Carrot Yumminess!

The recipe calls it a cupcake but I'm calling it a muffin with cream cheese, I think it sounds better. It's packed full of carrots (a whole pound that I hand shredded!), plain fat free yogurt, some chopped walnuts and whole wheat flour. I say it's healthy enough to call a muffin. This little guy is moist and he makes a great snack!

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil (I used less oil and more yogurt)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 1 lb carrots, grated

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. You'll need two bowls, one for dry ingredients and one for wet ingredients. In first bowl mix together the dry ingredients and set aside.
2. In the second bowl mix brown sugar and canola oil together for approx. 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each one. STIR in yogurt and carrots. Add to dry ingredients until just combined. At this point I added a 1/2 cup of walnuts to the mixture (optional), you could also chop them and add on top of the cream cheese frosting.
3. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin tin (I use an ice cream scoop). Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. These don't rise too much so I filled them to the top of the paper liner. 20 min. was perfect.
4. Let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting*

• 4 oz. light cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar (I only used about 1/3 cup)

1. Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar together until creamy. Spread on muffin!

* I was only able to frost half of my muffins so I recommend making twice the amount of frosting if you want all your muffins frosted.

Makes about 20-24 muffins. Approx. 220 calories per muffin.