Veggie-Sneak Muffins

It has been quite a while since I have blogged for several reason that I will go into later. But for right now I want to get this recipe down before I lose the paper I wrote it on and forget it.

(Singing an ode to the muffins.)



I decided to try and use muffins and a Vegetable-Delivery System for my increasingly picky toddler. As of this posting all I can regularly get him to eat is corn and green beans. In about 1998, I remember Cooking Light doing a recipe make-over for Morning Glory muffins that removed a lot of the fat and sugar by adding in vegetables, applesauce, apple butter, molasses and several other ingredients. I've moved about 25 times since I had that original recipe and couldn't find it on the internet. Instead, I just started combining aspects of muffin making from my Joy of Cooking cookbook and about 6 different recipes I found online for zucchini, carrot and Morning Glory Muffins.

Since I didn't want to buy out the grocery store just to make these muffins I pretty much used what I had on-hand. I keep flax seed and coconut in my freezer just for this kind of cooking emergency.

Veggie-Sneak Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vanilla or banana yogurt
1 cup mashed banana (2 whole)
1/2 cup to 1 cup chopped prunes (I get lazy chopping them and use 1/2 cup)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste - we like cinnamon)
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1 zucchini, shredded
1 cup carrots, shredded
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 eggs
1/4 to 1 cup of milk (depending on how dry your mix is)

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together the dry ingredients in one large bowl.

Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl. Add milk slowly while you incorporate the dry and wet ingredients together. You don't want the batter too runny or too dry.

Combine by making a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Muffins shouldn't be over-mixed like a cake mix. Instead they should be lightly mixed so gently incorporate the wet into the dry. When it is mixed walk away from the bowl. Resist the urge to keep mixing. The light mixing is what makes little "chunnels" in your muffins. As you can see from the picture here, I over-mixed. What can I say? I had a "helper" and he was making me crazy. I probably added a tad too much milk. Baking at this altitude is new to me and every experience is hit or miss.

Spoon batter into muffin tins lined with paper cupcake liners. I guess you could just grease and flour your muffin tin but I hate cleaning muffin tins so I use liners.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until the muffins are springy when you touch the top - think mattress commercial, not Temper-Pedic mattress but regular old mattress.

If you overmix your batter your results will look like this. Do as I say, not as I do. Umkay?


You think if I frosted these with cream cheese frosting it would make them cupcakes instead of muffins? And would that defeat the purpose of trying to make them healthy? I mean they already have a whole cup of brown sugar instead of molasses. What's a little more sugar and cream cheese really gonna hurt?