Healthyish is, as far as I’m concerned, the best way to do healthy. Take these muffins, for example. Sure, they’re made with butter and sugar, but they’re also full of quinoa and walnuts, which makes them “healthy neutral”. It’s like in Downward Dog when you draw the greater trochanters back, and then you draw the lesser trochanters back, and you create this dynamic balance that brings the pose to life. This play of opposing forces is totally unique to each body and each practitioner, and can only be understood through direct experience.
You should know I have A LOT to say about this, but for now I’m staying on point because I’m sure you want to get to the recipe. I’ll just leave you with one thought: nothing is fixed—not health, not alignment, not even the truth we’ve come to understand. We’re in a constantly evolving relationship with everything. It’s an ongoing conversation, one we must engage in with an open heart and a flexible mind.
Now to the recipe. By the way, these muffins are the best thing to happen to those sad looking bananas on your kitchen counter. Preheat your oven to 350 and let’s get baking.
Banana Walnut Quinoa Muffins
makes 12 muffins
1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange zest (approximately the zest of one orange)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup cooked quinoa
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter your muffin pan (I ran a paper towel through the empty bowl I used to melt the butter and then smeared that all over my muffin pan).
Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
Mash the bananas really well with a fork.
Mix the melted butter and sugar on high speed for a couple of minutes. Add the eggs and mix until well combined. Add the mashed bananas, vanilla, and orange zest.
Turn your mixer to low. Slowly add in the dry ingredients until just combined. Add the chopped walnuts and quinoa. Mix until combined.
Bake for 25 minutes. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then run a knife around the edges of the muffins and carefully remove them from the pan. Cool the muffins completely on a wire rack.
I flash froze these beauties by placing them on a baking sheet so they could freeze separately. This way I can throw them all into a ziplock back and they won’t stick together; I can take out what I need without needing to defrost the entire batch. They make a great snack. The quinoa adds protein and the walnuts offer some healthy fat. The butter? Well, it makes everything better (duh). And that, my friends, is healthyish.
