Best Vegan Bluberry Muffins

The Best Vegan Blueberry Muffins Recipe I have ever made! 

  I have made this recipe for my family. many times. This is the absolute best vegan baked goods recipe that I have found! My family is not vegan but I'm always looking for healthier vegan versions of the foods they like. If I can make something yummy without eggs, meat and dairy then that is what I want to do! 

I also believe making foods like this fresh from scratch at home is the best if you're going to eat it. That way I can control what is in it and what I am giving to my family. These have become my go to blueberry muffin recipe! Sorry the picture isn't too good/ I will replace it with a better one when I make these again. Taking imperfect action and getting this post done for you :)

  These muffins are easy to make and don't taste vegan at all. This is a recipe that everyone is sure to love. These are great for breakfast, or any occasion. For this recipe I didn't use the soy milk suggested in the recipe. I prefer to use other plant-based milks like almond milk and cashew milk. 

  My muffins turned out great using these nut milks instead. I stay away from soy and soy containing products if I can. This is another reason why you should always make stuff like this from scratch since most premade, packaged foods contain some kind of soy product in them. 

The recipe suggests using vegetable oil, which is actually soybean oil and another soy product that I try to never use. I used same mounts of softened coconut oil with good results. Coconut oil is much better oil to use, and it may have some health benefits that other oils do not. You can also use corn oil or a light olive oil if you don't like soy-based oils either.

  This recipe says to use fresh blueberries, but I have used the small size frozen blueberries right out of the freezer with good results. I usually have frozen blueberries on hand, so it was easy for me to use what I already had. 

  I want to try this recipe as a base for other variations. Instead of blueberries I want to try diced strawberry and maybe a shredded zucchini for another version of the best vegan muffins. I will let you know how that turns out. 

I also want to try using whole wheat pastry flour instead of the white flour another time too. Or even a good gluten free flour to make them gluten free. For now, give these vegan blueberry muffins a try using the recipe. I found this particular recipe at My Darling Vegan. You can print it out via the link.

I think you will love this recipe too! 

Let me know in the comments and as always God bless you wherever you are in your life! 

Thank you! 

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What kind of person do you want to be?

 I have often asked myself this question. 

What kind of person do I want to be? At times in my life, I don't think I lived up to who I wanted to be. I went along with my friends, or I allowed the world to tell me what to think. As I grew older and started to investigate things for myself, I started to become more of who I wanted to be. I think we all go through this kind of journey. It is how we grow up and become who we are meant to be. As we grow, I think we change a little every ten years. 

  The experiences we have in life also can change us for the good or worst. It is our choice how we allow circumstances to change us. We can regret mistakes and close our self-off to learning more. We can learn from our mistakes and discover ways that it can make us better. I have done both lol! But I keep coming back to that same person that I always was just a little wiser every year. I just turned 42 and still have a long life ahead of me even though I might be halfway through it lol! I don't know exactly where life will take me, but I know that I will keep growing into the person that I want to be. I am not going to just wait for life to happen to me anymore. 

  I want to make life happen for me. Do the best that I can with what I have right now! And never stop improving on things and making my life better. Every day is an opportunity to change something about your life. I see a post today and the women said to make three goals for the day and do it. I think this is a good idea and can bring us closer to our bigger goals in life. 

  For me every day my three goals are the same and I do pretty well at accomplishing them. I am not perfect but every day that I practice being the person that I want to be. I get closer every day to my bigger goals. Just got to improve a little every day. 

  What kind of person do I want to be? I want to make my own choices, I want to create an income from home helping others, I want to achieve my health goals, and most important I want to be happy. In the past I spent too much time eating like crap and being unhappy. Not anymore! I had to nearly lose everything to get this. Sure, some days I get angry because I wish some things were different, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason. I had to learn, and I keep reminding myself of that. Then just do what I can and don't worry about the things I can't control.

  Anyway, that is my 15 minutes today and a short post. These are my thoughts for the day. I hope that it can be an encouragement for you. I know it is for me and a reminder to keep moving forward. Life is what we make it, so let's make it a good one!

By Joanne Utke

What do you think? 

