Carrot and Apple Sauce Muffins, a recipe in the making

Do you ever dream of creating a recipe only to wake up and find that you only remember a small portion of the recipe? This happened to me today. In my dream I was creating a marinade for grilled chicken. I could only remember a couple of ingredients like soy sauce and orange juice. Not very helpful but I still tried to recreate it today. The post will come later in the week. I will let you know if it was successful or a fail.

This did inspire me to create a new muffin recipe. I have been thinking about carrots and apples all week. I made an apple crisp this week but it was not my favorite. The kicker is I wanted a little bit last night after I got off work only to find out my rice dream ice cream had been consumed by the hubby. Waaa Waa! I know... I was sad too! Today after I woke up from my marinade dream I decided to make muffins for this weeks grab and go breakfast. Hopefully, it would also take care of my craving for apples in the process.

I wanted to create a recipe from scratch that I could call my own and hopefully I made it tasty in the process. Let's just say.....Success!! It was delicious. The only thing I  will adjust next time is the amount of cardamon I put in it. It was a little strong but I liked it. I liked that it was a little spicy. Kind of a break from my normal muffins. I also did not have any more fresh apples but I did have apple sauce in my pantry. I saw on a fellow bloggers site that they paired these two together. I have used apple sauce before in muffins in place of oil but never for apples. Weird, I know. They were excellent. Woo hoo! A way to start the day with a smile on your face.

One of many original recipes to come from me, I hope. I am so proud of it:) If you do not like the cardamon, you can use another spice in its place. Maybe, nutmeg? Hmmm. I hope this will inspire your creative juices.

I had a lot of fun cooking in the kitchen today. It makes me feel good to know that my husband will be eating good food this week for breakfast and lunch. It also was good to let the stress of the past week melt away in the heat of the oven. Cheesy, I know but still true. I hope you give these a try and I look forward to posting more recipes this week.

Carrot and Applesauce Muffins
created  by Melissa DeWees

Ingredients
2 c of all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of cardamon
1 c shredded carrots
3/4 c soy milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 T veg oil
1 egg
3/4 c apple sauce
3/4 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar for topping

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F and line 12 muffin tins. In a bowl mix flour, cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, and  baking powder together and set aside.

 In another bowl mix carrots, egg, oil, vanilla, apple sauce, sugar, and milk.

Combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Divide evenly between the 12 cups and top with the brown sugar.

Bake for about 18 minutes or until toothpick comes out mostly clean. Let cool and then enjoy!

I hope everyone is have an awesome Monday!!