Banana Carrot Spinach Oat Muffins
Stop.
Do not look at this muffin and say, "EW! It's green!"
Instead, I want you to close your eyes and imagine that you're eating a mini banana bread muffin.
Now open your eyes.
This is when you discover that this same weird green muffin tastes just like banana bread.
But instead of using banana bread ingredients, I’m using a bag of spinach, some carrots, oats, bananas, and a touch of maple syrup to create a muffin that packs some serious nutritional punch.
And it's as simple as throwing everything in your food processor, blending it up, and baking.
I’m telling you, every time I eat one, I have to remind myself that they're good for me.
And if you’re on board, maybe your kids will be too.
And if you have a little one like mine, they might not yet realize that most kids think a green muffin is a scary thing.
Banana Carrot Spinach Oat Muffins
servings: 36 mini muffins
Ingredients:
- 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed + squeezed dry (about 1 cup after squeezed)
- 2½ cups rolled oats, more for a garnish
- 3 medium ripe bananas, sliced
- 2 cups grated carrots (about 6 ounces)
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add the spinach to a blender or food processor and pulse until it is finely chopped and almost pureed.
- Add the oats, bananas, carrots, maple syrup, eggs, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt to the spinach, then pulse until all ingredients are well-combined and the mixture is almost pureed, but not quite smooth. You may have to stop and stir the mixture a bit to make sure it doesn’t contain any large chunks.
- Scoop the batter evenly into 36 cups of a mini muffin tin prepared with cooking spray, then top each muffin with a light sprinkle of the reserved oats.
- Bake the muffins until a knife inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean and dry —24 to 28 minutes.
