Zucchini Magic

Zucchini Yogurt Multigrain Muffins

Ack! Has it really been since April that I've posted about something good?! Must not be anything all that good out there, huh? Well, I've been trying to find something delicious that had green stuff in it that Jakob just wouldn't be able to refuse. He's a really good breakfast eater, and that's really my only chance to have any influence on what he eats. All his other meals are with the babysitter or my parents. So, I've done the green smoothie (spinach or herbs with fruit and water), sneaked spinach into scrambled eggs, and now I've found muffins. I got this recipe from allrecipes.com, which is one of my moms favorite places to find something good. This recipe was shared by another mother who also lamented over her toddler not eating vegetables.

Here are my substitutions: Instead of plain yogurt, I used vanilla, and totally omitted the white sugar. I wasn't about to go looking for oat flour, so I whirled 1 cup of old-fashioned oatmeal in the mini processor, which came out to around 3/4 Cup.

I started Jakob off with 2 straight out of the oven muffins, and he shoved fistfuls of them into his mouth. He pounded his chubby fists together for "more" in sign language, mumbled the actual "more" words, and then rubbed his belly for "please." So, I'm thinking he loved them!

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease 24 muffin cups.
In a bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oat flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, vegetable oil, applesauce, yogurt, sugar, honey, and vanilla. Mix the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Fold in the zucchini, carrots, pecans, and raisins. Scoop into the prepared muffin cups.
Bake 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.