Is it Muffin Day?

At my daughter's daycare they do Muffin Day every Friday. This means on Friday mornings there are fresh baked muffins for the tots and their parents (and coffee, what says "worth the money I'm paying for this place" quite like coffee to go right at the door of your child's daycare on Friday morning?) My daughter looks forward to Muffin Day all week long and asks every night if it's going to be tomorrow.

I like to make muffins at home for her for this reason. It makes her so happy when she asks if it's muffin day and I can assure her that yes, yes it is. She also loves to help me cook and muffins are a great easy task for a pre-schooler to help with. HOWEVER! I do not like feeding my daughter sugary snacks, mostly because I hate the buzz she gets off the stuff. I also know she does not eat veggies, ever, never, picks out even the teeny tiny bits and puts them on my plate saying "here you go Mom, I don't like this" So I found a muffin that not only has protein in the form of peanut butter (yeah, I said it, peanut butter, for a small child, how dare I!?), but also has vitamin B, vitamin C, potassium, vitamin A, and a good amount of fiber.

These are definitely a great way to supply your child (or spouse, or yourself, just don't let other kids eat them, there is contraband peanut butter in them after all) with a healthy snack or breakfast munch when served with some yogurt and fruit. Kids (and spouses) go nuts for the chewy muffins with an almost brownie-like consistency and you love how healthy they are!

Here is my kid-helper friendly recipe (credit to Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld):

* I suggest getting all the ingredients lined up and carrots and bananas pre-pureed before calling your child over to help so that the process keeps their attention.

Peanut Butter Muffins (...with bananas and carrots)

1/3 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup light peanut butter
1/2 cup pureed carrot
1/2 cup mashed banana
1 egg white (I use brown eggs for everything)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Spray a muffin tin sheet with a natural cooking spray and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine agave, peanut butter, pureed carrot, banana, and egg. If you have a child helping you can let them carefully mix all the ingredients together using a large wooden spoon or heavy rubber spatuala.

An easy task for kids is the dry ingredients because they can just shake them up in a ziploc bag. I usually do the measuring and let my daughter dump them all in the bag, then I close it up and let her shake away (make sure the bag is well sealed)

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet and combine until it is a good mixed but lumpy consitencey, you should never mix muffins until smooth or they will be tough. Evenly distribute the mixture into muffin tin, it should nicely divide into 12 muffins.

Bake the muffins at 350 for between 15 and 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out nice and clean.

These muffins will store in the fridge for about a week, I don't like to store them at room temperature because I worry about fermentation but they can be warmed with a quick zap in the microwave if you prefer your muffins served warm. Some say these can be frozen for a month but I presonally don't like how it depretiates the taste.