Veggie Muffins for Little Hands

Those little veggie-eggie muffins I make for Eleanor that you all wanted the recipe for? Here ’tis!

This is now something I make in my sleep (actually quite literally, I had a dream about making them the other night!) So much so that if there are no zucchini’s in the house I get a little twitchy. And eggs. Thankfully, our new hens have just started laying – hurruh! These can be frozen, so feel free to double these quantities and stock up for quick snacks or to pop in lunch boxes.

I’ve written this as a Thermomix recipe – controversial I know, but this is definitely a no-brainer to just do in a food processor, it’s more about the ingredients list and ratio of veg to egg to flour to cheese that I think is key. I also used to chop the veg, set aside, then chop the garlic/onion/bacon together and saute that, then add the veg back in etc. But who wants another bowl dirty? One bowl wonder Thermomix recipes are music to my ears, and I figured the onion and bacon was getting cooked when the muffins are baked in the oven, so now I just whack everything in together. If you are doing this in a food processor though you could quickly just fry off the chopped garlic/onion/bacon in a pan. I definitely think it would make them 27% more tasty, but no complaints from Eleanor yet!

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Veggie Muffins for Little Hands

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic
1/2 brown onion
4 rashers shortcut bacon
2 medium zucchini’s, roughly chopped1 medium carrot, roughly chopped
3-4 cup mushrooms
125g grated cheese
100 grams self-raising flour
4 eggs
2 teaspoons curry powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Chop garlic, onion, bacon, zucchini, carrot and mushroom for 3 seconds on Speed 6. The mix should look roughly like the photo above. I’ve found the consistency of the veg, combined with the ratio of veg to egg/flour, to be crucial in getting a great little delicious muffin that Eleanor devours.

Add cheese, flour, eggs, curry powder, salt and pepper. Mix on reverse, 10 seconds on Speed 4.

Pour into muffin trays (I use silicone bakeware, I’ve found in regular muffin trays these can stick more as they don’t have any oils in them, so use muffin cases or you could add in some oil to the mixture.) Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees.

As I’ve said, Eleanor absolutely inhales these. She would gladly eat about 8 in a sitting if I let her! Finger food is just the best, I can pop her in the highchair and crack on with cooking dinner for Matt and I sit down with a glass of wine and my crochet for ten minutes while Eleanor shovels these in her face with her chubby little hands. Nom nom nom!

Feel free to omit or add in any veggies you like – I’ve been known to throw in a handful of baby spinach, or capsicum, or broccoli, or tomato, or peas, or corn. I also add in various herbs (basil, sage, oregano, parsley, mint) or omit the bacon if we don’t have any handy. Eleanor loves the curry powder and I like her enjoying a variety of flavours, if you’re unsure about giving curry powder to your little eater just do a dash to begin with, then increase slowly in each batch you make.

Soon you’ll be dreaming of 2 zucchini’s + 4 eggs + 100g flour + 125g cheese like me! What a thrilling life I lead…