ABC Muffins

I hope everyone is having a grand weekend.  I am just finishing mine up with a dinner out with Kevin and my parents.  We're going for Mexican tonight and I can't wait to get me some yummy salsa, mexican rice, and beans!

I had the afternoon to kill time today after meeting up with one of my best girlfriends to help figure out how to bustle her wedding dress for this July.  All I can say is, she is going to be an absolute georgous bride!

I had two beets in the fridge that I have been needing to use up, so, at first I thought to make a shredded raw beet, carrot, and apple salad.  Once I got done shredding the produce in my handy food processor, I just knew that I wasn't going to enjoy eating it as a salad, and would inevitably end up throwing half of it out.  I decided to go ahead and make something similar to zucchini bread, but with shredded apples (A), beets (B), and carrots (C) and in muffin form (Get it?  ABC Muffins?) to have for breakfast and snacks during the week.

I have never been the most particular baker, so I just started throwing things together to make a batter, and low and behold, it turned out great!  Here is my recipe...

ABC Muffins
Time: 20 minutes prep, 20 minutes baking per batch
Servings: 24 cupcake size/12 muffin size

Ingredients:
        Shredded: (about 4 packed cups total)
                2 medium raw beets, washed, peeled and shredded
                4 medium carrots, washed, peeled, and shredded
                3 medium apples, washed, peeled, and shredded

        Batter:
                1 + 1/4 cup water
                1 cup old fashioned oats
                1 cup pitted dates
                1 cup whole wheat flour
                1 cup walnuts
                2 ripe bananas
                2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
                1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
                1 tsp cinnamon
                1/2 tsp ground ginger
                1/2 tsp nutmeg
                1/2 tsp baking powder
                pinch salt (optional)
       Mix-in:
                1/2 cup raisins (optional)
                1/2 cup old fashioned oats
                
Instructions:

1. With a food processor (or by hand if you are feeling so gung-ho), shred the apples, beets, and carrots.
2. Place the shredded ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined.  Set aside while you make the batter.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. In a rinsed food processor, combine the batter ingredients (water, oats, dates, whole wheat flour, walnuts, bananas, ground flaxseed, vanilla, spices, and baking powder) and process until a thick, fairly smooth batter forms.  Add more water to thin if necessary.  It should be about the consistency of  mashed potatoes, not quite pancake batter.
4. Place the batter into a large bowl and stir in the Mix-in ingredients (rasins and oats).
5. Add one cup of the shredded ABCs and stir in until well combined.  Add another cup and stir, and so on until the 4 cups of shredded ABCs have been well mixed in.  
6. At this point your batter should be well mixed and thoroughly pink from the beets.
7. Prepare a cupcake or muffin pan with cup liners.  Scoup 1/4 cup of the ABC batter into each cupcake holder (up to 1/2 cup for a muffin pan).  Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a bit of rolled oats if you want.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  Serve hot or cold.  Keep leftovers in the refriderator.

Amy's notes:

These muffins end up being a bit messy and make your kitchen temporarily pink, but boy are they good AND nutritious!  If you are not a huge fan of beets (I'll admit, it took me a while to aquire a taste for them), feel free to replace the beet with more carrots and apples.  Or all carrots.  Or all apples.  Whatever you want really.

I would highly suggest that you use cupcake/muffin liners, as these end up being quite sticky, and would be hard to get out of the molds.