wet ingredients---eggs, molasses, olive oil, and milk---in one mixing bowl.
  3. In a second bowl, thoroughly mix together the nutmeg, salt, baking soda, and gluten-free flour (or wheat-based flour if you prefer).
  4. Use a spoon to mix your chopped zucchini into your wet ingredients.
  5. Combine the contents of both bowls and mix them together. It'll be lumpy. That's good. If you're adding mix-ins, add them now.
  6. Spoon your batter into baking cups of your muffin pan or directly into your loaf pan. Although I use a nonstick silicone muffin pan, which is great for preventing messes, I still used baking cups for this recipe. These won't rise much while baking so you can fill them pretty full.
  7. Bake for approximately 30 minutes for muffins or 60 minutes for bread. Test for doneness with a toothpick. Both the muffins and gluten-free zucchini bread firm up a little while cooling. You can cool the bread in the loaf pan and the muffins on a wire rack.

Yield: One loaf of gluten-free zucchini bread or 12-16 healthy muffins

Once they're cool, some people like to add a vegan or greek yogurt to the top for some extra health benefits for their gluten-free zucchini bread. My daughter calls it "frosting," so it's a win.

I haven't experimented with mini-muffins since I use a regular-sized muffin tin; the one I use bakes 12 muffins at a time. I needed two muffin tins since I had enough batter for about four extra gluten-free zucchini muffins beyond the 12 my first pan would allow.

It works as a bread or as muffins. A healthy recipe like this can come in all shapes and sizes---we've even baked loaves in a heart-shaped baking dish!

Leave a reply below. We hope you love them!


Sarah R. Moore is an internationally published writer and the founder of Dandelion Seeds Positive Parenting. You can follow her on FacebookPinterest, and Instagram. She’s currently worldschooling her family. Her glass is half full.

Sometimes even the healthiest of eaters miss the things they used to eat before they cleaned up their diets. That's true for us, anyway.

Both my husband and daughter react negatively to good old fashioned potatoes. You heard that right. No mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving; no French fries or potato chips.

So, we've cleaned up their diets and have committed to (usually) healthy alternatives. And I'm along for the ride, potato-wise.

For us, one part of healthy eating has been finding ways to replace what we used to enjoy.

Fortunately, not only are Japanese yams healthier than standard potatoes*, but they also taste better, in our opinion.

They're white on the inside, and easy to mash and put on the table next to the turkey (or tofurkey). Next to regular potatoes, I'm not sure I'd be able to tell them apart by looks alone. Kind of like Gwenyth Paltrow and me. (Kidding. Sigh.)

As an added bonus, this healthy alternative to potatoes has just a single ingredient. If you've seen my homemade almond butter, you'll know I like to use as few ingredients as possible.

They're one of the easiest crowd pleasers I know how to make. Everyone who's tried these at our house, loves them. And once again, I'm almost embarrassed to share the recipe because it's so simple. Consider it a gift from me to you!

Japanese Yam Chips

Note: We also like using red garnet yams and prepare them the same way. Another delicious and healthy alternative!

My husband and I like them baked like a regular baked potato, as well, but the little fiber strings they sometimes have deter our texture-sensitive daughter. She jumps for joy at the chips, though, so it's a win for the whole family!

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*Source: https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-eating-sweet-potatoes-yams-4562.html

Gluten free pumpkin spice muffins are amazing. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest we rename autumn "Pumpkin-Fall." And if you're anything like me and want delicious pumpkin-flavored treats year-round, we can also rename Winter, "Snowy Pumpkins" and Spring, "Blooming Pumpkins." What about Summer, you ask? I want to hear what you think we should call it. "Hot and Sweaty Pumpkins" doesn't sound quite right.

That aside, I've been craving warm breakfast foods lately. Plus, I want to boost my immune system this time of year--especially since I spend most of my week traveling to various schools with their wide variety of kiddos and alllll they bring into it. Perhaps most importantly, I want a breakfast that tastes good while still starting my day off right health-wise.

