Generally, when we think of baked goods, we picture cakes and cookies high in calories and fats that not only add inches to our waistline but aren’t serving our health in a good way overall. However, baked goods can actually be healthy if you are careful what ingredients you include and measure properly (1)! While most bread, cookies, cakes, and muffins are filled with highly inflammatory ingredients like refined sugars, processed wheat, and vegetable oils like canola or the “healthier” options like safflower, here is a recipe you can follow that will result in delicious baked goods that will work to heal your body instead of instigating disease (1, 2).

While sugar and processed flour aren’t the best ingredients for your body to be fueled on, there are many vegetables, milk, and spices that are amazingly beneficial for your body!

Healthy Dessert Recipe To Support Proper Inflammatory Response

Sweet potatoes are an amazingly nutritious food, packed full of antioxidants such as beta-carotene, which can help your body fight oxidative stresses, cancer, and even inflammation (1, 3). Additionally, they are filled with vitamins C, E, and D, as well as helpful minerals such as manganese and iron (1).

Additionally, coconut milk contains high levels of healthy medium-chain fatty acids, and these greatly improve your metabolism which in turn helps support weight loss. As though that weren’t enough, it is also rich in wonderful nutrients necessary for a healthy body. Vitamins C, E, and B-complex, as well as iron, selenium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, are all hearty aspects of coconut milk, all of which work together to provide your bones with strength (1, 4).

Coconut flour is also a wonderful ingredient, and this is an excellent substitute for regular flour (1). Naturally sweet and perfect for use by diabetics, this flour works to support a healthy intestinal tract and helps lower cholesterol (1).

Lastly, both ginger and turmeric are known to be inflammation-reducing ingredients, and they also help protect your body against many diseases, naturally, fight bacteria, help prevent viruses, and even serve to reduce cancer risk (1, 5, 6). They have both proven to be just as effective as pharmaceutical drugs to fight pain-related inflammation (1).

So why don’t you give it a shot? Check out the recipe below and make some disease-fighting, inflammation-reducing muffins!

Homemade Delicious Plant-Based Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 small organic sweet potato, roasted (should be about 1 cup, packed)
• 3 tbsp. Ground flaxseed in ½ cup of water (let the flaxseed sit in water for 10 minutes; this substitutes your egg)
• ¾ cup organic coconut milk
• 2 tbsp. organic olive oil
• ½ cup pure maple syrup or unpasteurized honey
• 1 cup organic brown rice flour
• ¼ cup organic coconut flour
• 1 tbsp. Aluminum-free baking powder
• ½ tsp. Himalayan salt
• 1 tbsp. Ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ⅛ tsp ground cloves
• ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Use a skewer to make a dozen or more holes in your sweet potato skin, then cook it on a baking tray for an hour, or until soft.
3. Allow potato to cool, and then cut it in half and scoop out the insides into a large bowl. Add the flaxseed, coconut milk, olive oil, and maple syrup. Combine until smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients, then add these to the potato mixture and stir until properly combined.
5. Oil your muffin tray thoroughly with coconut oil, then pour the batter evenly into the muffin tray so that each one is approximately ⅔ full.
6. Cook for 30-35 minutes.

Enjoy!