Since I’m on a detox sugar to avoid eating refined sugars (#week 9), I have been trying to find delicious, healthy recipes to keep me on the right track while enjoying my food.
This ham, cheese, goats milk yogurt muffin recipe has been a major success in our household!
It is exactly what you need to make healthy snacks for your children or if you are traveling and want to avoid eating all the junk food on the road.
Dairy products like goats’ milk and yogurt are rich in calcium, a mineral indicated as important in lowering our blood pressure. Choose the low-fat options if you’re concerned about blood pressure.
The original recipe was initially with wheat flour and cows milk yogurt but since I do not tolerate gluten and I find goats milk easier to digest than cows milk, I swapped both respectively for buckwheat flour and St Helen’s Farm goats milk yogurt which we have been using since Mila was little.
The health benefits of goats’ milk
Steve was the one who introduced me to the benefits of goats milk Vs cows milk when I stopped nursing Mila thirteen years ago. He has always been interested in health and well-being and as the son of a kiwi farmer (his dad had a cattle of over 200 cows), I trusted him. Since then, I have learned more about the health benefits of drinking goats milk.
First and I’ve seen it with Mila, goats milk is a lot easier to digest.
While it is not recommended for anyone who has been diagnosed with lactose intolerance, goats’ milk typically contains slightly less lactose (1) than cows’ milk and whilst the fat content of goats’ milk is similar to cows’ milk (3.6% for whole, 1.6% for semi-skimmed and almost zero for skimmed), the fat globules are naturally much smaller in size and this may make it easier to digest.
It’s also rich in calcium which I’m sure you know is essential for the development and maintenance of bones and teeth of our children and vitamin B5. 3 servings of goats’ milk products can provide more than 100% of an adult’s reference intake of calcium (2).
Personally, I drink it because it helps against the onset of osteoporosis and may also aid weight control by helping break down body fat as part of a calorie controlled diet (3, 4, 5, 6).
It is incredibly easy to make and I suggest you double the quantity and freeze a batch for later.
Preparation time: 5 minutes, cooking time: 20 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
- 100g flour (I’ve used buckwheat flour which is gluten-free)
- 2 eggs
- 1 St Helen’s Farm goat yogurt
- 75g grated cheese
- 100g ham shredded
- 2 spoons of baking powder
- 3 large spoons of coconut oil
- salt & pepper
St Helen’s Farm goats milk yogurt, shredded ham, grated cheese, buckwheat flour
Goats’ milk is naturally slightly lower in cholesterol than cows’ milk and the skimmed and semi-skimmed options make it a good alternative for people who are watching their cholesterol or saturated fat intake.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Warm up the oven thermostat 6 (180 degrees)
- In a bowl, beat the two eggs and add salt & pepper
- Then start adding the flour, the baking powder, the yogurt and coconut oil and mix everything well
- Add your shredded ham & grated cheese and mix well again
- Pour the mixture into muffin tins (2/3)
- When your oven is warm, put the muffin tins in the oven for about 20 minutes
- Once the time is up, let the tins cool down a bit before unmolding the muffins
- Et voilà! Eat them warm or cold with a salad.
This muffin recipe is so easy that the first time I made it, I ended up making three more batches and you can use the same base to make banana muffins or try different flavors. I’ve made a batch with chocolate chips for Mila which she enjoyed.
So let me know how you get on with this recipe and if you try other alternatives. St Helen’s Farm goats milk products which include yogurt, milk but also cheddar cheese and so much more, are all available from all major supermarkets like Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by St Helen’s Farm
Footnotes: 1. Food Standards Agency. McCance and Widdowson’s. The Composition of Foods. Sixth Summary Edition Cambridge. Royal Society of Chemistry. 2002. | 2. EU Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers. | 3. Zemel MB, Richards J, Russel J, Milstead A, Gehardt L, Silva E. Dairy augmentation of total and central fat loss in obese subjects. International Journal of Obesity. 2005; 29(4): 341-7. | 4. Poddar KH, Hosig KW, Nickols-Richardson SM, Anderson ES, Herbert WG, Duncan SE. Low-fat dairy intake and body weight and composition changes in college students. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009; 109(8): 1433-8. |5. Barba G et al(2005) Inverse association between body mass and frequency of milk consumption in children. Br J Nutr 93; 15-9. | 6.Zemel MB et al (2005) Effects of calcium and dairy on body composition and weight loss in African-American adults. Obesity Research 13; 1218-1225.
