Healthy Easter treat roundup - Lemon blueberry loaf

Easter - a holiday I associate with baked goods, chocolate and a ton of SUGAR! Coming to mind are Peeps, Cadbury Cream Eggs, Cadbury Mini Eggs, and those little chocolate covered marshmallows. I feel a cavity coming on just thinking about it!

In past years it was never a problem. We would immerse ourselves in all the chocolatey goodness without even giving it a second though. But now that O is a pickier eater, understands what is junk and what isn't, and has a bit of a sweet tooth/loves decadent foods, I vowed that this year was going to be different. And not just for him, but for us adults as well!

So, each week during the month of March, leading up to Easter, I'm going to post one sweet Easter treat - without added refined sugar - to satisfy you, your little ones, and keeps those bellies happy and healthy! Plus it will keep those cravings and sugar crashes at bay!

This week we made a lemon blueberry loaf. Typically a loaf recipe would have loads of sugar, but instead of that nasty stuff, we used maple syrup - a naturally occurring sweetener that's much lower on the glycemic index. You can also sub it for any natural sweetener you'd like - I think honey would be a good option.

At first this recipe seemed like a lot of ingredients, but the method is so simple that it wasn't an issue. The key is (especially when you're using whole grain flour) is that you want to keep it moist and nice and light, so the wet ingredients are super important!

I would definitely make this recipe over and over again, but next time I might sub the yogurt for ricotta. I was also thinking of doing a crumble on top, but maybe I'll try that out on cupcakes another time.

Also, how cute are these mini loaf dishes? I picked them up at Michaels for $3! Such a steal. I can see them being great little dishes to give as a hostess gift (bonus points for best guest if you bake something in it)!


Ingredients

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbsp coconut oil or butter, melted
3 tbsp lemon juice
zest of one lemon 
1 cup fresh blueberries


Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a loaf pan (I used coconut oil cooking spray)

2. Mix all your dry ingredients with a whisk.

3. Add all your wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Be sure not to over mix.

4. Fold in your blueberries and lemon zest.

5. Bake until golden on the outside and a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. For these mini muffins, it took about 45 mins. For a regular sized loaf, I would give it 60 mins.

6. Let cool on cooling rack inside the pan before removing and slicing.