Leafy greens are one of the healthiest things you can eat. It’s packed with vitamins and nutrients that we need for optimal health. However, they aren’t the first things that children request. Sometimes it can be hard to get them to eat leafy greens at all. One of the ways I make sure that my kids are getting in more greens every day is by making these delicious Spinach Muffins. The best part is that these are sugar-free!
It is a common issue in America to have trouble getting your children (or even older members of the family) to get all of the healthy foods they need into their mouths. A lot of various factors play a part in this problem. One of the things that I find very important is to instill into my children the value of making healthy food choices. It can boost your energy, focus and improve your mood. Yes moms, a toddler’s tantrums may decrease if highly processed foods are kept at a minimum.
Although I give my children the speech about what is good for you, I cannot change that some of the best foods for your body do not have the same addictive and appealing taste as sweet treats. I am thankful that most of my kids love salads. They went to a small private Montessori school in Connecticut where their classrooms grew their own food and had a salad party. I truly believe that this made the difference in my children’s desire to each salads. Also, letting the children participate in preparing the salad usually gets them to eat more of it than usual.
Even with the salad party, spinach is still a tough sell for my children. Whether the spinach is in a raw state, steamed, roasted and sauteed, it just doesn’t get the love that it deserves in my house. So, I began making spinach muffins. Game changer! The children love them. I usually add it to their lunch to make sure they are getting extra healthy leafy greens, but it is hard to keep them from wanting to eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner once they are ready. There have been mornings where they woke up extra early to go into the kitchen and help themselves to spinach muffins.
One of the best things about this recipe is that it is sugar-free! Instead of using sugar, I use low glycemic coconut nectar. Do not be misled by the name, coconut nectar does not make these muffins have a coconut taste. In fact, I use coconut nectar for all of my sugar-free baking because it has a neutral sweet flavor to me. If you haven’t tried it yet I suggest giving it a try whenever possible. It is a pantry staple for me.
Also, this recipe can easily be adjusted to be vegan. You can use the milk of your choice. I prefer to use almond milk, and a few times I have used oat milk. You can remove the egg to make it a vegan recipe. I have also done this in the past and the structure and flavor pretty much remained the same. Lastly, you can make this recipe gluten-free by using almond flour instead. I have tried it in the past with kamut flour that I purchase from The Food Nanny website. When I use the kamut flour I adjust the flour measurement down to 1 1/4 cups of kamut flour.
These sugar-free spinach muffins are the lunch time staple for my family. I eat them. The kids eat them and even my grandmother eats them. I cannot express enough how much I love making this recipe and it only takes 30 minutes to come together. Give it a try today and share this recipe with all of your mom friends.
