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Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! How about some muffins to add to your Mother’s Day brunch, or breakfast in bed to show Mom you love her.

I love breakfast, but I don’t like eating it in the morning when I’m supposed to. It seems like so much effort when it’s so early in the morning. That’s why I love easy to grab things like muffins! The perfectly portable breakfast, or a tasty mid-morning snack. I prefer the sweet and fruity instead of savory muffins. As much as bacon is a breakfast item, I just can’t wrap my mind around it being in a muffin (or in a cupcake). Hence I stick to the sweets, loading my muffins with fruits, mild vegetables, and spices.Morning Glory muffins always seemed appealing in name and appearance, but due to my pickiness, I don’t eat half the ingredients in the muffins. No coconut, no nuts, no raisins… The best solution seemed to create my own muffin, combining different aspects from muffins and quick breads that I love. Thus was born the Morning Harvest muffin! Zucchini bread meets carrot cake meets apple muffins. If you prefer, you can dice the apples instead of shredding them.

Pressing most of the juices out of the fruits and vegetables helps to reduce some moisture in the muffins, preventing sogginess but still keeping them moist

Morning Harvest Muffins
Note: If you wish to make them a little bit healthier with more fiber, use 1½ cups all-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour

2½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup old-fashioned oats
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground clove
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
⅔ cup oil
¾ cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup carrot, peeled and shredded (about 2 carrots)
1 cup Granny Smith apple; cored, peeled and shredded (about 1 apple)
1 cup zucchini, shredded (about 1-2 zucchinis)
½ cup crushed pineapple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners. In a large bowl combine the flours, oats, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.

Place the shredded apples, zucchini, and crushed pineapple in a fine mesh strainer and press until most of the juice is extracted. Transfer to the bowl of dry ingredients and add the shredded carrot. Toss to coat the fruits and vegetables with flour, then make a well in the middle of the mixture.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugars, eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Pour into the well in the dry ingredient mixture. Stir until just combined; do not overmix.

Scoop into prepared tins, filling most of the way with batter. Bake for 16-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a couple minutes in the tins, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

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