These muffins are a healthy, go-to recipe in my house.  My kids love to eat them for breakfast and they’re packed with zucchini, carrots, apple and lots of other delicious good-for-you stuff. Sometimes I like to eat these muffins with a little all-natural peanut butter spread on top for a really filling snack!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds (optional)
• 2 large carrots, grated
• 2 medium zucchini, grated
• 2 apples, grated
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2  cup honey or maple syrup
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I like to use olive oil)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.  Grease a muffin tin or line with 12 paper muffin cups.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, coconut, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and flax seeds.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the honey, eggs, oil and vanilla.
4. Add the grated carrots, zucchini and apples to the egg mixture.  Stir to combine.
5.  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.  Add the walnuts and stir gently.  The batter will be very thick. Make sure to stir until all the flour has been incorporated into the batter.
6. Spoon the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups.  Don’t be afraid to fill the muffin cups right to the top if you want large bakery-style muffins!
7. Bake for 10 minutes.
8. Lower oven temperature to 350F and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre of muffin comes out clean.

*Yield: 12 large muffins