Finally, a food-packed gluten-free AND nut-free muffin. If you grind the pumpkin seeds roughly/incompletely, you get some nice bits of crunch and texture. These can also be made as banana chocolate chip muffins, by subbing cardamom for the ginger, using 4 bananas, and leaving out/reducing the pumpkin and applesauce. (You might also want to finely grind the pumpkin seeds in this case.) You can of course leave out the chocolate, but they do help get muffins get into little bellies. Make a big batch, and put them in the freezer for packing in lunch boxes.

Ingredients
  • 2 cup all purpose gluten-free flour mix (I like Arrowhead Mills Organic Heritage Blend, or Pamela’s Artisan Blend)
  • 1 cup buckwheat flour
  • 2 T chia seeds, finely ground
  • 2 T flax seeds, finely ground
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds, roughly ground
  • 2 t baking soda
  • 1 t cream of tartar
  • 1/2+ t salt
  • 3/4 t or more each of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger
  • 3/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 4-5 eggs
  • 1 can/1.5 cups roasted squash or pumpkin
  • 1-2 ripe bananas
  • 1/2-1 cup applesauce (depending on number of bananas)
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 1 T molasses
  • 1 stick of butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions
  • Preheat oven to 365F
  • Prepare muffin tins
  • Melt butter and set aside
  • In a blender, beat together remaining wet ingredients on low
  • Grind chia/flaxseeds in a coffee mill with a few pulsing whirls
  • Grind pumpkin seeds in coffee mill to desired texture (doing this step second helps to clean out the flax, which may stick)
  • Sift/whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl
  • Combine wet and dry ingredients
  • Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes, while chia and flax soak up excess liquid in the batter
  • Fold in the butter and then chocolate chips
  • Spoon batter into prepared tins
  • Bake for around 30 minutes, or until tester comes out clean
  • Cool on a rack, and eat, or freeze in zip-locks

Makes two dozen muffins. If you have extra batter, mini loaf pans are a great solution!
Hint: Allow frozen muffins to thaw at room temp before serving. Pop one in a lunchbox in the morning, and it will be ready for snack-time!