My healthy carrot muffins will go down a treat with anyone looking for a delicious, filling bake that is low in refined sugar. They’re packed full of nutritious ingredients and suitable for vegans. As they’re nut free too they are perfect for kids lunch boxes although I must admit to eating as many of them as my kids do!
I only started making a daily lunchbox for my picky eating seven year old in September last year and while we got off to a good start, by December he was coming home with a full lunch box several times each week. Yes, that’s right – he hadn’t eaten any of his lunch. When I asked him why he said that he wasn’t given enough time at school to eat but I think that was just an excuse. The reality is that he has a limited amount of foods that he’s willing to eat and so of course he does end up eating the same thing quite a lot.
This is in fact known as food jagging and it’s really common with kids who only eat a few different things. They will eventually get bored of having the same thing over and over again. The advice is to serve up familiar foods but in different formats – so for example if your kid likes apples then try serving sliced apples one day, apple sauce another and apple muffins on a different occasion.
If this is something that you are struggling with as well then I recommend that you check out the resources offered by Simone Emery of Play With Food* – her video courses have really helped me out and there are plenty of invaluable free articles and tips on her site too.
These healthy carrot muffins are part of my new year resolve to ensure that at least some of my son’s lunch gets eaten every day. While carrots are definitely not on his “safe food” list – cake usually is!
Wish me luck…
Incidentally the chia seeds are in these muffins to add nutritional value rather than as an egg substitute, which is why they’re not ground up. You can leave them out if you don’t have any available. I’ve tried to include as many nutritional ingredients as I can in these muffins – including a portion of hidden vegetables as well.
Here’s how to make healthy carrot muffins:
Save RecipeIngredients
- 250g carrots, grated
- 125g sultanas
- 100g sunflower oil (olive works as well)
- 1 tbsp whole chia seeds (optional)
- 15g pumpkin or sunflower seed, chopped
- 125g maple syrup
- 250g spelt flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 4 tbsp milk (I used oat milk)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan)/180°C/gas mark 4.
- Line a muffin tin with 12 paper muffin cases and set aside.
- Mix the grated carrot, sultanas, oil, seeds and maple syrup together in a large mixing bowl.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and spices together and fold into the carrot mixture.
- Finally stir through the milk. You'll have quite a sticky mixture.
- Spoon the mixture into each of the paper cases and bake for 25-30 minutes until firm to the touch and cooked through.
- Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container for 2-3 days or in the freezer.
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