Super Food Muffin {eat clean recipe with kale, pumpkin, carrot,cranberry and apple}

I love baking treats, but when we started eating clean....I had to, by necessity, cut way back. Sometimes, if I think about it, I get a little sad, but not really when I button my pre-two-pregnancies-pants. Even now, when I eat unclean ice cream, sure it tastes good, but it's not nearly as delicious as I thought it was before I wasn't addicted to sugar. Man that stuff is a drug.

Anyways, I get my baking fix these days through muffins. I've always loved to make muffins (my specialty used to be Banana Blueberry Muffins), but now they just have a super healthy punch. I recently came up with a very healthy Fall recipe. Seriously, you can't feel bad about eating these things (unless you're Paleo or GF, in which case, I feel bad for you). There's Vitamin A, B, C, D, K, Iron, Calcium, Protein...the WORKS. Plus other stuff I don't even know, like minerals--Magnesium, Selenium...does that sound right? Just google Kale. It's a super food. And these muffins taste awesome!

...okay. If you are used to sugar treats and pastries, you're not gonna love these the first time you try them. But if you are trying to work in more veggies, give them a shot. If you already eat clean, then you will DEFINITELY love these and your eat-clean kiddos will gobble them up! My daughter is too smart for me to hide kale in even her eat-clean-style mac and cheese...but hidden in muffins works like a charm. And for the record, she ate like 6 pieces of lettuce tonight, woot!

Eat Clean Pumpkin Carrot Kale Cranberry Muffins

makes 24, takes about 1 hour including prep

Dry Ingredients;
1.5 cups white whole wheat flour
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
(or you can use 3 cups of all of one kind and subtract the other)
.25 tsp salt
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vital wheat gluten (I used for added protein here, but you don't need this ingredient)
1 tbsp baking powder
Wet Ingredients;
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs, beaten
.5 to .75 cup agave nectar (based on your sweetness preference) (you could use honey instead)
.75 cup all natural unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla (pure)
about half a bunch of kale (leaves only), should be around 2 cups
about .8 pound of carrots (I used almost a whole bag of baby carrots)
-- grind up the kale and carrots in the food processor at the same time, to tiny pieces but not pureed, before mixing with other wet ingredients--
Folded in at the end
1 to 1.5 cup of washed fresh/frozen cranberries (can use raisins if needed)

Preheat oven to 365, just to be fun. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl; in a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Blend the two together, but avoid over mixing. If batter is too dry, add some Greek yogurt extra pumpkin puree, or almond milk, but this batter is supposed to be fairly stiff. Fold in the cranberries. You're welcome to try these topped with chopped nuts of your choice, or even fold them in too. Prepare muffin tins with either liners or grease of your choice. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 18-24 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean, turning half way through.

 Enjoy :-)