Reversing Glaucoma by Going Whole Food Plant Based. Bettyanne Does It! + Pumpkin Spice Muffins
By Molly Patrick
Dec 23, 2017,
We have about a week left of 2017 and I couldn’t imagine a better way to round out this year than with today’s video.
Here’s the deal. Let’s say you know that diabetes runs in your family and you’ve been hovering at that pre-diabetes line, worried that it will cross over into official type 2 diabetes land at some point, you just don’t know when. And this sucks because you want nothing to do with any type of diabetes! Maybe you talk to your doctor and they advise you to keep eating meat, fish and dairy but limit carbs and sugar. So you do this diligently but your metabolic markers continue to trend towards the big type 2.
What do you do?
Well, if you’re Dirty Girl Bettyanne Taylor, you listen to your son, you set out to learn more, and then jump in with both feet wearing scuba gear.
Then, you kick ass eating a whole food plant based diet and see those metabolic markers finally respond in the direction you want them to go. But that’s not all. You then realize that a whole lot of other health issues you’ve suffered from like glaucoma reversing itself and your entire quality of life changes.
And, after that? You share your story to help others.
When Bettyanne posted her story about reversing glaucoma and type 2 diabetes in our private Facebook group, she received an overwhelming response asking for permission from members to share her story with their loved ones. I knew I had to sit down with her and chat about her journey.
And that’s what we did! By the end of our chat, I wanted to book a ticket to North Carolina just so I could hug her. Just wait, you will be just as smitten.
Now that Bettyanne’s story has you all warm and fuzzy, check out this week’s recipe for whole food plant based Pumpkin Spice Muffins!
And if you want in on the whole food plant based meal plans that Bettyanne follows, check them out here and take a free test drive.
Ingredients
- 4 large pitted dates, soaked in super hot water for 10 minutes
- 1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (235ml)
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 ½ cups regular rolled oats (250g)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ginger powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons date soaking water
- 1 cup 100% pure pumpkin puree (240g)
- ¼ cup 100% pure maple syrup (60ml)
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seed butter (or any other nut or seed butter)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup chopped pecans (50g)
- ½ cup raisins (75g)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line your muffin tin with liners.
- Add the non-dairy milk and the apple cider vinegar to a small mixing bowl. Mix and set aside for now.
- Place the oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ground nutmeg, ginger, ground cloves and salt in your blender and process into a powder. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. (no need to wash your blender)
- Place 2 tablespoons of the date soaking water in your blender and then discard the rest of the soaking water. Add the dates to the blender, along with the non-dairy milk / vinegar mixture, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, seed or nut butter, and vanilla. Blend until smooth.
- Transfer the liquid mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients and gently mix (don’t over mix or your muffins will get hard). Fold in the chopped pecans and raisins.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin liners, filling them to the very top of the liners.
- Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before storing.
Wishing you a happy week. May it be filled with spreading the love of plants.
Xo
Molly
25 Comments
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Love this, you’re both a massive inspiration. Thank-you for sharing!
You are most welcome Emma!
Thank you for watching and getting inspired.
xo
Molly
Wow! These are really amazing muffins. As a passionate lover of muffins, this recipe is a must try for me, Molly. Can I use agave syrup instead of maple syrup?
You can use whatever type of sweetener you like to use.
xo
Molly
Just made these and they are amazing!
Recipe looks great! Could I use steel cut oats in stead of rolled oats?
Thanks,
Vanessa
Hi Vanessa,
You could try them but I’m thinking steel cut oats won’t be a soft chew with this recipe if they aren’t soaked first…the cook time isn’t very long. You could try them. They would probably work if you pulverize them in a food processor or high-speed blender before adding to the recipe because the smaller granule will cook faster. Rolled oats cook faster because they are flatter and have more surface area (which is what pulverizing steel cut oats would do).
Karen
Team Dirty Girl
For those of us in the UK, what can we sub for the pumpkin puree please? xx
Hi Zoe!
I think using either cooked winter squash (butternut would be good) or cooked sweet potato would work here as a sub for pumpkin.
Karen
Team Dirty Girl
A former roommate once made a pie with about half and half butternut and sweet potato. I could not tell the difference from pumpkin.
