I love a muffin in the morning with my coffee or tea, but I find most muffins are a bit too sweet for me that early in the day. So I created these muffins, which are sweetened only with fruit and loaded with veggies, nuts, seeds, and oats. Ripe bananas, apples, raisins, and cinnamon add plenty of sweetness and that classic morning glory flavor. These are great low sugar, high-fiber, nutrient-dense morning or anytime snack!
Ingredient highlight
Pumpkin seeds! These cute green seeds are a great source of vitamin K, magnesium, iron, and zinc, to name a few. I love adding them raw to smoothies and sauces for a creamy texture or simply roasting them (like these spice seeds!).
Servings 12 muffins
Prep Time 15 minutes 
Cook Time 35 minutes Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats
- 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup raw walnuts or pecans
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup ripe mashed banana*
- 2 cups grated carrot (about 2-3 carrots)
- 1 cup grated apple (about 1 apple)
- ½ cup raisins
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Note: ~ if you have a smaller or narrow blender, you may want to blend the dry ingredients in two batches or just blend the oats and nuts/seeds separately and stir it into the wet ingredients along with the spices, etc…
- Banana ripening hack! ~ If you don’t have super ripe bananas and don’t want to wait, here's what you can do. Place your yellow (don’t use green ones) bananas on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake in a 300F oven for 30-40 minutes (or a 400F oven for 20 minutes), or until blackened and some juices are bubbly out. Let cool enough to handle. Cut the peel open and squeeze the banana flesh out, draining off any excess liquid. Mash up and use!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a standard muffin tin with 12 parchment muffin cups.
- In a high-speed blender or food processor, add the oats, seeds, nuts, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, and salt. Blend until everything is roughly chopped and combined (you don’t want it blended into a fine flour – keeping it a bit chunky adds texture).
- In a large bowl, add the mashed banana (or just add bananas and mash it in the bowl). Add the carrot, apple, raisins, oil, eggs, and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Transfer the dry ingredients from the blender into the bowl and stir until thoroughly combined. The batter will be thick.
- Divide the mixture between the muffin cups, filling slightly above the brim. Bake for 35 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned and crisp.
- Let cool (paper liners will remove more easily once cooled).
Items you can prep ahead (optional)
- Blend up the dry ingredients
- Grate 2 cups carrot and 1 cup apple
- Mix the batter together and bake the muffins
Substitutions:
- To make vegan, try using flax eggs.
- To make nut-free, use pumpkin or sunflower seeds in place of walnuts.
- Skip the raisins or substitute them with chocolate chips or additional chopped walnuts.
Storage:
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days or freeze for up to 2 months.
Leftovers + Repurposing:
- I like these gently warmed in the microwave and topped with a pat of butter.
- This might seem odd but if you add a muffin to a blender with 1 cup of water and ½ cup of plain Greek yogurt and blend it up until smooth, it turns into a creamy milk-shake consistency. You could add some extra spices, sweetener, or even apple and carrot. Now you’ve got a morning glory smoothie!
