Yesterday I made a new fabulous Eat Clean recipe--Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting!!

Wholly crap--is that CLEAN?!  Why yes, yes it is, and I will share the recipe at the end of this post!

I brought them with me today when I went with my team at work, to volunteer with The Gleaners, a company which takes all sorts of fruits and vegetables which are perfectly edible, but not "perfect" looking--therefore people don't want them for some reason--and they're used to make soup for people who don't have enough food, all over the world!

All we had to do is trim anything that we wouldn't eat ourselves, and chop them into chunks (the stuff we trim off is fed to livestock--nothing is wasted).  Then all the chunks are gathered together, send through a chipper, then dehydrated in the world's biggest dehydrator, and packed into barrels. 

Then once there are many barrels of different kinds of veggies, they're all gathered together in a kind of assembly line with big bins, and you take a bag and scoop one scoop of each item into the bag.  The bag is then vacuum-packed, and many bags are packed into suitable--and useful--containers, to be shipped.  The containers themselves are used by the people who benefit from the dried soup ingredients:  They use them for carrying water, as containers for beans and rice, as drums at worship services, wash basins...it's very ingenious!  Think about it--some refugee camps you don't know when the water will be turned on.  If you don't have something to carry a decent amount of water in, when the water is finally turned on...what do you do?  You need water to live.

The Gleaners also make mats to sleep on from used milk bags, and send things like Tim Horton's lids to other countries where women make them into beads and then into surprisingly lovely jewelery, and thus support their families.  How cool is that?!

On the cupcake note!

The cupcakes went over really, REALLY well!

The texture of the icing was amazing.  I was worried that it would be thin and not at all like unhealthy icing, but it was actually quite thick, despite the fact that it had no icing sugar in it whatsoever. 

They were also really popular with my co-workers.  I didn't tell them that the cupcakes were actually healthy until after they'd had one, other than one girl who demurred taking one because "they'll make me fat", until I said, "I made them" with a look.  Then she took one! lol

I just love making healthy foods that people are sure are unhealthy, and telling them afterward!  I had someone today say, "These CAN'T be healthy" about the cupcakes, and they were incredulous to the point where they wanted to know what went into them!  LOL!!

They were light and airy and sweet and totally unique.  I can definitely see making them again, and I heartily endorse YOU making them too!  In fact, why not make them this weekend? 

How about making them for Father's Day?  Are you going to a BBQ with friends?  Getting together with the girls for coffee?  I guarantee they'll go over GREAT, and they're guilt-free!

Note in the pic on the right that there are a lot more junky sweats left than my cupcakes?  HAHA!

The recipe comes from the Eat Clean Vegetarian Cookbook

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

YIELD: 10 cupcakes

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 27-30 minutes

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Details

This classic combo tastes great on a sandwich, but in cupcakes? Even better! Best of all, these ones from The Eat-Clean Diet Vegetarian Cookbook are guilt free and they double as a muffin! Learn more in the tip below.


Ingredients

• 1¼ cups / 300 ml whole wheat pastry flour

• 2 Tbsp / 30 ml finely ground potato flour (corn starch can be subbed if you can find potato flour/starch)

• 2 Tbsp / 30 ml flax meal or ground flax seed

• ½ tsp / 2.5 ml baking soda

• ¼ tsp / 1.25 ml baking powder

• ¼ tsp / 1.25 ml sea salt

• 3 Tbsp / 45 ml virgin coconut oil, melted

• ¼ cup / 60 ml Sucanat or other unrefined sugar

• ¾ cup / 180 ml low-fat milk or plain, unsweetened soy or almond milk (I used almond milk)

• 1 cup / 240 ml mashed very ripe bananas, about 3 large


Peanut Butter Yogurt Frosting

• ¼ cup / 60 ml all-natural peanut butter, sugar and salt free

• ½ cup / 120 ml Yogurt Cheese*

• 2 Tbsp / 30 ml pure honey

• ½ tsp / 2.5 ml pure vanilla extract

*NOTE:Yogurt Cheese must be made ahead of time.

Preparation

1.Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a muffin tin with 10 paper liners.

2.In a bowl, mix together whole wheat flour, potato flour, flax meal, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, mix together coconut oil and Sucanat. Add flour mixture and mix together until texture resembles slightly wet sand. Slowly stir in milk. Fold in bananas until just combined. Batter will be thick. Scoop a heaping ¼ cup (60 ml) batter into each lined muffin cup until all batter is used. Bake 27 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

3.To make frosting, mix together peanut butter, Yogurt Cheese, honey and vanilla extract until well combined. Frost tops of cooled cupcakes.

Tosca's Tip

Basically, the only difference between a muffin and a cupcake is the frosting, so if you want to skip the topper – go ahead! Your cupcakes will become delicious and healthy banana muffins. These cupcakes will keep in the refrigerator up to five days.

And guess what?  There's even a father's day contest!  Check it out:

http://www.eatcleandiet.com/contests/?id=42

Good luck!  And MAKE THESE CUPCAKES!!!