green smoothie muffins

I am very lucky because I have no problem getting Ethan to eat his fruits and veggies. His preferred snack is always some vegetables and hummus, he can't keep his hands out of the tomatoes when I'm trying to get lunches ready and he chugs green smoothies with weirder ingredients than I admittedly would touch (like spirulina). Still, smoothies can be messy and sometimes I don't have time to prepare one before we rush out the door on our daily adventures or errands. Muffins are super convenient because they freeze well, are filling and you can prepare a whole bunch of them to last you a long time. Muffins make the perfect to-go snack which is helpful in our always-on-the-go life. These are the kind of muffins that I'm totally cool with letting Ethan have for breakfast or as just a snack.

If I had adequate baking gear, I would have made these completely in mini-muffin tins. However, I ran out of mini muffin tins and so I made the rest in regular sized muffin tins. The regular sized muffins took longer to cook by a good 10-12 minutes and seem to be Ethan's preferred breakfast meal whereas the mini muffins are a better little snack because they're not as filling.

The first thing you need is some vegetable puree -- aka the green smoothie portion of these green smoothie muffins. I didn't really measure how much of everything I put in, but I wound up with a tiny bit more than 2 2/3c of vegetable puree and it worked perfectly. I threw in some steamed broccoli, steamed cauliflower, a banana, 1/2 pear, carrots, zucchini, spinach and a couple splashes of some prune juice. My mixture needed a little more liquid so I added a Happy Baby banana, beet and blueberry puree pouch. I threw this all in a food processor and pureed until smooth and then set aside.

In my mixer, I threw in two eggs, 3 tbsp unsalted butter, 1/4c brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of honey and beat until smooth. Blend the puree mixture into the egg mixture until combined and then add 1/4c Greek yogurt (I used plain).

In another bowl, add 2c flour (I used a gluten free blend), 1/4c raw cacao powder (optional, but Ethan is pro-all things chocolatey) and 3/4 tsp baking soda. I also added a few dashes of cinnamon, cloves and allspice but didn't really measure. Whisk the dry ingredients together and fold into the wet ingredients.

Pour into muffin tins (preferably mini muffin tins if you have!) and bake at 350 degrees. It took my mini muffins 20 minutes to be ready and my standard size muffins 30 minutes to be ready.