Are you looking for a healthy breakfast using a seasonal ingredient and greek yogurt? Try these bloody orange-carrot yogurt muffins! The muffins are sweet, nutritious, and perfect for breakfast or a snack. They are also ideal for packing in a child’s lunchbox. I was contacted by Chobani to participate in the Made with Chobani Challenge to create a unique and healthy recipe with their delicious yogurt. Given that Chobani has so many interesting flavors to chose from, I decided to make bloody orange muffins, since they are in season, super sweet and beautiful in color. I needed another ingredient to pull them together, so I added a cup of pulsed organic baby carrots to the mix.
The entire recipe was all done in my food processor which made clean up and preparation super easy. Feel free to substitute all of the flour with whole wheat or add some of your own touches to the recipe (such as adding ground ginger, ground all spice, a tablespoon of wheat germ, etc). If you don’t have a bloody red orange, use a navel orange and your flavor will be similar. If you want a less sweet muffin, reduce the sugar and/or substitute it with maple syrup or agave syrup. I like to add raisins to my muffins but I think cinnamon chips or cranberries would work also. If you prefer nuts, you can also add those in at the end of the recipe.
Want to make these into a dessert? Delete the raisins and top the muffins with your favorite cream cheese frosting!
Carryover Picture Books: Reading books with your children during a snack or mealtime is an excellent opportunity to bond, work on language and learning, and have important conversations about various topics. Here are some recommendations of picture books based on the ingredients in this recipe: Carrot Seed, How Did That Get In My Lunchbox, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Little Bitty Bakery, The Big Orange Splot
Looking for more carrot recipes? Try this Roasted Carrot Bread or Carrot Quinoa Muffins
Baking with your child?
Encourage your child to participate in the steps of the recipe including measuring, combining, pouring, etc. Discuss the steps of the recipe and key vocabulary words (e.g. orange, pulse, combine, pour, heat, bake, etc). Discuss why the orange is called “bloody red”. Encourage your child to describe the flavor, color and smell of the orange. If you have a regular orange, compare the two types of oranges and discuss the similarities and differences. Work on food groups by categorizing the various ingredients into its appropriate group (e.g. applesauce in fruit, buttermilk in dairy, etc). Play a game with your child by having them close their eyes and smell the surprise ingredient. Can they guess what it is?
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1 cup all purpose white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of table salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 cup baby carrots
1/2 teaspoon of a zest of bloody orange
2 tablespoons bloody red orange juice
1/4 apple sauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
5.3 ounces of Chobani Bloody Red Orange Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of raisins
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1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a standard muffin pan.
2. In a food processor, pulse the baby carrots until the pieces are tiny and almost pureed. Add zest of orange through buttermilk and pulse until well combined. Add in vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour through cinnamon.
4. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and pulse until combined.
5. Pour batter into a large bowl and add raisins (or a mix in of your choice)
6. Bake in a greased muffin pan for 12-15 minutes or until done. Makes 12 standard muffins.
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