Gluten-free Cranberry-Banana-Chocolate Stripe Muffins

[Sign up for the mailing list to get my Quickstart Guide to Living Happy, Healthy and Gluten-Free, plus the monthly newsletter and other updates, offerings, tips and more! (I never sell or share my mailing list.)]

Always on the quest for tasty and in the realm of healthy, my friend Wendy gave me the inspiration for these muffins. We had a good time thinking up possible crazy names for these babies, including something that roughly translated to Sock Bombs, but in the end I decided that Sock Bombs would never show up on an internet search for healthy-ish gluten-free muffins. :-)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups Gluten-free all-purpose baking flour
• 3 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum 
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup soft butter
• 1/4 cup natural applesauce
  
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 Xocai dark chocolate Power Square

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients. Place milk, eggs, butter, cranberries and banana in a blender and mix until combined. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir just until blended. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Fill the muffin cups evenly with the batter. Slide a Xocai Power Square vertically in the muffin batter. Bake for 25 minutes. Eat and enjoy!