Chia Rhubarb & Apricot Muffins

 

Sadly Agatha, my orange mixer, is currently broken. :(
But luckily my mechanical engineer has promised to fix it.
In the meantime I've had to tone down my methods so this weekend I made some muffins that I could mix up by hand. And since it's rhubarb season I've been dying to make some more goodies with it. My mom introduced me to it a few years ago. Last year for mother's day I made her these Rhubarb Berry Muffins.

Now I'm back for a different type of muffin that lends itself a little more to the healty kind. It is sweetened with syrup not sugar, contains no egg, and very little oil and has some oats thrown in. I'm diggin this one!

Chia Rhubarb & Apricot Muffins:

makes 12 muffins

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs chia seeds
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup maple syrup
 2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup rhubarb; chopped
1/3 cup dried apricots; chopped

1   combine chia seeds and water in a glass and let sit 15 minutes
this will make it more gelatinous and therefore easier to digest and get all its
good nutrients and protein into your body
2   preheat oven 350 degrees F
3   in a large bowl stir together flour, oats, powder, soda and salt : whisk together
4   in another bowl mix gelatinous chia seeds, maple syrup, oil, orange juice and vanilla together well
5   pour the liquids bowl into the flour mixture and stir together only until incorporated, don't overstir
6   then fold in the rhubarb and apricot bits
7   divide evenly between muffin cups, these don't rise very much so fill them to the top
8   bake for 27-35 minutes, pull out and allow to cool

Also did you know 1 tbs chia seeds + 3 tbs of water, sit for 15 minutes = 1 egg! so excited to know this so next time I forget to count my eggs for baking I can just make my own.

Found this info on chia seeds on the web too, I'm starting to love how easy they are to throw in things like breads, yogurt, smoothies, muffins. Especially since I don't cook much meat I love the protein they have.

This website said

Chia seeds are said to have:

2 times the protein of any other seed or grain,
5 times the calcium of milk, plus boron which is a trace mineral that helps transfer calcium into your bones,
2 times the amount of potassium as bananas,
3 times the reported antioxidant strength of blueberries
3 times more iron than spinach
copious amounts of omega-3 and omega-6, which are essential fatty acids