So it has come to this. I knew this day would come, but I did not know that the day I needed to disguise veggies would come so soon. The only green veggie that Nathan will eat is spinach in the form of Indian curried spinach, or saag paneer. He used to love zucchini and peas, and pretty much any veggie that I puree for him, but now at 1 year old, this discerning eater will spit out anything that has even a trace of chlorophyll. So far I've had luck with sneaking in some green in blueberry, yogurt and banana smoothies. Occasionally, he'll eat some green eggs (spinach or kale puree mixed with scrambled eggs) but recently he's been striking them down as well. Desperate mommies call for desperate measures.
I thought I would play it safe and try some muffins. The first cold front of the fall has come and with it, brought cravings for pumpkin. Looking in my fridge, I have a huge bunch of kale from my weekly CSA box, waiting to be used, so I decided that I would try to make a Pumpkin-Kale muffin.
Incorporating kale in a sweet dessert is a bit on the risky side, so I decided to see if anyone else on the interwebs has already ventured into this arena. I found one. However, the recipe that they used called for peanut butter, and while I love peanut butter and anything that has it, my little one is allergic to peanuts, so I had to make up my own recipe. I cut and pasted from different recipes, made substitutions to healthify (like banana for less sugar and oil) and an hour later, I have muffins.
The verdict: Yummy, but I feel like I could've gone a bit lighter on the spices. Steve likes the amount of spice, but thought that the recipe could've used a bit more sugar. For a healthy breakfast muffin, I think the amount of sugar is perfect. So, I guess if you have a sweet tooth like Steve, add up to 1/4 cup of sugar. If you tend to like things not too sweet, keep the recipe as it is.
This recipe made 1 mini muffin pan full of muffins + 5 cupcake sized muffins.
Dry Ingredients
1.5 c Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1.5 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger powder
1/2 t grated nutmeg
1/2 t freshly ground cloves
1/2 t freshly ground allspice
1/2 t salt
Wet Ingredients
1 ripe banana
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c cane sugar
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 oil (I used half canola, half olive)
2 t vanilla
puree kale leaves from 2 large stalks (stems removed)
Procedure
1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Puree the banana and kale leaves with the pumpkin. The liquid from the pumpkin and banana will make pureeing the kale go quicker. I used an immersion blender.
4. Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl and beat with a wire whisk.
5. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture at a time, gently mixing until dry ingredients are incorporated before adding more. You don't want to over beat this mixture and develop the gluten...unless you like dense and chewy muffins.
6. Fill muffin cups about a little over 3/4 full and bake for about 15-18 minutes. You can take them out once they are puffy and a toothpick comes out clean.
We'll see how the little one likes them tomorrow morning. I actually made another batch of muffins, but without the kale and banana. I upped the sugar to 1 cup total and added 1/4 cup of plain yogurt. Steve liked those better. You can see the difference in color. Ones up front have kale and banana. The ones in the back are just pumpkin.
I thought I would play it safe and try some muffins. The first cold front of the fall has come and with it, brought cravings for pumpkin. Looking in my fridge, I have a huge bunch of kale from my weekly CSA box, waiting to be used, so I decided that I would try to make a Pumpkin-Kale muffin.
Incorporating kale in a sweet dessert is a bit on the risky side, so I decided to see if anyone else on the interwebs has already ventured into this arena. I found one. However, the recipe that they used called for peanut butter, and while I love peanut butter and anything that has it, my little one is allergic to peanuts, so I had to make up my own recipe. I cut and pasted from different recipes, made substitutions to healthify (like banana for less sugar and oil) and an hour later, I have muffins.
The verdict: Yummy, but I feel like I could've gone a bit lighter on the spices. Steve likes the amount of spice, but thought that the recipe could've used a bit more sugar. For a healthy breakfast muffin, I think the amount of sugar is perfect. So, I guess if you have a sweet tooth like Steve, add up to 1/4 cup of sugar. If you tend to like things not too sweet, keep the recipe as it is.
This recipe made 1 mini muffin pan full of muffins + 5 cupcake sized muffins.
Dry Ingredients
1.5 c Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1.5 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger powder
1/2 t grated nutmeg
1/2 t freshly ground cloves
1/2 t freshly ground allspice
1/2 t salt
Wet Ingredients
1 ripe banana
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c cane sugar
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 oil (I used half canola, half olive)
2 t vanilla
puree kale leaves from 2 large stalks (stems removed)
Procedure
1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Puree the banana and kale leaves with the pumpkin. The liquid from the pumpkin and banana will make pureeing the kale go quicker. I used an immersion blender.
4. Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl and beat with a wire whisk.
5. Add 1/3 of the dry mixture at a time, gently mixing until dry ingredients are incorporated before adding more. You don't want to over beat this mixture and develop the gluten...unless you like dense and chewy muffins.
6. Fill muffin cups about a little over 3/4 full and bake for about 15-18 minutes. You can take them out once they are puffy and a toothpick comes out clean.
We'll see how the little one likes them tomorrow morning. I actually made another batch of muffins, but without the kale and banana. I upped the sugar to 1 cup total and added 1/4 cup of plain yogurt. Steve liked those better. You can see the difference in color. Ones up front have kale and banana. The ones in the back are just pumpkin.