Mr. Confetti has been traveling for work these days, which means that I have had quite a number of days of what Mrs. Stroller describes perfectly as solo momma time. While I have the emotional and financial support that comes with a relationship, I spend many weekdays flying solo with Little C. Add the puppy’s needs into the mix, and I have very little time to fuss with cooking fancy meals. Plus, when I’m groggy in the morning, being a short-order cook at breakfast is the last thing I want to do. So when Mr. Confetti is traveling for the week, I will make a batch of these veggie muffins and a batch of mini-muffin frittatas (similar to Mrs. Bee’s), and C’s breakfasts are all set for the week ahead.
As Little C creeps closer to his first birthday, he is eating nearly everything that I normally make. As his formula intake decreases, he seems like a bottomless pit for food. He eats three meals a day, along with 1-2 snacks. While he is still willing to try most foods, he is already a quirky eater. He will pick through the food on his tray, eating one thing at a time, starting with his favorite foods (fruit, cheese, meat), moving through the next foods (grains), and finally, resorting to eating a few vegetables if he has the patience and is still hungry.
While I am not dealing with a full-force picky eater, I know that veggies are important. I will resort to whatever means necessary to encourage Little C to eat his veggies – purees, pouches and even hiding veggies in unexpected places. A friend with a picky-eating toddler told me about a great base recipe at Weelicious for muffins. I made some substantial adaptations to make them healthier, subbing whole wheat flour, reducing the sugar, and experimenting with the veggie content. The original recipe calls for spinach – which were great – but I have successfully subbed grated zucchini so far, and I’m planning to try carrots next.
I am an amateur baker, so I warn you – you can be the WORST baker, and mess EVERYTHING up, and as long as you don’t let them burn to a crisp, these are pretty hard to mess up. I find that they are best when I am careful not to measure too much flour (it compresses in the measuring cup if you just stick the cup into the bag – using a spoon to scoop it into your measuring cup goes a long way). Also, they are great with all regular flour if you don’t have whole wheat, and if all you have at home is the self-rising flour, just skip the baking powder and soda.
Not only are these a healthy breakfast or snack for small children, but they are great to gift as a treat for a new mom – they’re an excellent one-handed snack.
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (I use one single-serve Mott’s Natural cup – perfectly pre-measured)
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup fresh spinach, packed (or 1 cup grated zucchini, or 1 cup vegetable of your choice)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preparation
Preheat your oven to 350º.
In your food processor, puree the vegetables with the applesauce, egg, vanilla, sugar and oil.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Make a pool in the middle and pour in the puree, and then mix the dry and wet ingredients until just combined.
Scoop batter into a greased mini muffin pan, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way.
Bake 10-12 minutes, cool and serve.
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
How do you store the muffins for the week? I make bran muffins from scratch and by day three they have fuzz on them.
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
These sound fabulous! I am going to whip up a batch to put in my mini michelangelo’s lunches! I’m such a novice baker (I’d much rather cook) but you have me convinced I can handle these! Thanks for the tip on measuring the flour with a spoon, I had no idea! (See, novice.) And yes, how do you keep these for a week?
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
They are usually okay on the counter for 3-4 days. I usually pre-freeze whatever we won’t eat right away and then thaw in the fridge what I will use the night before and toast lightly in the morning.
pomegranate / 3314 posts
I love Weelicious! I think I’m going to have to give these a try as my LO is kind of the same – not a full-force picky eater, but not a lover of vegetables (unless we’re talking sweet potato or butternut squash), by any means.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
These look good. I’ve never tried muffins with veggies before.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
Totally bookmarking for the future!
honeydew / 7444 posts
This is great. Though i like weelicious, i don’t find her recipes *too* healthy as she allows for quite a bit of sugar!
I just made some muffins for my LO (scary enough, she can eat an entire muffin) and found that applesauce, bananas, and buttermilk make a great combination to sub out a lot of the sugar and butter.
cherry / 175 posts
@Mrs. Lemon-Lime Depending on the ingredients used and how moist they are (also where you live, if it is humid), they may need to be stored in the fridge to keep them up to a week. I found this was true even with my bread when I lived in a more humid climate. Just warm them slightly in the microwave before serving.
Definitely adding these to my arsenal for when LO is ready for chewing!
pomegranate / 3272 posts
Question about using the grated zucchini: Did you squeeze out the excess moisture or just use it as is? I wasn’t sure if the extra moisture in some veggies would throw off the measurements at all. Thanks! Looks great!
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
@LaurelMae: Thanks, that explains it. It’s very humid where I live and we turn the A/C off during the day.
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
I think I’ll make some today!
bananas / 9357 posts
I’ll have to give these a try! How do you make the mini-muffin frittatas? Those sound great too!
coffee bean / 36 posts
Brilliant…and perfect for twins!
kiwi / 623 posts
How many mini muffins does your recipe make? I love that I have pretty much all these ingredients in my cupboards!
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
These look so good!
guest
Just made these with carrots and they are delicious! Can’t wait for my baby to try them
cantaloupe / 6751 posts
Made these for my 18 month old- they were fantastic! I used zucchini and a spinach-pea-apple purée pouch my toddler didn’t finish. Looking forward to trying it with a diff combo of veggies!
GOLD / pea / 24 posts
I’ve been meaning to tell you how much I love these and how much they are a life saver in the morning (and sometimes in too-tired-to-cook evenings). I love them and so does baby!