Carrot Orange Muffins

We are back from vacation and settled into the routine of school. For the first time ever we have an actual schoolroom to have our homeschool class. We ended up bunking the boys together and the girls together and that gave us an extra bedroom to finally dedicate to homeschooling. It's wonderful to finally have all of our books, supplies, art stuff and science kits all in one place!! Before, we forever carting things around the house and trying to keep the baby from getting into them. There have been plenty of times when scribble magically appeared on someone's workbook. That baby is so smart, she can already operate my cell phone and the dvd player!

Back to school or back to homeschooling, however you roll in your house, you are gonna need to eat. These are the BEST snack, breakfast or lunchbox muffins going. My kids loved them and I'm sure yours will too. They have lots of good stuff in them including nuts for protein. I used pecans, but you could use walnuts, cashews, whatever you like. 

These freeze well. Do what I do and wrap each one a plastic wrap and then throw them all in a freezer bag. When you need one, just pull it out. They thaw very quickly and it's such a timesaver!

Carrot Orange Muffins

from Grow It Cook It

Ingredients

1 c flour

1/2 c brown sugar

1/3 c grated carrots

3/4 c oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 c buttermilk

3 tbsp butter, melted

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 oz roasted nuts, chopped

1/2 c dried apricots, chopped finely

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1 lg orange, zest and juice

1 egg

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 c granola cereal

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add nuts, carrot, apricots, poppy seeds, oats and orange zest. Mix well.

In a medium sized bowl, mix buttermilk, egg, melted butter, and orange juice. Pour this wet mixture into the dry mixture bowl and stir together lightly with a spoon. Leave lumps. Lumps are good when making muffins or quick (non-yeast) breads.

Spoon mixture into greased or lined muffin pan. Bake for 15 minutes.