Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Wholewheat Carrot Raisin Muffins

Happy Spring!

With spring officially here…is ‘Mother Nature’ aware?..I thought I would start the weekend off with some freshly baked allergy friendly muffins for the lovely ladies in my last knitting class at the Kniterary. Our last knitting session for our baby sweater…or so I thought.

Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Wholewheat Carrot Raisin Muffins

This fibre-rich muffin made with whole-wheat flour, wheat germ and a flax egg was incredibly moist…not to mention…delish!

Clipped from an old Canadian Living Magazine…I adapted the recipe to be made without dairy and eggs…replacing the all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour. Click here for the original recipe.

Adaptions:

Substitute 1 cup of all-purpose flour for 1 cup whole-wheat flour (increasing the total of whole-wheat flour to 1 1/2 cups)
Substitute Natur-a Rice Beverage or Natur-a Soy Beverage for milk.
Substitute 1 tbsp of flax meal mixed with 3 tbsp of water, refrigerated over night for the egg.
Substitute canola oil for the melted butter.

The knitted baby sweater has taken our class more than the 3 scheduled classes…our group met last week for an extra class… will be meeting again for an extra class this week too.

Despite the challenges that we have faced with the baby sweater…we all admit we are addicted. All of us that can…are signing up for the next knitting project…socks!

Each of the lovely ladies in my knitting class are at various stages of the sweater…I just have the I-cord (trim), sewing in the loose bits of yarn, knitting something special as the ‘button’ and the ‘blocking’ of the baby sweater left to do.

Total of 4 sweaters…mine is the violet and cream on the far right.

The knitting instructors and the lovely ladies in my knitting class were pleasantly surprised that such an adapted recipe tasted so yummy!

Enjoy!

P.S. One batch of muffins yielded only 9 muffins so I needed to quickly whip up another batch…couldn’t leave the house smelling of delicious muffins without leaving any for Andy to try!

Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

As promised…early Saturday morning, I baked a batch of allergy friendly muffins for the lovely ladies in my knitting class. (One of my knitting teachers has a banana and soy allergy)

Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

Wrapped up in the tea towel…they were still a bit warm when I arrived…they loved them!

The Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins I had planned to bake would have been just a bit too messy for knitting…raisins were the perfect compliment for a cinnamon oatmeal muffin.

I prepared all the dry ingredients, the ‘flax egg’, placed all the paper liners in the muffin tray and had my measuring cups and spoons all at the ready for baking the muffins first thing in the morning. I  sprinkled some whole oats over the top with a few extra raisins before popping them in the oven…love when they get all toasty and brown. 

Click here for my adapted recipe post…just replace the blueberries for raisins. Delish!

Tip:  I realized at lunch-time, while perusing the refrigerator, I had forgotten to add the ‘flax egg’ to my batch of Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins yesterday morning…these have now become my favourite go-to morning muffin!

Not to worry…it went un-noticed until the discovery. Although, I did wonder why they seemed to be missing their nice and crispy ‘puffy’ muffin tops…my favourite part of the muffin! 

This past Saturday, the lovely ladies and I gathered once again, to start our third and final lesson of the beginner knitting series at The Kniterary…a baby sweater.

At the end of the lesson, I felt a bit overwhelmed with this project. However, I know if I take my time…that would be, taking one step at a time, taking deep breathes then counting to ten and then adding one (my knitting neighbour’s husband’s advice)…I know I will slowly but surely knit my way to accomplishing an adorable baby sweater.

There were four of us in Saturday’s class…three of us have been together since the start…knitting a scarf in our first session and then a hat in the second…our fourth knitter joined us in the second session.

I am still ‘plugging along’ on my scarf/cowl…with my knitted hat complete, I wear it everyday! I was happy to discover one of the knitters brought her completed knitted scarf and hat combo.

Not sure if you can see the little flower embellishment I stitched on to the front of my hat…my knitting signature. (it’s on the ribbing where the hat meets the tea towel)

With next week’s lesson cancelled due to the March Break…I have an extra week to work on my project and…to create a final allergy friendly muffin/treat for all the lovely ladies at my knitting class!

Despite the times of feeling frustrated trying to remember all the different techniques with knitting…I am enjoying the therapeutic nature of the knitting process.

