I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I sure did. I love it when I make myself get up early and get things done on weekends.

I spent all of my Saturday running errands, shopping at the traditional market here on Jeju, and meeting with a friend for dinner.

Sunday was amazing! I got up really early, made some vegan strawberry muffins (recipe below), and went out with a couple of friends for a Sunday morning yoga session. It was our first time doing yoga together and it was so refreshing! The weather was perfect, the location was ideal (a vast field with just us,) and the company was amazing.

We then indulged in a traditional Korean Buddhist monk lunch.  Temple food here is all vegan and local, not to mention delicious. This particular restaurant is my favourite on the whole island. If I am going to miss one thing (among many thigns) about Korea it will be temple food.

Here you see acacia flowers fried in some tempura batter, a seaweed dish, a meat substitute dish with herbs, vegan kimchi (mmmmmmmm), a broccoli dish with local herbs from the mountain, a green salad, and another green dish.

The main course consisted of bibimbap, monk style. Bibimbap is a rice dish with a variety of vegetables.

The last course was a dessert-type dish. Some cold pine tea that tasted nothing like pine but was super yummy, and some puffed rice treats.

Temple food works for me because it is vegan and doesn’t have garlic. Woohoo! You must try it out if you get a chance.

And now for the breakfast muffins.

Vegan Banana Strawberry Muffins – A perfect Sunday Breakfast

Adapted from Eating Clean Recipes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsweetened soymilk or almond milk (I used soymilk because that’s all I had. Normally, I would have used almond milk)

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup mashed bananas
1/8 cup coconut oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla
1 cup sliced strawberries

The recipe calls for 1/2 cup sucanat or organic evaporated cane sugar but I skipped it all together and I was glad at the end. The fruit provided enough sweetness for these muffins to be perfect for breakfast.  

I mixed the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls the night before baking. I did not add the vinegar until the morning.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
2. Oil a muffin pan. Set aside.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl (from flour to cinnamon.)
4. In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients (from soy milk to vanilla.) Add the vinegar last.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add the strawberries.
6. Mix with a spatula 10 times and set aside for 3 minutes so the flour can absorb the liquid. If you over-mix, the muffins will come out dense with big air bubbles inside.
7. Scoop the batter into the muffin pan. I fill mine up to the very top so when the muffins bake they develop a really nice muffin top. 
8. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes. After 10 minutes of baking, take out the muffin pan and put a slice of strawberry on top of the muffin. Push it in slightly. Bake for another 10 minutes.

The muffins were terrific! They tastes like summer and were perfect for breakfast. Next time I will add some oatmeal and see what happens.

Enjoy your vegan muffins and have a great week!

P.S. I will be holding a contest very soon. The prize is to be determined but I am pretty sure it will be something vegan, organic, and Korean!

Love and light,

M