Healthy Whole Wheat Raisin Bran Muffins

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Yesterday I decided to do another super cleaning of my house. I always feel so lazy about it at first, but once I get going it feels so good to de-clutter and create a nice clean and peaceful living environment. It helps me to be more mindful too and I think of de-cluttering as a reflection of my life and letting go of attachments to things, either physically or emotionally. Clearing out things from my life helps me to let go of the past and be more present, if that makes any sense. Cleaning can be a great tool for practicing mindfulness if you think of it in that way. I love bringing mindfulness to everything that I do, even when I am washing the dishes.

I have been having so many ups and downs the last few days and to top it off, I have been hard on myself about it. Everyone tells me it is just the pregnancy and I know that is true but I still wish I had more control over my emotions. Damn hormones! I cried like a big baby yesterday, feeling sorry for the fact that I am getting bigger, more tired and less able to do all of the things that I want to do. I guess being the perfectionist that I am I just hate to admit to myself that I am not superwoman and that I can’t do everything. It makes me so frustrated because I so badly want to be doing things all the time, like baking, cooking, cleaning and spending time with the girls, but I am realizing that I also need to balance that with rest. I know that nothing lasts forever though and in just 7 more weeks and this will all be but a memory.

After the super cleaning, I allowed myself to take a short nap and then it was on to baking muffins. I really like to have healthy snacks on hand, especially because hunger seems to strike from out of nowhere lately and when I need food, I need it NOW. I have been eating a lot of fruit and whole wheat, sugar-free muffins lately when I am hungry for a snack. This recipe is one of my favorites and gives me the lasting baby-growing energy that I need. Even if you are not growing a life, these will no doubt leave you feeling great.

Healthy Whole Wheat Raisin Bran Muffins

These make a nice hearty muffin filled with wholesome ingredients. I used to love buying muffins from the store, but always found them too sweet. I made these muffins sugar-free, swapping refined white sugar for pure maple syrup and black strap molasses and they are vegan of course.

Makes 24 muffins

Ingredients

  • 2 1/3 cups wheat bran
  • 2 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 1/2 cups raisins
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup black strap molasses
  • 3/4 cup sunflower oil
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two muffin pans with 24 paper baking cups.
  2. Combine the bran, flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add the raisins.
  3. In a separate small mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, maple syrup, molasses, sunflower oil, applesauce and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the large mixing bowl along with the dry ingredients and lightly mix until just combined.
  4. Spoon the muffin batter into the baking cups, filling them each 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Muffins are ready when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I think I am going to take some advice from the quote section of this blog and possibly tape this up some place that I will see it often.

“You can do anything, but not everything.”~David Allen

This is especially true for this time in my life. I am just so thankful that I have such a supportive husband who tries hard to understand me and gives me the advice that I need. REST. I know that I will make it through this. 🙂

20 thoughts on “Healthy Whole Wheat Raisin Bran Muffins”

  3. Pingback: Weekly Meal Plan and Food Preparation | Live. Learn. Love. Eat.

  5. Look fab but that’s a lot of bran (2 1/3 cups – same as flour), even before counting the fibre in the flour itself.
    How did they go down in your household? Or is that a silly question….
    Would they work as a loaf do you think?
    Tempted to make.
    Love your beautiful site and beautiful kids and, of course, beautiful bakes,
    Keep posting. You keep me happy when blue.
    Helen

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    • Hi Helen! It’s funny that you commented on this recipe because I actually am working on a new one at the moment with shredded apple and carrot and another one that I was trying with mashed bananas so I’m hoping to post one of those soon. Anyway, I followed the template of this recipe with the same ratio of flour to bran and it does work out even though I suppose it is a lot of fibre. We enjoy this recipe and the other recipes that I have currently made. If you are worried about the fibre amount you can always use white flour instead and just add the bran for fibre in this recipe. I may also reduce the bran amount in the new recipe to make it less dense. But white flour would do that as well. 😊 thank you for your kind words about my sight! And I don’t see why you couldn’t make it into a loaf. The baking time would just be more around 40 minutes I’m thinking. Just have to check on it often around the 35 to 40 minute range.

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      • Thank you for writing. I’ll be keeping an eye out for your new recipe.
        On reflection…..it isn’t as much bran as I originally imagined I don’t think. I’m in the UK and here we work in grams. I’m unfamiliar with cup measures. I’ve realised since writing that bran is a lot less dense than flour. So, by weight, it’s not the same ‘amount’ of bran as flour at all. I’m going to try this recipe out someday. I love your bakes.
        Hugs, Helen

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          • Hi again
            If I decide to try a loaf, should I use full quantities? I have a 9×5 loaf pan. A recipe for 24 muffins sound like a lot.

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            • Good question! Here’s what I can suggest. Because I haven’t exactly tested that out yet, what you could do is mix up the whole batch and then fill your loaf pan only about two-thirds of the way or three-quarters of the way full. And if there’s leftover batter you can make those into muffins if you have a muffin pan. I am assuming as well that it would be a little bit too much but not that much left over.

              You’ve intrigued me though with the idea of this being a loaf. I think I’ll even try it out myself when I get around to it in the next couple of days or so. Right now I’m out of maple syrup. So do report back if you give it a try before I do. If I get around to making it I will comment back here. 🙂

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              • Thank you again for your time.
                It does look more than a loaf as you say. It looks like around 1.5 loaves.
                I don’t have a muffin pan (which is why I like loaves!) but I do have a small loaf pan (400g) as well as the larger one (800g) I’ll do as you say and put ‘overflow’ into the smaller loaf pan.
                I can assure you that I will make a complete mess of it the first time as I’m a novice and certainly not brave enough to comment on my results for sure.
                I’ll be watching carefully for yours.
                You’re recipes are amazing. I don’t know how you come up with all this as well as managing a family.
                Love Helen xx

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          • Bran again.
            I’ve weighed things out. A cup of whole meal flour is 120g and a cup of bran is 60g so it isn’t nearly as much bran as I had thought. I’ll be baking someday soon.
            Love Helen

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  6. Pingback: Bran Loaf Two Ways | Live. Learn. Love. Eat.

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