Blueberry Oat Veggie Muffins

Blueberry Oat Veggie Muffins

I recently found some great muffins at Costco that are similar, but I wanted to see if I could boost the vegetable content and reduce the sugar content a bit.  After searching for some recipe ideas, I put them together and came up with this.  These are a super quick breakfast, and for a meal where I rarely get veggies in, I'm thrilled to start the day with a couple of servings of vegetables that taste so good.  Beware that if you use spinach or other dark greens, it will be difficult to hide the fact that these have vegetables in them from your kids, but my intention was to make these more for myself, so I wasn't worried about their color as much.  They are
actually really pretty with the purple blueberries.

Makes 24 muffins

 

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour, which is white, but not enriched and bleached)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup brown sugar (maple sugar would be a good clean eating replacement, but I didn't have any)
2 -3 tablespoons honey
1 egg
3 cups vegetables, pureed (I steamed baby spinach, carrots, and zucchini until soft and pureed in a food processor)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 pints blueberries
1/2 cup whole oats
 

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350°F.  

-Spray muffin pans or line with muffin papers.
- Mix ingredients (except blueberries and oats) with electric mixer until well blended (I didn't take the time to do wet and dry separately.)

- Fold in blueberries and oats.
-Fill muffins 2/3 full with batter.  I like to use an ice cream scoop as it help to  fill the cups consistently and easily.
-Bake 25 minutes until or toothpick comes out clean. 

-Cool partially in the pan then remove to wire rack.

-Store half in an air tight container.
-Freeze the other half in an airtight container or freezer bag.   Microwave on 1/2 power to defrost.


*If you are using your own steamed vegetables, you may need to add some fruit juice to thin it out to the consistency of applesauce. (I had a little bit of water left from steaming, so I just used that when I pureed the vegetables.)

*If you don't have 3 cups of vegetables, make up the difference with unsweetened apple sauce or mashed bananas.