Now that I have been a mom for over a year, I'm back to blogging food! While I am sure there will be a mom thing to blog every now and then, the hormones (oh, the hormones) have lifted and my child now eats solid food. A lot of solid food.
Since my blog is just for me (and Seth's Facebook friends), its name will remain The Weekly Salad, but I will blog about whatever I want! (Insert evil laugh here.) Today, I will blog about baby muffins. My daughter LOVES muffins (and muffin-like bars)! I've made her banana oat, banana chia, pumpkin, pumpkin-peanut butter and carrot (update: and carrot-banana, unexpectedly delicious). When baking for my toddler, I strive to use little to no added sugars. The muffins are sweetened with bananas, maple syrup, and my new go-to sweetener, dates.
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| Notice the subtle green tint from the kale! |
The beauty of baby muffins is that I can pack all sorts of healthy things into the recipe, but they still seem somewhat treat-like. My daughter doesn't yet have the dexterity to use utensils, so muffins plus some fruit on the side allow her to feed herself breakfast and shave precious minutes off our morning routine. Most mornings, we sit at the table (and high chair) and have breakfast as a family, and the muffins allow all of us to actually eat. Muffins are also wonderfully portable
My recipe was inspired by this recipe, but note, the below recipe is only a base as most ingredients can be subbed out for other fruits or vegetables.
Mish Mosh Mini-Muffins
- 1.5 cups oats (ground fine in food processor)
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 small apple
- 1 ripe banana
- handful of carrots and kale, steamed and food proccessed
- 2 Tbs chia seeds
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 5 dates
- 2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all ingredients in food processor. Order does matter, depending on what ingredients you use. The items that need more processing (oats, dates, raw apple) should go in first. Ingredients that require less breaking down go in last and can be pulsed in. Bake about 15-20 minutes until muffins feel springy when tapped. Muffins will be dense. Makes 24 large mini-muffins (is that an oxymoron?).
Another update: since I am out of bananas, today's recipe will use 3 large carrots, 1/2 cup apple sauce (no apple) and a large handful of steamed mixed power greens. Instead of pumpkin pie spice, I will use 1/2 tbs of cinnamon and 1/2 tbs of nutmeg, and instead of dates, I will use a 1/4 cup of maple syrup.
