Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins - A Hit!

A couple of months ago I started cleaning my fridge out every Friday.  It's made a huge difference; reducing fridge clutter and food waste simultaneously.  It gives me a good view of what I have, what I need, and what I need to use up in the very near future.

This past week, I realised that a jar of unsweetened applesauce had been open for a while, and needed to be consumed quickly.  Instead of trying to feed my kids a lot more applesauce than normal, I thought I'd turn it into muffins.  My quick recipe search was uninspiring; oatmeal applesauce muffins galore.  Then, I found a fantastic recipe for whole wheat carrot muffins at 100 Days of Real Food.  Now this was a recipe I could work with!

So, after a few tweaks to meet my family's tastes, here's my version:

Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins

Still warm and ready to be enjoyed!

1 1/2c whole wheat flour
1 tsp gluten flour (optional)*
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
pinch of salt
1/2 c butter, melted
1/3 c honey
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 c unsweetened applesauce
1 c grated carrots


1.  Preheat oven to 350F and prepare muffin tin (grease or use muffin cup papers).
2.  Combine whole wheat flour, gluten flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Mix well.
3.  Add grated carrots and mix until carrots are coated.  Create a well to receive wet ingredients.
4.  In a small bowl, combine butter, honey, egg, vanilla and applesauce.
5.  Add wet mixture to the well in the dry ingredients.  Stir until just combined.
6.  Divide among muffin cups and bake 22 - 24 minutes.

Yields 12 muffins

* Gluten flour is an optional ingredient and was not included in the original recipe.  I find adding a bit of gluten flour to whole wheat baked goods results in a more tender texture.  Essentially you get all the goodness of the whole wheat flour without the toughness it sometimes yields.  Gluten flour is available in bulk stores, as well as in the health food section of many grocery stores.

I am so pleased with how these muffins turned out - I will absolutely be making them again!  They're moist, lightly sweet, and have quite a delicate crumb.  Mini Muffin ate an entire one with gusto for her "sert" (aka dessert) last night.  And while each muffin only contains just over a tablespoon of grated carrot, I'm in full support of any extra little bit of veggies that my kids can eat - and enjoy!

Simply Delicious - Vegg'ed Up Pizza Sauce

Like so many little kids, Mini Muffin adores pizza.  With this in mind, we found ourselves making pizza over the weekend.  It's a fun family activity that Mini Muffin loves to help with - making the whole wheat dough, spreading the sauce and sprinkling it with cheese and pepperoni.  Of course I love my pizza with lots of veggies, but in her world pizza is only pizza if it's plain pepperoni pizza.  Sigh.

So, I made my sneaky vegg'ed up pizza sauce.  This is the second time I've made it, and the second time I've forgotten to take pictures!  It's also the second time that Mini Muffin has loved it.  It's super simple and easy, and is a great way to sneak a few veggies onto plain pepperoni pizza!

Vegg'ed Up Pizza Sauce

1/3 red bell pepper
1 medium carrot
1 small zucchini
1 - 1.5 c of your favourite pasta sauce

1.  Coarsely chop all veggies, and steam until soft.
2.  Purée steamed veggies and pasta sauce.
3.  Spread on pizza and enjoy the veggie goodness!

It makes me giggle that Mini Muffin, both times, has watched me cram as many veggies as possible into the pizza sauce, yet doesn't seem to register that there are extra veggies in there!  Both times, she's watched me whirl the sauce smooth, and asked me to taste.  After giving her a dipped spoon to lick, she has decided that she needs more.  So, on both occasions she's eaten a small prep bowl of vegg'ed up pizza sauce while we prep our pizza.  I suspect she enjoys it because the texture is nice and smooth, and the red bell pepper makes it nice and sweet. 

But whatever the reason, I call it a win for Mama!

Simply Delicious - Cauliflower Soup for Everyone!

I've been learning a bit more about cauliflower recently.  I'd always written it off due to its colour - I mean how could a white vegetable contain much in the way of nutrients?  Well, cauliflower is really back in vogue these days.  And, it turns out that it's super healthy!  It's a great source of vitamin C, folate, and vitamin K, as well as fibre.

Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of plain old boiled or steamed cauliflower, and adding cheese sauce seems to sort of defeat the purpose.  So, after talking to a friend about an amazing cauliflower soup she threw together for her baby, I decided to see if I could come up with my own version.  It was so easy and simple, I forgot to even take a picture of it before it was all gobbled up or frozen into baby cubes.

Here's the recipe, should you choose to give it a whirl -

Cauliflower Carrot Soup

1 medium head of cauliflower
2 large carrots
1 medium onion
2 medium cloves garlic
1 tbsp butter
4 cups low sodium chicken stock

1.  Melt butter in a large pot, and add chopped onion and crushed garlic.  Cook over medium heat until onion is translucent.
2.  Add stock, chopped carrots, and cauliflower flowerets.  Bring to a boil.
3.  Cook covered, over medium heat until cauliflower is fall-apart cooked.
4.  Blend until smooth, adding water if too thick.
5.  Serve and enjoy!

Everyone in my family enjoyed this soup, especially Little Smiling Man. I'd even say that it's his favourite food so far!  It was versatile and delicious, and so very easy to make.  This one will definitely reappear on our table to help us all enjoy more cauliflower!

Easy Mommy Win - Carrots!

You may perhaps recall that Mini Muffin is a bit of a picky eater.  In addition to continuing to offer her healthy, whole foods including a variety of vegetables (which are usually declined), I'm always on the lookout for ways to sneak the nutrients she needs into foods she'll enjoy.

Carrots have always been a tough one.  Despite being sweet and delicious, Mini Muffin is determined to avoid them.  And, their bright colour can make them tricky to disguise.  Not long ago she tried Motts fruit and veggie sauce, which is essentially applesauce with some peach and what I can only assume is a token amount of carrot (based on its place in the ingredient list).  She loved it, and it soon became known as "orange applesauce".

The other day, Mini Muffin was requesting orange applesauce and we were all out.  She and I decided that mommy should try to make some.  And so, a healthier version of orange applesauce was born.

Orange Applesauce

3 apples (any sweet variety)
1/2 large carrot

1.  Cook carrot by desired method (boiling, steaming, etc).  This is also a great opportunity to use up left over carrot - which is exactly what I did! 

2.  Place peeled, cored and chopped apple, along with carrot in a medium saucepan. 

3.  Add water until apples and carrots are almost covered.  Ensure all carrots are under water.

4.  Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until apple is fall-apart cooked and carrot is very soft.  Almost all water will have boiled off.  If water is boiled off before carrot and apple are thoroughly cooked, add boiling water.

5.  Put apple-carrot mixture through blender until very smooth.  Add warm water if consistency is too thick for your taste.  If you want a chunkier sauce you could mash it, however the carrots will not be hidden in this case.  I used my Magic Bullet, and made sure every last chunk was gone - it came out to be almost exactly like store bought texture, maybe even a little bit smoother.

The final result, was a brilliant orange and sweet applesauce, with no added sweetener required and no preservatives.  The test came when I gave it to Mini Muffin for dessert.  Three servings later, we had to convince her to wait for breakfast to enjoy more!  It's official, mommy's orange applesauce is more popular than the store bought variety.  Even better, it's also completely baby appropriate!

And that, is my easy mommy win for carrots.  Next on the agenda... figuring out which greens I can hide in applesauce!