School mornings…they are just around the corner now. And if they are anything like my house, they involve a lot of rushing around trying to get everyone out the door and on the school bus/dropped off at school on time, while searching for lost shoes, misplaced homework, the pink-with-purple-sparkles-and-a-unicorn hair clip that MUST be worn today even though it hasn’t been seen in a month, and filling out permission slips that were due yesterday (that were found while searching for the above-mentioned misplaced homework). Oh, and in among all that chaos is the challenge of getting a quick and healthy breakfast in their tummies. Bonus points if it can be eaten on the go, right?
Well, I can’t help you find that hair clip or shoe (we are still looking for ours), but I can help out on the breakfast front.
A year or so ago, in an attempt to sneak a few extra veggies into my (then) non-veggie loving vegan kid, I came up with these oatmeal muffins. They taste like cinnamon oatmeal cookies, but are loaded with veggies, low in sugar and pass the “school safe” test too!
The key to making these muffins fly under the kid-veggie-radar is to shred the veggies very finely and double up on the vanilla and cinnamon. Trust me – they’ll never know these are healthy.
Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins
(yields 12 large muffins)
ingredients:
1 1/2 cup organic flour (I use light spelt but all purpose or half AP and half whole wheat is good too)
1/2 cup quick cook oats (not instant)
1/2 cup hemp hearts (or another half cup oats if you don’t have or want hemp)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 flax “egg” (1 tsp ground flax mixed with 2 tbsp hot water)
1 cup alternate milk of your choice (I used soy so I could send these to school)
1/4 cup oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup total shredded carrot and zucchini
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl combine dry ingredients. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk flax egg, oil, soy milk and vanilla.
Pour wet ingredients on top of dry. Add shredded veggies. Mix until just combined.
Scoop into paper lined or greased muffin tray and bake for 20 min. Let cool before serving.
(Optional: mix 2 tbsp granulated sugar with 1 tsp ground cinnamon and sprinkle on top before baking for a crunchy topping).
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