Is there anything better on a hot summer morning than a refreshing smoothie bowl, lightly sweetened and cold and creamy with the perfect toppings?  I agree, nothing better.  This smoothie bowl has been my go-to for the past few months and I just can’t get enough.

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Don’t worry, I have not suddenly gone paleo and eliminated all of the grains from my diet.  I am Italian, after all.  However, I have recently really developed an affinity for grain-free baking!  And not because I have issues with grains, but because a muffin made with almond flour and coconut flour is so much higher in nutrition than a muffin or cookie made with wheat flour, and especially refined white flour. Making a muffin that is made with a base of almond flour and coconut flour means that it is filled with healthy fat, protein, and fiber, amongst other things, which wheat flour couldn’t hold a flame to.

Another major bonus with grain-free baking is that the muffins maintain their taste and texture much longer than a regular muffin.  I have kept these muffins and other grain-free baked goods in the refrigerator for days and they stay perfectly light and fluffy with a nice moist crumb.  And to be honest, when I make regular muffins, no one has too much interest after the first day.

In my classes, I often times will encourage my students to adapt recipes they love- swapping in and out different ingredients and spices to mix it up a bit.  However, I have found myself discouraging them slightly from playing around with swapping out grain-free flours for standard grain flours, because it is not so cut and dry.  For example, if you were to take a basic muffin recipe and swap the white flour for coconut flour, you would end up with a complete disaster.  And that is no good because not only do you have a failed muffin batter on your hands, but grain-free flours are much pricier than others, so I don’t want anyone to be wasting expensive ingredients.

However, this is a great base recipe that you can tweak and add different flavors to come up with all sorts of combinations.  For example, you could add in fresh blueberries for a blueberry lemon muffin.  The poppy seeds here are really just for fun, although I do love the bit of texture that they lend, but if you do not have them on hand or don’t want to buy them, the muffins will still be delicious without.  Or, how about omitting the lemon and poppyseed and adding some cinnamon, nutmeg, and diced apple?  Anything really goes here as long as you are keeping the same ratio of flours, eggs, and fat.

I’m going to make these for my nieces and nephews this week while I am on Long Island.  I think they will love them.  My kids and husband did as well and now that it’s August (yikes!), I may want to consider a back-to-school plan and make some muffins to freeze for later.  Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves though.  I’m just trying to get through this week!