Healthy Orange Cranberry Muffins

For my family, Sundays are a day to eat a good breakfast.  This is the day that we often made gravy and biscuits and feasted.  We made things that stuck to your ribs for the entire afternoon.  But, at the same time, it was a great meal for a lazy day because you felt like doing nothing afterwards.  I do like to have some vegan gravy and biscuits from time to time, but this Sunday morning, I wanted something good, hot, and healthy.

Enter in my mom's Orange Cranberry Muffins.  These are a favorite of mine.  I wanted to take her recipe and even though she would replace the egg in it for me, I knew there were other things that I could make healthier in it. 

I used milled flax seeds to replace the egg, part wheat flour and part white flour, apple sauce instead of oil, and lastly, I used agave nectar instead of sugar.  All of these things make it a lot healthier!

I almost added pistachios instead of my normal pecans to the muffin, but I know my mom really loves pecans.  I wanted to give her a better version of her recipe that was still delicious.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. milled flax seeds (if you have the packets that I used in the quinoa recipe, just one of those
           packets is perfect)
3 Tbsp water
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. pecans or other nut (optional)
3/4 c. apple sauce
3/4 c. agave nectar
zest of 1-2 oranges (I recommend at least 1 1/2 oranges)
3/4 c. fresh orange juice

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Grease your muffin sheet (this will either make 12 regular sized muffins or 6 giant muffins).
3. Mix together the milled flax seeds and the water in a small bowl.  Set to the side to let the mixture get gooey (technical term, promise).
4. Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
5. Add the cranberries and pecans to the dry ingredients.
6. Add together the apple sauce, agave nectar, zest, orange juice, and flax mixture in a large bowl. 
7. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
8. Fill the muffin tins.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until done.
10. Grab a saucer and chow down.

For this recipe, if you want, you can use all whole wheat flour.  If you do this, be sure to use whole wheat pastry flour so the muffins are not too dense and still a good, fluffy muffin.  Enjoy!