My children aren’t easily fooled. When I switched over to whole-wheat flour a few years ago they all revolted. Entire pans of muffins, cookies, and cakes turned moldy as my children said, “No thanks; I prefer to starve.” I even tried buying the soft white wheat which, though not as healthy, is still much healthier than white flour, but they still recognized it as “not junk food.”
I did, however, find ONE healthy muffin recipe that still has them all fooled: my pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin makes the batter so creamy that the kids can’t taste the grit of the wheat flour. The mini chocolate chips make them think they are eating a dessert or treat, when in reality these muffins are so healthy that we use them as a breakfast food (hey; they’re healthier than cold cereal, waffles, or pancakes which are all loaded with sugar or drenched in sugary syrups!).
The problem is that I am getting SICK of making the same muffins over and over! I own several healthy cooking cookbooks whose muffins all taste bland and, well, healthy! Does anyone in the blogosphere have a kid-friendly, HEALTHY muffin recipe? I’m talking healthy enough to eat for a MEAL? If so, please post it or send it to me!
Here’s my recipe (to see pictures of these muffins, click here.)–
Sugar-Free Pumpkin Muffins
1 and 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking poweder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup raisins or coconut (I prefer miniature semisweet chocolate chips–NOT milk chocolate which is too sugary–but this does add sugar to the recipe, though just a bit. The raisins weren’t as kid-friendly)
Mix wet and dry ingredients separately, then mix together until combined. Bake in muffin cups at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
*Need more healthy muffin recipes? Visit http://themuffinmom.wordpress.com/
"La donna è mobile" means "woman is fickle" in Italian. This is the blog of one very fickle, super-busy gradschooling mother of five. I blog to share what I'm glad I learned and want others to know.
I'm just thrilled with the way this series of books ended! Call me old-fashioned, but pro-family values and pro-abstinence (before marriage) in teen fiction always make for a pleasant and delightful read!
4 Comments
December 6, 2007 at 5:58 am
Take a look at my recipe for High Omega-3 Pumpkin Cupcakes for a cariation. Our recipes are similar but I had just read “The Queen of Fats” and wanted to make the Omega-3s has high as I could. So used walnuts and no chocolate. Go to my blog and click on cooking or scroll down, the url is too long. I will try your recipe.
December 6, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Here is my kids’ favorite healthy recipe:
http://icecreamdiary.blogspot.com/2007/04/let-them-eat-cake.html
I also use whole wheat in corn muffins and the kids can’t tell because the corn meal is already gritty.
Oh, and I have a whole wheat, peanut butter, and honey cake that kids and adults both love. Do you still ahve that cookbook I made for mom? It is in there, called Kansas Kids Cake. I should post the recipe on my blog too.
I have found that any whole wheat muffin /cake recipe needs spices (like cinnamon) to help hide the strong flavor of whole wheat; and that applesauce, instead of oil, makes it thick enough not to notice the wheat too.
Good luck. And don’t forget to share the recipies that your kids end up liking.
May 2, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I just came across this post the other day, and I finally have a recipe on my blog to share with you.
We tried your pumpkin muffins, and we adored them! Thanks for sharing.
January 30, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I know this was a post from a long time ago, but I wanted to tell you that I used this recipe (with the chocolate chips) for my son’s 4 year old pre-school class. Each student asked for a second one. The teacher was impressed about the sugar content. I didn’t tell her they were whole wheat! Anyway, I will be using this recipe again and again! Thank you for sharing!