I am so happy to have been introduced to knitting as an outlet to relieve some of my stress while, at the same time, encouraging my creative side to ‘step out of the box’ into a new medium.

What types of hobbies and/or extra-curricular activities do you participate in to help relieve some of your everyday stress with food allergies, eczema and/or health concerns? What benefits have you noticed? Please share in the comments so we may all learn new ways to cope.

Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

This past Saturday was my last session for my second course in knitting at the Kniterary…a hat.

As with my last knitting session in my first course…a scarf/cowl…I wanted to bring some fresh, allergy friendly muffins to the lovely ladies of knitting. (my first knitting teacher has some food allergies…click here for that post)

I pre-measured all my ingredients the night before to be ready first thing in the morning.

Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

Alas, this was not to be.

Friday night I had a knitting catastrophe that left me having a knitting meltdown…very unknittery of me.

Here is my story:

As I was away last weekend enjoying my Family Day Weekend with my family, I missed the second session for my hat at the Kniterary. Monday the store was closed so I popped in on Tuesday, where one of the lovely knitting teachers brought me up to speed.

The task for the last session was to have knitted the main pattern…10 repeated rounds of 5 pearl and 4 knits.

Tuesday evening had me at my son’s hockey game and Wednesday evening at the Kniterary for a lesson on cable stitch…I was, therefore, left with the daunting task of a knitting marathon come Thursday night…4 straight hours of knitting left me only half way through.

By Friday I was panicking…late Friday afternoon my wool ran out…with a new ball of wool attached (thanks to my lovely knitting neighbour) I frantically continued on with my task until catastrophe hit.

I looked down at my knitting only to find that it was unravelling!!!

I felt dumbstruck and defeated. Too late to call my knitting neighbour…I put the hat to the side and had an early night.

Up early the next morning, I just didn’t feel that I would be celebrating a finished hat at knitting…so I did not bake the muffins.

I did, however, catch my knitting neighbour out walking her dog. All was, apparantly, not lost with my knitting. One of the lovely knitting teachers would be able to sort me out…so off I ventured to my knitting class.

My worry that everyone would be finishing up their hats and I would be lagging behind were unfounded. In fact, most of the class were of the notion that 10 rounds were too many…it made for a more floppy hat on top. I decided I would only keep 5 1/2 rounds of my kniting as compared to kniting the 10 in the pattern. This would leave me with a more fitted hat…more to my liking.

As I sat and listened to the other women talk of their knitting woes…I felt more at ease. I slowed down my pace…felt the calming effects of knitting take over. But it was not just the knitting in and of itself…it was being surounded by my fellow knitters…giving me a sense of calm.

 I managed to finish my hat in class!

The pattern is called ‘Wurm’…I think, in this shorter version, it looks more like a honey pot!

Ironically, I took up knitting as a way to calm my stressful nature.

This experience has taught me a few lessons: I have learned…one cannot rush knitting…knitting patterns can be adapted…a continued mistake is considered, in the knitting world, ‘a design feature’ and…a group of women knitting is the best therapy!

I think I am ready to tackle this Saturday’s project…a baby sweater.

Oh…and I will be bringing a batch of Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins.

For a belated celebration and a thank you to all the lovely ladies at the Kniterary.

As all the ingredients were already prepped…Dairy, Egg, Soy and Peanut/Tree Nut Free Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins made for a delicious start to the day on Sunday!

Just baked…these muffins are like eating a warm bowl of oatmeal with blueberries…so yummy! Defiinitely a new favourite!

I adapted the recipe from my Bon Appetit November 2010 issue. Click here for the original recipe.

Adaptions:

I substituted  1 cup of Natur-a Rice Beverage mixed with 1 tbsp of white vinegar for the buttermilk.
I substituted 1 tbsp of ground flaxmeal mixed with 3 tbsp of water and refrigerated over night for the large egg.
I omitted the chopped pecans

Tip 1:  I used all the batter for 12 regular muffins…baking time was around 30 minutes. 
Tip 2:  I sprinkled each of the muffins with large oats and blueberries before popping them in the oven…makes for a pretty presentation.

Do hobbies help you to de-stress or do they just add to the stresses of everyday life?