[Vegan] Veggie Muffins

I've been so anxious to share this recipe with you! I adapted this from Dana Made it to make them vegan! Well... almost. I did put regular yogurt in them, but I know there are yogurt substitutes. You can also leave out some of the applesauce and use eggs if you like. That's included in the ingredients!

These were to get Michael to have more veggies in his system. Lately he really won't eat them. I think it's important to make sure he gets something green, and nothing seems to be cutting it. So... pureed broccoli, anyone? These may sound gross, but I tried one and I promise they're actually tasty. Just a different kind of banana muffin, really!

Ingredients:

- 1/4 C apple or prune juice
- 1.5 to 2 C whole broccoli pieces, frozen or fresh

- 3 mashed bananas
- 1/2 grated carrots (I used julienne cut carrots because I had them and, well, sometimes I'm lazy)
- 1/4 C yogurt (I used plain non fat, but if you're going vegan you can use a substitute-- you can also use a flavor if you like!)
- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/4 C to 1/2 C sugar (optional-- if you use a flavored yogurt or sweetened applesauce, I really don't think you need the sugar at all)
- 1/4 C butter (or Earth Balance)
- 2 eggs or 1/2 C unsweetened applesauce (if the batter gets too thick feel free to add a little more applesauce or another type of oil)

- 2 C whole wheat flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

- Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare your muffin pan(s). I made one batch of minis plus a batch of regular sized, so I imagine this makes around 24 regular muffins.
- Use a food processor and puree your broccoli and apple juice together. It should come out looking something like this:

- Mix together your sugar, butter and applesauce in a large bowl. Next add your broccoli to it.
- Add your bananas, carrots, yogurt, and vanilla.
- Last, pre-mix your dry ingredients and then add them to your overall mixture.
- Fill your prepared muffin pan(s).

- Bake between 25 and 30 minutes. Check on them every so often, because the minis finished for me before the regular, so if you're making minis perhaps set your timer for about 18 minutes and then go from there.

Enjoy! I took about half of ours and put them in the freezer (after removing the wrappers, of course). If you do this, probably use them within a few weeks as it is. Stick them in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds and they feel like they're fresh out of the oven!

Michael certainly approved (he was watching Monsters Inc, the new favorite in our house)... and our dog was more than happy to try and sample some as well.