These are fabulous!! Made them today, using 2 1/4 cups oat flour instead of ground oats, and baked, mashed sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin. Needed about 10 min extra baking time (until toothpick test showed dry, total bake time 30 min – could be my oven). Great texture, really hit the spot! Thanks so much!
I’m currently out of dates (mainly because I pitted them, filled them with crunchy peanut butter, and dipped them in uber dark chocolate and froze them!) So while I wait for more dates…I’d like to make these. Any thoughts on the amount of date paste I could sub for the dates? I’m thinking maybe 1/4-1/3 cup? Thoughts?
Hi Katie, Those stuffed dates are so darn good, I completely understand. Looking at this recipe, I think of large dates as medjool dates. I use deglets, which are smaller. I would probably use 7-8 deglets for this recipe and so I think 1/3 cup would be perfect and that 1/4 cup might be a little small. Let us know if you try it with the date paste and how they turn out. ~Karen
They turned out fantastic with the date paste! I used 1/3 c as you suggested. I also used coconut nectar instead of maple syrup and struggled to measure correctly so ended up with closer to 1/3 cup of that but these are definitely not too sweet. Thanks for the help!
Oh yay!! I’m sure this will be helpful to someone else down the road who has devoured their stash of dates. I’ve never tried coconut nectar, I’ll have to look for that. Thanks for sharing, Katie! ~Karen
These are GOOD! First time making them but they will be regulars. I doubled the recipe and made half without pecans and raisins (kids ?) and half with and they are definitely better with, although the kids are scarfing the ones without. I also subbed white beans for the nut butter (I only had peanut butter and I wasn’t sure that would work). I had smaller dates so I just went with 1/3 cup per recipe and that worked.
Hi Liza! Thanks for sharing your modifications – the recipe is forgiving. Thumbs up that the kids approve too! ~Karen
These look amazing! I would love to make for my son’s class but can’t use nut butter. Any substitutions you can think of? Thanks in advance!
I should have added that I don’t have sunbutter because we didn’t really like it and I wouldn’t want to buy it just for this unless I had to. Thanks again. ?
Hi Lauren,
Sunflower seed butter would be the recommended option. Sunflower seeds are an ingredient we use in our Meal Plans (usually soaked and blended into sauces or dressings). Up until about a year ago, I had never had plain sunflower seed butter. My niece made me a tortilla rolled with a thin layer of it and fresh strawberries. It was a new and distinct flavor to me, but I thought it was pretty good. I bought a jar and ended up using it in smoothies and as a substitute for actual sunflower seeds in our recipes. When you integrate it in a recipe like these muffins, you most likely will not notice the unique flavor of sunflower seeds.
If there are no sesame allergies, tahini could work too. Tahini is thinner than sunflower seed butter, though, so I’m not sure if using it will make a difference for the texture of the finished muffin.
Another person in the comments says they used white beans in place of the sunflower seed better and that worked. White beans would be the safest if there is a person with a known allergy because manufacturers that process seeds often process nuts; so, there is the potential for cross-contamination unless the product is certified free of a specific allergen. There are other non-nut butters out there – pumpkin seed butter, for instance. Some of them use legumes like garbanzo (chickpea) or peas. These products tend to have stabilizers and added oils, though, so fall into the more highly processed category. Thanks for stopping by! ~Karen
Sweet potato works well, instead of pumpkin purée and I leave out the raisins as they spike blood sugar
I only had peanut butter so I just pulverized sunflower seeds with the wet ingredients. They turned out great! Thank you for the recipe!! I love every recipe I’ve tried!
Way to make it work for you, Sandy! ~Karen
Yes, Bettyanne is such a sweetheart! I’m 61, with all of her health problems, and some others, and I’m in the process of transitioning to WFPB. She’s such an inspiration, as are you! Thanks!
I just took my first bite, and these are delicious! (I had to dig deep to offer my husband a bite as he passed by. 😆) I don’t know how you put these amazing recipes together, but I’m so thankful that you do! Btw, peanut butter was my only option, so I ended up using it. Turned out great! Can’t even taste it with all of the other flavors. Thank you for sharing!