I think I mentioned in a post last year that 5 years ago I was diagnosed with an Autoimmune disease and told it's most likely Rheumatoid Arthritis. My gut never fully accepted this diagnosis but I went on the meds anyway. After a couple of years, I had the biggest flare-up of my life. It was hard to get out of bed and even walk to the bathroom. It was awful. At the beginning of this year, I had some issues with the medications at my pharmacy and it meant I was going to be off the meds for at least 3 weeks. So, since I had already cut down to one dose a day a few months previous and had improved a lot, I decided to just go off of it and see what happens.
Well, my pain and swelling went down. Not completely, but significantly. I was doing yoga again, lifting weights, and walking more. My muscles seemed to be stronger and I had a better range of motion everywhere. As a former dancer, the most exciting thing for me was being able to go on relevé for the first time in over 2 years. Then, about 30-45 days after I stopped taking it I had a flare up of my IBS, eczema, my face broke out all over (I am 42), my body odor changed, and most importantly...my anxiety flared beyond anything I have ever experienced. However, my pain and swelling remained low to almost non-existent. I knew I was doing the right thing and felt (especially when my face broke out) that my body was trying to rid itself of toxins from the medication. Six weeks later and I am finally feeling like I am coming through it. I had to do some diet clean up and started meditating. I did more and more research on anxiety and panic attacks. Breathing exercises, meditation, mantras, yoga for anxiety, staying away from certain foods, and watching happy and silly movies and shows (avoiding the stressful ones and no news watching) are all things I discovered helped. I have a long way to go, but the turtle wins the race, right? Luckily my IBS has calmed down a ton, my face has cleared up, and my body odor has returned to normal. Even my eczema I have on my scalp has cleared up almost completely. I could go into everything I am doing, but that wasn't the point of this post.
In the midst of all of this, I aimed at cleaning my diet even more. With stomach issues, I am always looking for cleaner ways of eating. That usually means I need to make my own food. I can't tell you how hard it is to find Gluten Free Vegan bread products that don't have nightshades or chemical crap. Just finding GF Vegan bread, in general, is difficult. So, I started trying recipes. I haven't found a regular sandwich bread, but I found this (sort of) sweeter bread recipe that I kept adapting and tweaking until it was all my own recipe. I have never created my own recipe. Surprisingly, all the trials were edible but I wanted to make it perfect. It took a couple of weeks but I finally did it!
Now, I was looking to gain some weight when I created this recipe and was focusing more on nutritional value than low in calories. In the few weeks that my anxiety was the worst, I lost about 5 pounds because my stomach hurt so much I couldn't eat real food. I got to a weight I was not comfortable being at when I knew it wasn't because I was doing healthy things like working out and eating clean. This recipe uses almond flour and avocado oil so it adds a significant amount of calories to the servings. But it tastes so good! I have never made a gluten-free vegan bread that is soft, fluffy, and tasty like this one. It could probably be scooped into a muffin tin as well. Try it and let me know what you think. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I do have a real camera now, so hopefully, I can remember to take some decent pictures!
GLUTEN FREE VEGAN ALMOND MUFFIN BREAD
- 1/2 cup white rice flour
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1/3 cup arrowroot starch
- 2 T + 2 teaspoons of tapioca starch/flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour (not almond meal)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup avocado oil
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax seed, plus 3 tablespoons water)
- 3/4 cup almond milk (or non-dairy milk of choice)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375*.
2. In a small bowl, combine the ground flax seed and water. Set aside.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine/whisk all of the dry ingredients and set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients, adding the flax egg last.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. It will start to get a little fluffy. You don't want to get rid of the air bubbles so don't over mix. (I use a smaller rubber spatula to make it easy)
6. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased medium sized loaf pan. Be careful not to press down too much and don't bang the pan on the counter. You want to keep the fluff.
7. Bake for 50-55 min. Let cool 10-15 minutes before removing from pan.
For 10 servings per loaf:
| Amount Per Serving | |
| calories 236 | |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Total Fat 15 g | 23 % |
| Saturated Fat 2 g | 8 % |
| Monounsaturated Fat 10 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat 2 g | |
| Trans Fat 0 g | |
| Cholesterol 0 mg | 0 % |
| Sodium 133 mg | 6 % |
| Potassium 76 mg | 2 % |
| Total Carbohydrate 24 g | 8 % |
| Dietary Fiber 2 g | 7 % |
| Sugars 7 g | |
| Protein 2 g | 5 % |
| Vitamin A | 1 % |
| Vitamin C | 0 % |
| Calcium | 6 % |
| Iron | 3 % |
This bread would also be tasty as a breakfast bread. You could add a touch of cinnamon to the recipe or even do a brown sugar crumble on top. Blueberries might even be a wonderful addition as this is sort of a muffin texture. Try some things and let me know how it goes!
Now that I am starting to feel a little better and I am now working from home full time (therefore have more time since I don't have to sit in traffic) I hope to get more posts. It seems that health and recipes seem to be the most viewed posts. Let me know if there is anything else you are interested in. I do have some makeup posts I want to get done.
Cheers and happy baking!
***notes: You can sub oat or buckwheat flour for almond flour but you won't get the same texture. You can sub a regular GF flour blend for the white rice, brown rice, tapioca, and arrowroot but omit xanthan gum if the blend includes it. Coconut oil can also be used in place of the avocado oil, but I prefer the flavor of the avocado oil.
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*****UPDATED: Be sure to use dark maple syrup. I tried using the light maple syrup (the only difference) and it didn't rise as well. I went back to the Grade A Amber and it came out perfect again.
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*****UPDATED: Be sure to use dark maple syrup. I tried using the light maple syrup (the only difference) and it didn't rise as well. I went back to the Grade A Amber and it came out perfect again.
