Best Berry Muffin

1 1/2 organic unbleached white flour (OR 1 cup white plus 1/2 cup whole-wheat)

1/2 cup *white sugar*

1/4 cup organic brown sugar ("our compliments" from Sobey's is excellent)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tbsp. tapioca starch

1/4 cup spectrum organic canola oil or olive oil (OR 2 tbsp. oil plus 2 tbsp. applesauce)

1/2 cup plus 2 - 4 tbsp.natura soy milk 

1/4 cup mango/peach juice (Happy Planet)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup berries (Earthbound Organic frozen berries are amazing  - especially their cherries) 

Mix first six ingredients together really well. In fact sifting is best. Whisk wet ingredients together with a fork. Using as few strokes as possible incorporate the wet and dry! Fold in berries gently (I used frozen berries and roll them in extra sugar before adding to batter). This seems to help reduce the amount of berry juice bleeding into the batter. Use non stick paper liners or spray muffin cups.

Use about 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. batter per muffin. I sprinkled with some more organic brown sugar on top - the our compliments brand is perfect as it's very coarse. Bake for about 20-22 minutes at 375 or 400 depending on how hot your oven is and whether your muffin tin is dark or light and whether you make 8 or 10!  You could also do 375 for first 15 minutes and 400 for the last 5 minutes. Makes 8-10 muffins.

*If you are looking for an inexpensive and easily available brand of white sugar for baking Redpath brand is vegan*!  It's also made from sugarcane which these days is a better choice than sugar beets as apparently sugar beets used in rogers sugar are genetically modified!

Made them again without sugar topping! They do look prettier with the sparkly tops!

Taming Your Cough and Sciatica Relief!

My daughter posted this information on her facebook and I'm reposting it for the benefit of anyone going through my blog.  It's not a recipe for food but a recipe for relief so hope it helps some else in need! Her pain was greatly eased by both these oils when nothing else seemed to work. Her words in quotation marks below!

"They're not exactly Chanel #5, but these potent smelling oils do the trick. The White Flower oil has been the ONLY thing that has been able to tame my cough (going on 2+ weeks) and the Kwan Loong oil has helped my pesky sciatica (a new 'treat' this past week). Both available at T&T supermarket in the 'pharmacy'."