I made a checklist of what I want in the morning. Here's what I was looking for:

I found everything I was looking for in these pumpkin spice muffins!

gluten free pumpkin spice muffins
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Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Muffins for Breakfast (or Anytime)!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Use two bowls: one for your wet ingredients and the other for your dry ingredients. One bowl should be large enough to hold all the ingredients when you combine them. I like this one (afflinks) since I can put a lid on it if I need to take a baking break.

Bowl #1

Dry Ingredients. Combine the following:

Bowl #2

Wet ingredients. Combine the following:

Combine the contents of the two bowls. Mix just until combined. Get your muffin pan, and then for the easiest cleanup, use a large spoon to fill baking cups fairly full. These muffins won't rise much. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

And then eat until your heart's content, no matter the pumpkin season! These gluten free pumpkin spice muffins stay good in the fridge for a couple days or a couple of months in the freezer.

Do these gluten free pumpkin spice muffins make your mouth water, or what?

If you like them and/or are looking for something similar to try (at least as far as the health profile goes -- the flavor is quite different) -- you will undoubtedly enjoy our gluten free zucchini bread. They, too, work well as muffins and are SO good. We don't hesitate to eat them for breakfast to start our days off right!

I've never been a fan of carrot cake. It may be because it goes against one of my core values, which is not to mix vegetables with dessert. I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure there's a separate compartment in our bellies for All Things Sweet, and anything healthy in there simply contaminates it.

But then this happened. I met it unexpectedly, and I wasn't even looking for a relationship, much less looking for love. I'd just been messing around with my mother-in-law's recipe to make it compliant with our food sensitivities, and BOOM, everything changed. But here we are, together at last.

Not only do these flavors belong together, but they're (gasp!) full of good things for your body.

Sheesh. Does this mean I need to rethink my core values? It probably does, because darnit, I'm not letting this carrot cake go. It's a keeper.

Carrot Cake for Everyone (Even for People Who Think They Don't Like It) Recipe

Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Line two 9-inch round pans with parchment paper. I like pans like these (afflinks). I prefer unbleached paper for health reasons.

You'll need two relatively big mixing bowls and one small one (a regular cereal bowl is more than enough for the latter).

Before you do anything else, make two flax eggs (healthy already, I say!). If you're already giving me the side-eye, you're welcome to use regular eggs instead of eggs made from flaxseed. Or one flax egg and one regular. You have options here. Regular eggs (or one of each) make the cake less crumbly than the flax eggs alone do, but I don't mind crumbly, personally.

To make flax eggs, all you need is two tablespoons of flaxseed. Put them in the small bowl. If you're going the flaxseed instead of egg route, add six tablespoons of water to the flaxseeds. No need to mix; just let the flaxseed absorb the water while you move forward through the other steps. Note: if you use flax eggs instead of traditional eggs, your recipe is vegan!

Bowl #1

I prefer to use a glass mixing-measuring bowl combination like this one so the boiling water doesn't affect the plastic, and also to spare me washing extra dishes.

Mix all this goodness together. I mix along the way to combine the ingredients more evenly.

Bowl #2. Mix the following ingredients together:

Now's the time to mix your flax eggs into the first bowl if you've chosen that option.

Combine the contents of the two bowls. Bake for approximately 1 hour if you've used regular eggs. Add 10-15 minutes if you're using flax eggs or a combination of both (the toothpick test will help you know when it's done). Let the cakes cool in the pans for awhile before transferring them to your cake plate. I use a plate similar to this version because it has a lid to keep the cake fresh.

Cupcake option: same recipe, but use baking cups in a muffin pan (even if it's nonstick) and cut the baking time approximately in half. Start checking the cupcakes at about 30 minutes. Depending how full you fill the cups, it should make about two dozen.

Dress up the cake however you'd like. We enjoy putting non-dairy (or dairy) yogurt on it instead of frosting since the cake is already pretty sweet, but I don't want you to judge me too harshly. We may have experimented with chocolate chips in it once or twice, as well, thanks to our daughter's suggestion.

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