Healthy Popeye Muffins Recipe for St. Patrick’s Day
Green Hulk Muffins Recipe
You may be wondering how these muffins are so green. Well, this may surprise you but there’s no artificial food coloring needed! These green muffins get their color from… spinach!
Now I know what you’re probably thinking… spinach in muffins sounds kind of gross. Well believe me when I say it, you can’t even taste the spinach at all in these muffins! They actually taste a bit like banana bread!
These spinach muffins are a perfect St. Patrick’s Day recipe or a healthy muffin snack for any day.
How to Get Your Kids to Eat Spinach Muffins
Of course, if you call them spinach muffins, the kids may not be very excited about eating them. To be honest, I don’t even tell my kids that they have spinach in them!
Try calling them Popeye Muffins (as in the old cartoon guy that loves spinach), hulk muffins, or basically anything else they like that has to do with the color green. Here are some other things that you could call them:
- Kermit
- Yoda
- Godzilla
- John Deere
- Shrek
- Peter Pan; and so on.
Flour Options
I use white whole wheat flour for this recipe and it works well in these muffins. However, you can try using whole wheat pastry flour or maybe even spelt flour.
The usual whole wheat flour would probably be a bit heavy for this recipe though.
Blend Your Spinach
About 5 ounces of fresh baby spinach right there! But you can keep the spinach a secret if you want to. Blend all that spinach up with some milk and melted virgin coconut oil.
Final Tips for Perfect Popeye Muffins
Be sure you have your muffin pan lined with muffin liners and your oven preheated before you combine the wet and dry ingredients. You want to get them cooking as soon as you can after mixing the batter so the muffins will rise properly.
These Spinach Muffins Taste Great!
I guarantee that you won’t taste the spinach in there! My kids love these muffins and I think you’ll like them too! They are dense, moist, and taste a little bit like banana bread. And they are definitely green in color.
(FYI. I had about 13 muffins worth of batter, so you may or may not want to prepare a second pan.)
Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!
More St. Patrick’s Day Recipes:
- Best Roasted Asparagus Recipe
- St. Patrick’s Day Float
- Green Monster Smoothie Recipe
- Healthy Shamrock Shake Recipe
- 18 St. Patrick’s Day Treats
See more St. Patrick’s Day recipes.
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Healthy Popeye Muffins Recipe for St. Patrick's Day
Ingredients
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup melted virgin coconut oil
- ⅔ cup milk
- 5 ounces fresh baby spinach
- ½ cup honey
- ½ cup mashed ripe banana about 2 bananas
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C and prepare a muffin pan with liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- Warm the milk slightly, to about room temperature. Add the spinach, melted coconut oil, and milk to a blender and blend until completely pureed. Add the mashed banana, honey, and vanilla to the spinach mixture in the blender and blend at a low speed, just to combine. Pour spinach mixture into the large bowl with dry ingredients and gently stir until combined.
- Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake immediately for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.