Sweet Potato Muffins

The 4th week of the CrossFit Open is upon us, and I wanted to find a carb heavy snack to eat before my workout! This one is a real winner!! Here are some highlights:

• The sweet potatoes give this muffin carbs, but slower digesting carbs, so they are great to have at least an hour before your workout.

• This is sweetened with a little bit of maple syrup- but mainly banana and applesauce- both of which have some fiber, so provide quick but lasting energy.

• Oats and oat flour also are great sources of carbohydrates, but do have fiber and protein which make this muffin well balanced.

• Seeds add fat and protein to this muffin, which again make it more balanced.

This muffin is great for workout fuel, but in order to best utilize it, I suggest eating it at least an hour before your workout. The fiber, protein and fat in the muffin will ramp up your glycogen stores and provide long lasting energy BUT these components can also be difficult to digest if eaten right before you raise your heart rate which can lead to digestion issues… not what you want as your are burpeeing over the bar :-)

Here is how to make them:

Sweet Potato Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (I baked them in the oven earlier this week, so I could scoop and mash them for this recipe)

• 2 ripe bananas, mashed

• 2 TBSP vanilla extract

• 1 TBSP almond butter

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 TBSP cinnamon

• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

• 1 2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

• 2 TBSP maple syrup

• 3 TBSP unsweetened applesauce

• 1 1/2 cup oats

• 1 cup oat flour (take 1 1/4 cup oats and place them in the food processor until powdered)

• 1/2 cup ground flax seed

• 1/4 cup chia seeds

• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Mix mashed sweet potato and mashed bananas together in a bowl. Add vanilla and almond butter and mix well.

3. Add baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well.

4. Then add almond milk, maple syrup and applesauce and mix to combine.

5. Add oats, oat flour, flax, chia and pumpkin seeds.

6. Mix until well combined.

7. Place muffin cups in your muffin tin and fill each about 2/3 full. This should make 24 muffins.

8. Place in oven for 30 minutes total, spinning if necessary.

9. Let cool and then wrap in plastic wrap or tin foil and store in refrigerator for 2 weeks for freezer for longer.

*I only had 1 muffin tin so made the rest into bars by placing them in an 8x8 greased pan and cooking them for a total of 35 minutes.