Carrots for breakfast?

If they are good enough for Bugs Bunny, they are good enough for me. Especially if those carrots come in the form of spiced muffins with crunch walnuts.

These muffins are like little Trojan horses, but instead of sneaking in soldiers they sneak in fiber and protein. Don’t worry about that though, just sit back and enjoy cake for breakfast…

Makes: About 24 muffins, depending on the size of the tins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup red lentils
• 2 cups AP flour
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk (dairy milk, almond milk or oat milk)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten (or 6 tbsp lightly whipped aquafaba)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup walnut pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees f
2. Prepare muffin tin or tins by either lining with paper liners or greasing with butter or oil
3. Place lentils (1/2 cup) in a pot, cover with water, and boil for 15 minutes
4. Drain lentils thoroughly and set aside to cool
5. Stir together flour (2 cups), wheat germ (1/4 cup), baking soda (1 tbsp), ginger (1 tsp), cinnamon (1 tsp), cloves (1/4 tsp), nutmeg (1/4 tsp) and salt (1/2 tsp) in a large bowl
6. In a separate bowl, stir together milk (1 cup), eggs (2) canola oil (1/2 cup) and vanilla (1 tsp)
7. Add wet ingredient mixture to dry ingredients and stir until just barely combined, you want this batter to be lumpy so the muffins are tender
8. Add grated carrots (3 cups), walnut pieces (1 cup) and cooked lentils and stir into mixture
9. Distribute into prepared muffin tins, these will rise a bit but not too much
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the tops are firm and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean
11. Let cool 5-10 minutes before removing from muffin tins

Notes:

• These muffins freeze really well. I suggest that you wrap them individually, then you have a quick breakfast ready and waiting whenever you need it.