Carrot, Coconut, and Pineapple Muffins

This is the perfect spring breakfast.  For some reason, carrots seem like a spring vegetable.

They're moist, tender, flavorful, and healthy.  A perfect way to start your day.  I like making a batch of muffin early in the week and then quickly grabbing them for breakfast for the rest of the week.

When I have a recipe with a high yield like this one, I like to place a few in the freezer.  

I replaced the eggs with egg whites, used less sugar, and substituted some of the oil with apple sauce.  These are probably the healthiest muffins ever, but don't worry, they really are luscious.

The ingredients are 2 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 2 cups shredded carrots,  1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 cup coconut flakes, 1 apple, 1/2 cup egg whites, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup apple sauce, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.  The recipe came from Allrecipes.

I added the flour, sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a big bowl.

I stirred these ingredients.  

I added the carrots, coconut, nuts, and chopped apple into the dry ingredients.  I was supposed to add a half cup of raisins here too.  I have raisins, but I forgot to add them.  I was pretty bummed when I realized I had forgotten them because they would have been better with raisins.

I stirred all these ingredients together.  I'm not sure if this picture looks appetizing or not.

In another bowl I combined the egg whites, vegetable oil, apple sauce, and vanilla with a whisk.

I poured the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stirred.  I have heard the trick with muffins is to stir as little as possible.  It's okay to have a few lumps and bumps in the batter.

 I spooned these into a greased muffin pan.  I only had 6 liners.  The muffins without lines came out of the pan easily so it wasn't a problem.

These were soft.  They had a little crunch from the pecans, and the coconut and carrot provided lots of yummy texture.  

They were delectable.  I'll make them again, but the next time I won't forget the raisins.   The muffins are gone, but I'm still sad I didn't add the raisins.   Sometimes our trials in life are of our own making.

Even though I used less sugar and substituted some of the oil for applesauce, these were quite toothsome.  This counts as a success in my book!