GFL’s Top 10 Lunchbox Snack Recipes

It’s been a while between blog posts for me. I’ve had a disrupted couple of weeks as the school term has finished and kids have started holidays and I’ve also had a few health issues which have meant I’ve had to slow down a bit. There’s a couple of recipes in the works, but I’ve taken a bit of time out to throw my feet up and watch some old episodes of ER and the West Wing.

Damn, after all these years they still make superb viewing!

Anyway, it occurred to me that many of you may not want to spend time sifting through my blog to find the perfect recipes for you or your kids, so here’s a little summary of the recipes that I think are my 10 best for lunchbox snacks (or recess time, as we in Australia tend to call it).

The most popular recipes seem to contain chocolate. Fancy that! But the good news is that most of them are low in sugar, too. Best of both worlds!

And without further ado …

Gluten-free Recipe: Basic Banana Muffins

This is a bit of a hit ‘n’ run post as there’s a few things in the works, mainly the inaugural Gluten-Free Expo in Adelaide this weekend. I’m doing two cooking demonstrations and guest speaking so there’s a bit to organise, but I’m excited to have this opportunity and I’ll be blogging about it next week.

Thankfully, the kids are back at school after 2 weeks of holidays – phew! We all needed the break, but the July holidays are always the most difficult – deep winter means there’s not much opportunity to get outside. We spent a few days in Port Elliot on South Australia’s beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula. It was great to get away, but the cold winds coming off the ocean were something else! It was a good excuse to keep the heaters on.

This recipe is a variation of my Banana Choc Muffin recipe, which my kids absolutely love. It’s great to have a basic banana muffin recipe, though. You can muck around with the flavours by adding coconut, apricot, berries, or basically whatever tickles your fancy.

I love cooking with banana – it’s a bit of a wonder ingredient in gluten-free baking. Not only does it add loads of moisture to your baked goods, it also gives cakes and muffins a really strong and springy texture. If you’re tired of dry and crumbly cakes and muffins, add some banana and marvel at the improvement!

I don’t know why this is so, but this post by Gluten-free Girl suggests that bananas (and green ones in particular) are high in starch. Given that starch is so important in gluten-free baking, maybe that’s why.

Gluten-free Girl’s post has fuelled my interest in banana flour and its possibilities and I can’t wait to get my hands on some. Stay tuned for some recipes!

I cook big batches of these muffins, as they freeze and defrost really well. My kids and their friends love them and yesterday I sent them to school and kindy in the lunchboxes for a recess-time refuel. No leftovers = win for Mum!

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 eggs

50 g tapioca flour

70 g sorghum flour

60 g brown rice flour

20 g baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

5 g psyllium husk

110 g brown sugar

350 g peeled ripe bananas (approximately 3 or 4), mashed

125 ml oil

125 ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Preheat oven to 180° Celsius (conventional oven) or 160° Celsius (fan-forced oven). Grease and line 12 cavities in a half-cup (125ml) capacity muffin tray.

Beat eggs in the large bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. Sift in the tapioca flour, sorghum flour, brown rice flour, baking powder, cinnamon and psyllium husk. Add brown sugar, bananas, oil, milk and vanilla essence. Mix until well combined.

Spoon mixture into cavities until each cavity is approximately three-quarters full.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Makes 12.