Spiced Carrot Chia Muffins

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I used to be the type of person who would skip past any recipe online labeled as "healthy." However, I've started to shift my diet toward clean eating, which means I've been doing a lot of experimenting with recipes lately.  This spiced carrot chia muffins recipe is one of my favorites so far. After perusing multiple carrot cake muffin recipes online to get an idea of base ingredients/proportions, I attempted to make my own healthy version and am amazed at how good the recipe turned out! The muffins are ridiculously fluffy and moist, which I honestly wasn't expecting. My goal was to create a healthy muffin that would be passable as a dessert and satisfy my sweets craving, a boring healthy treat covered in the illusion of rich carrot cake, but these muffins are some of the best I've ever had--even without the addition of vegetable oil, white/brown sugar, egg yolks, butter, and flour.

Whether you're gluten intolerant, on a low-carb diet, reducing your sugar intake, or just looking for a tasty carrot muffin recipe period, these will not disappoint! And that's coming from a girl who loves sugar, carbs, and rich desserts ;)

First, place 3/4 cup raisins in a bowl of warm water and set aside until ready to use. This helps plump them up. Then in a small bowl, combine 1.5 cups almond meal, 1/4 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, and 1/2 tsp ginger. You can substitute the nutmeg/cloves/ginger for pumpkin pie spice if you want

I used this almond meal! You could easily just toss some almonds in a food processor and make your own, but I was feeling lazy

In a medium bowl, add 1 mashed banana and 1/4 cup honey

Add 2 tsp vanilla, 3 egg whites, and 1/3 cup melted coconut oil. Looks nasty right now, but I swear it turns into something amazing and delicious :)

 Add your raisins. I used golden raisins from Trader Joe's

Add 2 cups finely diced or grated carrots (I just threw some carrots in my food processor and pulsed until they were finely diced). Next add 2 tbs chia seeds! The recipe would be perfectly fine without them, but I wanted the extra fiber boost. Then mix in your dry ingredients

 At this point, I looked at the batter and decided it needed something more, since I was afraid it wouldn't stay moist after baking. I stirred in 1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt.  Adding it after the dry ingredients were incorporated didn't cause the world to burn, but feel free to add it earlier with the wet ingredients if you want

(Shout-out to my phone's camera for making the batter look like chunks of tomatoes)

Better picture here. Batter's all ready for the oven!

Divide the batter into 12 paper-lined muffin tins. I chose to sprinkle a little bit of coconut sugar on top of each muffin before baking, but this step is completely optional

 Bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked all the way through

And there you have it, beautiful/healthy/delicious carrot chia muffins

Nom nom nom

Spiced Carrot Chia Muffins

Ingredients:

1.5 cups almond meal

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1.5 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

*1/2 tsp nutmeg

*1/2 tsp cloves

*1/2 tsp ginger 

1 mashed banana (or 3/4 cup apple sauce)

1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup)

2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup melted coconut oil, cooled several minutes

3 egg whites

2/3 cup raisins

2 cups finally diced or grated carrots

2 tbs chia seeds

1/2 cup nonfat, plain Greek yogurt

Coconut sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

*Instead of nutmeg/cloves/ginger, feel free to use 1.5 tsp or so of pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1) Pre-heat oven to 350*.  Place raisins in a bowl of warm water and set aside until ready to use.

2) In a small bowl, combine almond meal, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.

3) In a separate medium bowl, combine mashed banana, honey, vanilla, melted coconut oil, yogurt, and egg whites. Stir in raisins, carrots, and chia seeds. Add dry ingredients.

4) Pour batter into a paper-lined muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked all the way through.