No special intro. These are the best and easiest muffins. They can be made extremely healthy, or up the sugar or add some butterscotch, chocolate or even peanut butter chips for more of a treat!
 |
| Pretty Green! |
Some tips and tricks:
Flour
White flour will make them puffier and light green, but you can use all whole wheat flour, a mix of wheat and white, or even almond, coconut, or any other flour that you prefer.
Greens
The easiest thing to use in this is baby spinach - it comes in a bag, it is pre-washed, and it is fairly sweet on its own. But if you have a different green on hand, feel free to substitute. If it has tough stems (kale), remove them before adding to the blender so that you don't have strings through the batter. If they are bitter (spring mixed greens, some spinach from your CSA that is towards the end of the season), add in an extra 1/4-1/3 cup of your preferred sugar.
Sugar
I used agave syrup today, but you can substitute honey, maple syrup (Grade B preferred), or white sugar (increase it to 2/3 cup). If your bananas are less ripe, add an extra 1/4-1/3 cup of your preferred sugar.
Batter
A high power mixer - like a Vitamix - makes it really easy to blend in the spinach so that it is a uniform consistency with no bits of spinach left. However, if you (or your kids!) don't mind a few bits of leaf left, you can use a food processor or even a hand blender. This makes a very light batter - use a whisk to mix in the wet ingredients until smooth.
 |
| Ingredients Assemble! |
Recipe:
- Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
- Spray a muffin tin with oil, or line with muffin wrappers.
- In a blender, add in this order:
 |
| "Wholesome" Sugar |
- Half of a 10 oz. bag of spinach
- 4T. Vegetable Oil (Canola, Avocado, Olive)
- 2 Eggs (can substitute 1/2 cup of yogurt - bonus; eat as much batter as you want!)
- 1/3 c. Agave Syrup
- 1 t. Salt
- Blend until very smooth, scrape down the sides, then add in:
 |
| MOAR SPINACH |
 |
| Circling Bananas |
- The rest of the bag of Spinach
- 4 Very Ripe Bananas
- Blend again until smooth.
 |
| No bits of spinach here! |
- In a large bowl, whisk:
- 2 c. flour (white, whole wheat, a mix or your preference)
- 2 t. Baking Powder
- 1/2 t. Baking Soda
 |
| Pouring and taking a picture is hard. |
 |
| Kid Whisking! |
- Pour in the wet ingredients from the blender and whisk until smooth and no pockets of flour remain.
 |
| I love my Dishers |
- Portion into the muffin tins about 3/4 full, then bake for about 15 minutes for mini-muffins or 20 minutes for large, or until the edges are slightly golden brown and a toothpick test comes out clean.
- To store: let cool completely, then put into a tupperware container. These freeze really well! Just place in one layer on a large platter and freeze for one day, then toss into a freezer storage bag. Pull them out as needed - you can pop them into the microwave for 20 seconds to warm or put them into a lunchbox frozen and they will thaw by lunchtime!
 |
| Voila! Healthy Yummy Snacks! |
