Food Stuff: Banana and blueberry muffins (with hidden vegetables)

I did a lot of searching around the internet for The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious recipes that were really simple and easy - who's got time for anything else? I tried a number of recipes, and in the end I decided to use those as inspirations for this one. It really is dead easy, and so long as you have a supply of frozen fruit and vegetable purees in the freezer you are good to go (if you have a child like mine who did not progress quickly to whole foods then you will always have a supply of purees handy!).

Preparation time: 10 minutes or less *
Baking time: 25-30 minutes
Makes ≈ 24 mini muffins.

Ingredients:

¾ cup of wholemeal flour
½ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
5 T soft brown sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (works out to be about 2 large bananas)
4 cubes vegetable (whichever you fancy), 1 cube fruit **
½ cup blueberries (I use frozen)

Preheat oven to 180° C. Spray muffin molds with cooking spray. In a large bowl beat sugar and oil together. Add eggs and beat well. Then beat in bananas and purees.

Add flour mix and blueberries to the wet mix. Fold in until just combined - do not over-mix (muffins will turn out dense and horrible).

NOTE: don’t worry, the mixture is supposed to be loose and wet.

¾ fill muffin molds with mixture, and bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out cleanly.

Let cool in molds for 5 minutes, then turn muffins out. Best served warm.

*A little planning goes a long way for me. To save time with the actual assembly of ingredients before baking I do a little of the preparation beforehand – like when I have a few minutes to spare in the evening when Kien is in bed. I put the measured flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a container. I put the frozen cubes of vegetables and fruit purees in a cup and they can thaw out overnight in the fridge.

**I make fruit purees like apple and pear by chopping up pealed fruit and microwaving them with a bit of water at the bottom of a bowl until tender – about 10 minutes on high using my little microwave. For vegetable purees I buy whatever is in season such as brocolli, zuchini or cauliflour. I steam the vegetables until still firm but not hard (al dente – although I’m not sure the Italian term can be used for vegetables). I use a stick bender to puree the fruit or vege, and freeze in ice cube trays.