Hi! How is your summer so far (for those of you that have summer now where you live!)? I am honestly still not in that full summer mood but I think that has to do with living in a big city again after spending two years in places where I was surrounded by nature. First, two years ago I spent my summer in the south of Turkey where we lived literally few steps from the sea and the beach and it gets hot already in May so obviously by the time July arrives, you are already feeling that summer with everything you have! And than last summer we were in the Swiss Alps which is definitely not the same but still if you get the good weather, which we did luckily, you get to spend so much time outside in that beautiful scenery with flowers everywhere, rivers and lakes, grass greener than anything you saw before and those cute cows and goats ringing with their bells. So yeah, those two summers were beautiful and if you want to see some of those photos, go to Travel section on my blog (here) and you’ll find them there…
Of course nothing in life is what it looks like on blogs and social media so even if all that sounds wonderful and like a dream to many people, don’t forget there is that other side of life too. In my case, I was struggling with health problems at that time and specially that summer two years ago was feeling really miserable physically. Over the night I developed gut / digestion problems with all the worst symptoms you can imagine and before that, I’ve never realized how important our stomach / gut is and that if that is not working as it should, you basically feel really bad and there are days when you just want to stay in bed and not face the world. I was in this paradise on Earth and getting so many messages from my friends like “oh you are so lucky” and “I can only dream about being in a place like that” and “enjoy every minute of it” etc and yes I did enjoy what I could and it was an amazing experience but at the same time I had to find courage and strength to handle how bad I was feeling and find the reason and than the solution.
So after I did all the medical checks and got a list of diagnosis (if you are struggling with something similar and want to know more details, you can write to me at lilibcphotography@gmail.com) and a list of medicine that i was supposed to be taking for the next few years according to the gastroenterologist specialist, I approached it as a project. A project to see what can I change in my life and nutrition to start feeling better and to start healing my body. That’s when I changed the way I eat, introduced many ingredients I use on this blog like: plant-based milk, chia seeds, oats, nut butters, tahini, smoothies, freshly-squeezed juices, dates, natural sweeteners like coconut sugar, agave or maple syrup, coconut oil, avocado, spelt, rye or whole-wheat flour, quinoa and cous-cous, fresh fish, lots of berries and green vegetables and so on… All that was introduced gradually together with aloe vera juice (that helps healing from the inside!), fish oil in capsules, everyday probiotics (in capsules and homemade kefir), vitamins, magnesium, homeopathic “medicine” for liver and kidneys cleaning etc… I also stopped drinking milk and eating milk products (except hard cheeses), using sunflower and other vegetable oils, refined sugar, processed food, coffee, alcohol, reduced drastically red meat (but still occasionally eat it)…. This is just a part to show you how I helped myself by reading, researching and trying out what works for my body and how by doing that, I stopped using medicine after about 8 months instead of few years as doctors suggested. I am so happy to be symptom-free now most of the time and I got back my life energy, clear head and generally feeling so much better, for that I am very grateful!
Those of you who follow me for some time now, know already that I like to keep it real and honest here, of course sharing the recipes, beautiful food, travel, amazing new experiences but also how I’m dealing with health issues, challenges that come with living as an expat, spending a lot of time starting over etc. Life is not all butterflies and unicorns so I think it’s important to share that as well since internet and social media often leave us thinking how those other people have perfect lives and that is far from truth…
Now finally, muffins!!! 😀
This is such a simple recipe and you need only your blender / food processor so you won’t need even another bowl (less dishes to wash yaaay!) but the muffins are moist, soft, delicious and those chocolate chunks are just the best!
There is no flour in this recipe so as long as you use certified gluten-free oats, the muffins are completely gluten-free. Now go make them! 🙂
Recipe in English:
- 2 ripe medium size bananas
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp maple or agave syrup
- ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 cup oats
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- ½ cup dark chocolate, cut in chunks
- Note: 1 cup = 250 ml
- If you are using 12 muffins tin pan, just double up the quantities.
- Preheat oven to 180 C / 356 F. Prepare 6 muffin tin pan and line with muffin paper cups.
- Put all the ingredient except chocolate in your blender / food processor and process until you get smooth and creamy batter.
- Add dark chocolate chunks and stir gently.
- Pour the batter into prepared muffin cups and bake for about 13 - 15 min or until golden brown.
- Leave them to cool and enjoy!
- Note: Store them in an airtight container at room temperature or if in the fridge, than remove from the fridge at least 30 min before eating since they will harden when in fridge because of the coconut oil.
Recipe in Croatian / Recept na hrvatskom:
- SASTOJCI
- 2 zrele banane, srednje velicine
- 1 jaje
- 3 zlice javorovog ili agavinog sirupa
- ⅓ salice kokosovog ulja, otopljenog
- 1 salica zobenih pahuljica
- 1 zlicica vanilin ekstrakta
- ½ zlicice cimeta
- 1 zlicica soda bikarbone
- prstohvat soli
- ½ salice tamne cokolade, nasjeckane na komadice
- Napomena: 1 salica = 250 ml
- Ako koristite kalup za 12 muffina, poduplajte kolicine.
- PRIPREMA
- Zagrijte pecnicu na 180 C. Pripremite kalup za 6 muffina i oblozite papirnatim casicama za muffine (nije potrebno ako koristite silikonski kalup).
- Stavite sve sastojke (osim cokolade) u vas blender / multipraktik i miksajte dok ne dobijete glatku kremastu smjesu.
- Umijesajte komadice cokolade.
- Napunite kalupe za muffine pripremljenom smjesom i pecite 13-15 minuta ili dok ne dobiju zlatno-smedju boju.
- Ostavite da se ohlade prije serviranja, dobar tek!
- Napomena: Drzite na sobnoj temperaturi, a ako drzite u frizideru, izvadite ih barem 30 min prije serviranja jer se kokosovo ulje u frizideru stvrdne.
*Thank you so much for being here, that makes me so happy! You can also follow my Travelling oven on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, as well as subscribe to receive new blog posts via email.
Meni su Pali nakon Što sam ih izvadila iz pećnice. I kao da su sitovi ostali unutra. Di sam falila?
Bas mi je zao, mozda ste ih prebrzo izvadili iz pecnice i nisu bili dovoljno peceni.Svaka pecnica je drugacija pa nekima treba malo duze da se ispece, zato je najbolje provjeriti cacakalicom ili nozem. Jeste li pratili recept bas tako kako pise?