Thaxton is now 14 months old! How time flies! He eats a variety of food, including a lot of vegetables! Our biggest eating challenge has been getting him to eat chunky foods and different textures. As a result, he still eats a lot of purees. For his non-pureed foods, I try to give him things that are as healthy as possible. One thing that he is very good at eating is breads and anything else from the grain group, so I started looking for healthy muffin recipes.
Today I’m sharing a recipe for Apple Carrot Spinach Muffins. Don’t let the spinach throw you! If you didn’t see the specks of green in the muffin, you’d never know they had spinach in them! I put spinach in Thaxton’s scrambled eggs, all of our muffins, and smoothies! It’s a great way to get some extra greens, which is something I struggle with myself!
I did take one shortcut with these muffins. I used applesauce instead of chopping up fresh apples. Thaxton enjoys applesauce, so we keep that in the fridge, and I like the idea of using what I have, rather than going out and buying more ingredients.
Apart from being very wholesome, these muffins are delicious and very moist! Hope you enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce (you could also use grated apple if you prefer
1 cup grated carrot, (I used a cup of baby carrots and grated those in our food processor)
1 handful of raw spinach leaves, finely chopped (after chopping in our food processor I had about 1/2 cup spinach)
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or other cooking oil you like) Directions: Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 24 cup muffin tin (or use cupcake liners).
Place the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, spices and sugar into a large bowl and stir until combined.
Add eggs, vanilla extract, milk and vegetable oil. Mix well with a spoon.
Use a food processor to grate your veggies for best result, or you may grate by hand.
Add applesauce (or grated apple), grated carrots, and spinach to your mixture, and mix well.
Your batter should be relatively thick
Place a couple of spoonfuls of batter in to each muffin cup. (I use a cookie dough scoop to make sure the muffins come out evenly, and I do 2 scoops in each muffin cup.) This makes about 24 muffins for me.
Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until your muffins rise and a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool and serve. (To freeze left overs, remove muffins from pan, and place on a freezer safe plate or bowl. Once the muffins are frozen, you may transfer them to a freezer bag and put back in the freezer.)
Muffins are also great for freezing! When I bake a fresh batch, I just leave out whatever we’re going to eat for the week, and I freeze the rest! (Just be sure to freeze them in a container or tray, before throwing them in a freezer bag. I placed a batch in a bag at room temperature and threw them straight in the freezer, and some of them got a little deformed.)
Do you love homemade muffins? I’d love for you to share your recipes with me! Please leave a comment on this post, or share your muffin recipes at our Friday Favorites linky party!
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