Zucchini Carrot Mini Muffin Recipe

The wonderful site that is Pinterest led me to a yummy muffin recipe (from It's Naptime Somewhere) that was recommended for children and involved zucchini. The main ingredient caught my attention, and since I already had what I needed just sitting in my kitchen, I had to try it.

Veggies + Muffin = Delicious

And try it I did with just a few minor tweaks to the recipe. The mini muffins are a wonderful size for babies who are eating finger food—although, I usually break it into smaller pieces since my 18-month-old twins are used to cut up chunks of food. They are also a nice, tiny size for an adult snack.

Another perk is that they contain no eggs, which is great for two reasons:

1. Little ones with an egg allergy can enjoy these muffins
2. Should your oven not be the most reliable* and fail to thoroughly cook the gooiness out of the muffins, you won't have to worry about salmonella

*My baking has been much more accurate ever since we got our Hamilton Beach oven thermometer. In case you're not familiar, it just sits or hangs inside of the oven and gives you the actual temperature reading. It turns out that our oven needs to be set about 25 degrees higher than what we actually want to get the right temperature. And it typically needs more time than the preheat timer suggests. I can't believe that I have lived most of my life not knowing these exist. Some are pretty inexpensive and should do the trick.


INGREDIENTS

• 1-½ cups flour**
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda***
• 3 bananas
• ½ cup applesauce or apple purée
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• ¼ cup sugar (or sweetener of your choice)
• 2-½—3 cups of zucchini and carrots (this works out to one zucchini and about 15 baby carrots)

**Using all purpose flour is fine. I ended up doing 1 cup of the all purpose and ½ cup of coconut flour.
***The original recipe calls for baking soda. I accidentally used baking powder. Really, either one is fine for this recipe since both help baked goods rise. I even looked up the differences and found a helpful chart in this article.


INSTRUCTIONS

Set oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Combine flour, cinnamon and baking soda into a bowl, and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mash your three bananas—a potato masher works great.

Stir in the applesauce, vanilla and sugar.

You can grate your zucchini and carrots, but I prefer to chop them up finely in my food processor. The ratio of zucchini to carrot is typically higher, but you can adjust your ratio to whatever you want. Just dump the chopped up pieces into a measuring container to check that you have the overall correct amount.

Throw the tiny pieces of zucchini and carrot into the wet mixture bowl and give it a good stir. Then slowly stir in the dry bowl mixture until your have one nice, colorful bowl of goop.

Grease your muffin pan and generously add mixture to each slot. It should be just the right amount for one tray of 24 mini muffins (or one tray of 12 regular muffins).

It's normal for the mixture to mound over

Bake for 30–40 minutes. You can check the centers with the toothpick trick—if it comes out clean, it should be done. But also take comfort in the fact that no eggs means no salmonella, and some gooiness in the middle won't hurt. The original recipe also recommends letting them cool completely to minimize gooey centers.

My favorite thing about trying this recipe for my kids was that if it turned out they didn't like it, then I had a whole mini muffin tray of treats just for Mommy. Yum!

Turns out that they do like it, but that doesn't mean I don't get to sneak one every now and again.

Cauliflower and Spinach Topper Recipe

After looking up ways to serve cauliflower as finger foods to babies, I found and made alterations to a cauliflower bake from a website that has a few different cauliflower baby food recipes.

The biggest change was that I added a bunch of spinach and more Parmesan cheese and made it more of a topper than a lone finger food. It's actually quite yummy for adults too—I've tried it on a few different things and as a side.

Cauliflower and spinach as finger food

MAKING THE STUFF

Frozen spinach and cauliflower (12 oz. bags)

INGREDIENTS

• One 12 ounce bag of frozen cauliflower
• 2 tbsp. butter 
• ½ large yellow onion
• 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk*
• Half of a 12 ounce bag of frozen cut leaf spinach
• ¼ tsp. garlic powder
• ¼ tsp. basil
• black pepper to taste (I used about ⅛ to ¼ tsp.)
• ¼ cup bread crumbs
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese

*Whole milk is only recommended if your child is at least 12 months old. You can try substituting in formula or breast milk if your child is younger.

NOTE: I prefer using frozen cauliflower and spinach because it is convenient and easy to store in case I don't cook with it right away. You can use fresh vegetables if you prefer. Just make sure that the spinach is properly chopped and the cauliflower is in small enough pieces so little ones can easily eat it.

INSTRUCTIONS

Cook cauliflower until nice and tender (another advantage of these frozen bags is that they are made to be steamed in the microwave).

Meanwhile, melt butter in a pan on medium to low heat, and sauté onions.

Switch to low heat. Blend in flour and slowly add milk until you have a smooth mixture.

Add spinach (thawing beforehand is not necessary) and stir occasionally until it is soft and cooked. Turn the heat back up to medium-low if necessary. Stir in garlic powder, basil and pepper.

Spinach and friends on the stovetop

Drain cauliflower and place in a 7 x 11 inch casserole dish. Pour spinach mixture on top. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

Generous amounts of Parmesan cheese (with bread crumbs) sprinkled on top

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Nice and lightly browned on top

EATING THE STUFF
My kids have tried this between the ages of 12 months and 16 months and have not been huge fans of eating it directly as a finger food (probably because it was a creamier texture than they were used to handling). So I cooked up some rotini pasta that I knew they liked and added it as a topper. Not only did it work, but I had some cauliflower, spinach pasta myself. It was yummy.

Eating cauliflower spinach pasta with the kids

Winry (left) examines each noodle while Henry (right) prefers to just dig in, February 2016

The kids chow down, February 2016

I've also eaten it as a side dish and tried it once as a topper to a turkey burger patty. So I highly recommend topping a bunch of toddler-friendly and adult-friendly foods with this cauliflower and spinach mixture. Enjoy!

Cauliflower and spinach topping a turkey burger for Mommy (with cranberries sprinkled on top)