Are you the person that you want to be? 

 Let me know in the comments.

Thank you! 

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Love and Hate

 Martin Luther King Jr

 I started writing this after I seen something about stopping the hate of a specific group. I was inspired to write something about that. St. Valentine's day, or Valentine's Day is coming up this week and love is in the air. Hate is the opposite of love so I'm calling this Love and hate, These are both strong emotions we are all familiar with as humans.

  There's not a day that goes by that we as intelligent sentient beings don't experience these two emotions. Depending on what your life experiences are you may feel more of one or the other. Sadly, for many the experience is all too often hate in their life. And no matter how loving you are, you have probably hated someone or something at some point in your life too. I know that I have loved as passionately as I have hated at times in my life. How about you? 

  Love is what we feel for those closest to us in life. We love our children because they are a part of us, we see ourselves in them. We are partly responsible for the people they become. Because of this we try to give them a loving and safe home. Writing this part makes me acknowledge that sadly many children don't grow up in a loving and safe home. 

I think why will be explained further in this article. My heart goes out to these people and children who desperately need love. 

  Hate is a very strong emotion that I unfortunately know too well! Not that I am a hateful person, because I'm not. I don't really hate anyone and I know we are all on a unique journey through this world. All of us for the most part are doing the best we can with what we have. This is why I am big on personal development, health and wellness. No matter who we are or where we are at in life we can get better and do better. 

  With hate comes anger and maybe it would be more accurate to say of myself that I have known anger all too well at times in my life. Hate breeds anger and we usually get angry when we feel that we have been done wrong in some way. These emotions exist in the natural world among all sentient beings and has a place. We can defend our self or our family when the need be. These emotions bring on adrenalin and this is useful in the natural world for self preservation. It is also useful in times that we find a need to protect our self and get out of a dangerous situation. 

  But it is a problem when it's used in everyday life for reasons that we should not. We should not hate others for race, or a belief system. In other words we shouldn't hate others for being human! Some would say that we should hate murderers or rapists. I think we should never hate a human being for being a broken human being. Instead we can hate the sin but we should love the sinner! No one who is broken is going to be better as long as they are hated. Love begets love and we are all broken on some level. Certainly some are extremely disturbed, and confused but hate is still not the answer. 

 I think hate in society happens when people don't want to acknowledge their own imperfections and brokenness. Instead of that reflection, and growth they turn on, what they believe is imperfections in others. The interesting thing is the hater only grows more imperfect and broken themselves. We cannot love others if we hate what is human about ourselves. I believe is has very little to do with race, religion or lifestyle choice and everything to do about one's own brokenness. People fear what they don't understand and what they hate about themselves. No one wants to admit their own imperfections or what they don't understand. So they point the finger, hoping that if they point out what they believe is wrong with others their own brokenness won' be found out. They may blame race but that is just a scapegoat. I think it is more about the hater, than the hatee. Whatever the reason hate has no place in a society that desires to be better today than they were yesterday.

 The answer to this I think is acknowledging that we are all in this world together. We are all the same as much as we are different at times. The energy spent on hate is a wasted energy that could be used in the form of love and compassion. We understand that we are all broken in some way and that personal development is what is needed. That way we can move past focusing on what is different and start leaning how to become better people in this world. 

  Now a little bit about love. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. probably says it best. "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend." That is a powerful thought! In Christianity there are examples of this. Jesus loves every one no matter what. He certainly did not support or condone their sin but He loved the sinner. We can look at the conversion of Paul (Acts 1) as an example of this. Paul was the worst sinner, killing Christians but Jesus loved Him enough to impart His love and mercy. And Paul turned into the greatest Saint and Martyr because of it.

  In conclusion I think most of us can agree that hate is useless unless it is a life saving anger. If we wish to create a world that we can be proud of there is no room for hate. For the last words I will leave you with the words of St. Paul the Apostle who was bought out of that darkness in his letter to the Corinthians. Timeless words that are just as true today! 

"If I speak in the tongues a of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 

(1 Corinthians 1-13)

By Joanne Utke

 I hope you have a happy Valentines day! 

Thank you! 

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