On The Menu: Carrot {Juicer} Muffins

Our juicer has been getting a workout lately! Taylor has been juicing up a storm & we've tried a plethora of juice recipes. My favorite juices tend to be "morning" juices - lots of carrots, apples, and oranges (and not very much celery, cucumber, or kale!).

One very common byproduct of juicing so often: leftover pulp! You can apparently do many things with leftover juice pulp: fertilize a garden, add it to a compost pile, feed chickens, etc. Since we live in a very small condo, in the middle of a city, without a backyard, we typically end up just throwing out the pulp anytime we juice.

Anyway, after a few weeks of throwing away veggie remains, I got the idea to search for a muffin recipe where I could actually use some of the pulp instead of throwing it away every time. Behold: carrot muffins!

I found the recipe on Pinterest here but made a few modifications. Here's my version of the recipe:

Carrot Muffins

(Typically makes about 18 muffins)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

Pinch of chia seeds

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

3-5 cups of "shredded veggies"

(ie carrot pulp or apple pulp or anything you want to put into your muffins)

1/2 cup pecans (or any other nuts you have on hand: almonds, pistachios, etc.)

3 large eggs

1 cup vegetable

2 teaspoons vanilla

A sprinkle of oats for decorating

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F and prep your muffin tin.

(Use pretty muffin cups so you smile every time you see one of the muffins)

Into a large bowl mix together flour, baking soda, flax, chia, cinnamon, and salt and whisk in sugar. 

Coarsely chop the nuts. 

Add carrot pulp and nuts to flour mixture and toss well.

In another bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla. 

Add add to flour mixture, stirring until batter is just combined well.

Divide batter among muffin cups, filling them three fourths full.

Sprinkle on some oats as garnish.

Bake until puffed, 15 to 20 minutes.

The muffins are dense, filling, and healthy (at least I'd like to believe they are healthy!). I try to add in whatever I can to make them full of good ingredients - more nuts, dried fruit, etc. I want to try using apple sauce instead of so much sugar next time I make them. 

Typically I make a batch on the weekend and then we have them as breakfast or as a snack during the week (I consider 1 muffin a serving & we wouldn't have a muffin for breakfast and for a snack in the same day!).

In terms of storage, I put the entire batch into a gallon ziplock (after they've cooled) and keep them in the pantry for a few days and then move them to the fridge. We typically eat them in about 2 weeks - they were a little dry towards the end but still good!

My favorite way to have them for breakfast is to heat one up in the microwave for a few seconds, cut it into quarters, and then spread a little bit of peanut butter on each quarter. Yum!