Looking to get some extra veggies in? Sneak some spinach in with these tasty and simple Green Smoothie Muffins! Delicious and wholesome, and no one will know there are veggies in them!
While I love to be in the kitchen, I will tell you baking scares me more than anything. It is the one thing that either is a go or an absolute no go. There’s just no in between. And if you mess up the first batch, it’s not a quick little fix to go back and try again. It’s typically a good hour or so of your time and no matter how many times you cross your fingers, things still may not go as planned. So often, when working on baking recipes, they never make it to a published post. If you see a baked good here, know that it’s a big deal.
I have been playing around with muffins lately. These Green Smoothie Muffins were my first success and only took three tries. Hallelujah! I have a couple more hopefully coming, but they are still in the tweaking stage.
So about these muffins. Over almost 6 years of marriage, I have become really good about sneaking in healthy foods into what I feed Anthony and have many triumphs that he is literally unaware of. These Green Smoothie Chocolate Muffins are the latest of such triumphs. These muffins would be Popeye’s Dream! That’s right, packed with spinach and yet completely undetectable. If you are trying to sneak veggies into a child’s…or husband’s for that matter… diet, then try these!
A few things to note. I only opted for chocolate chips on the top to make them a little less sweet but the time I added them into the batter was pretty dreamy. So feel free if that’s what you want to do. As for flour, I played around a lot with this one on combinations, and settled on buckwheat and whole wheat pastry flour. If you are looking to stay gluten free, I don’t suggest going full on buckwheat. Instead opt for perhaps an all-purpose gluten free flour. And if buckwheat flour isn’t something you have around, try either oat flour or just use all whole wheat pastry flour. These were the flours that I played around with and they should work.
Enjoy a nice green smoothie, but take it to a whole new level. And don’t worry, no one has to know our secret!
Green Smoothie Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 very ripe bananas
- 2 large handfuls baby spinach
- 3 T milk (almond milk or regular both work!)
- 2/3 c cacao or cocoa powder
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 c Greek yogurt full fat
- 3 T oil
- 1/4 c dark chocolate chips optional, if adding to batter, use 1/2 cup
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1 c whole wheat or white flour
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine almond milk and spinach in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.
- Add bananas and pulse until broken down and smooth with some lumps.
- Transfer "smoothie" to a medium mixing bowl.
- Add egg and stir to lightly whisk.
- Add sugar, vanilla, coconut oil and Greek yogurt and stir to combine.
- In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, sea salt and cacao and stir to combine.
- Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir to fold in.
- Line a 12 muffin pan with muffin liners and spoon batter into each.
- Add chocolate chips to the tops of each muffin.
- Bake for about 18-22 minutes or until you can put a toothpick in the center and it comes up clean.
- Cool for several minutes before serving.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3-5 days.
Looks great. I love adding greens to breakfast. Do you know if I could substitute ground oats for the flours?
I think that would be ok. I did one version with 1/2 oat flour and it seemed to work well.
These were fabulous! I wanted to make them so bad that I just went with what I had- frozen spinach (used two cups) and a mix of stone ground wheat flour and white wheat flour, with a tsp of toffee bits on top. I wasn’t sure how they would come out but even with the changes they are delicious, and the texture is marvelous, more like a cupcake, but not as sweet (I did add a bit of stevia in addition to the maple syrup). Will definitely make these again- it’s not often you stumble across a treat as guilt-free as this one! Thank you for sharing! Oh, and even though there was a hint of green when I was mixing them, when they bake up, noone would know there was spinach in them.
I am so glad these worked out for you Tamra even with the changes. Glad to know frozen spinach is undetectable as well. Thanks so much for sharing!!!
These look delicious! I know when I use spinach in smoothies it has a really distinct taste unless the other ingredients balance it out. Do you taste the spinach at all in these?
Mike, I can guarantee that if you could taste the spinach in these I wouldn’t be eating them. Definitely stray from using frozen spinach as I always feel that tends to have a really strong taste for sure!
Hello! Would you happen to have the nutritional value for these DELICIOUS muffins? I am trying to keep calories and would love the info! Thanks so much!
Hi there! Sorry for the delay in responding! Due to my history with obsessing over the numbers, I don’t calculate the numbers like calories and what not. A lot of my readers who do just plug the ingredients into an app or site that will then calculate it. Hope that helps!
How can I make these dairy free? Please tell me there is a way!
Absolutely! Just use a dairy free yogurt and you should be fine!
These are unreal. My newest go to muffin recipe! Thank you!!
Shannon this is so amazing to hear!!!! Thanks for sharing and so glad you love them! ??
Hey, what does it mean 1/3 c ??? Its completely illisible for me, im in Paris and nobody uses it here. Can you please translate it to European measuring system ? thank you !
Hi! From what I have read, 1/3 c is about 80mL. Does that help? Hope so!
Great recipe for my kids’ healthy breakfast to serve with berries and a glass of milk. I made a few edits: subbed 1 Tbsp coconut oil + 2 Tbsp applesauce to cut back on fat. I also used sweetened vanilla Greek yogurt, so I replaced the white sugar with 1 Tbsp maple syrup and it was just the right amount of sweetness with that of the banana, yogurt and applesauce. I’ll make these again!
So great to hear! Thanks for sharing the substitutions you made as I know other readers will appreciate seeing those!