Banana Oat Carrot Zucchini Muffins

Izzy goes to preschool school and they are pretty particular about the foods that can come to school. Dyes and sugars are not allowed, which are typically staples for cupcakes. For Izzy’s birthday I wanted to send in a healthier version of cupcakes. Sunday, the day before Izzy’s birthday, I looked around the kitchen. I was hopeful I had food/ingredients I could use, without needing a grocery store run. I looked on Pinterest for inspiration. I knew I wanted to use my 3 browning bananas that I had put in the freezer earlier in the week. I also knew I wanted to make it dairy free, since Izzy has a friend in her class that can’t have dairy. I didn’t have enough of certain ingredients to make any particular recipe and not all were dairy free. So I crossed my fingers and began writing down the recipe as I made these Banana Oat Carrot and Zucchini Muffins… just in case they turned out good.

They came out great and have a slightly sweet taste (kind of like a cupcake). I brought them to Izzy’s school with the option for eating plain or adding strawberry and raspberry jams (kind of like frosting).

My husband and I loved these muffins, so I will be making them again. I hope you guys enjoy them too!

Ingredients

2.5 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup mashed bananas

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup shredded zucchini

1.5 cups shredded carrots

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

If you have an egg allergy you can replace both eggs with 1/2 cup of unsweetened apple sauce. I haven’t tried this before in this recipe, but I have done it in some others.

Directions

First use a food processor to create a flour like consistency with the oats.

Next mash up your bananas. I used my kitchen aid mixer for this.

Then I added the wet ingredients to the bananas in the mixer. I mixed up the bananas, eggs, vanilla extract, honey and maple syrup.

I then set my wet ingredients aside and used the front of my mixer to shred my carrots and zucchini. I added my mixer addition below, I use it for cooking a lot!

Now add the carrots and zucchini to the wet mixture & mix well. I kept the mixer going as I added the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Finally I slowly added the oats.

Now turn on your oven to 350. You may want to wait, depending how long your oven takes to heat up. While the oven heats the mixture will thicken as the oats soak. I waited about 15-20 minutes for mine to thicken up.

During this downtime I started to clean up my mess and cut out little circles from parchment paper to put in the muffin pan. Now pour the muffin mixture into the pan. Optional, add some oats to the top of each muffin and bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes. Use a toothpick to test the muffins. When the stick comes out clean, they are ready. Our batch made 14 muffins.

XO Eryka