These Banana Spinach Toddler Muffins are a fun way to serve spinach in a form most kids already love, soft, sweet muffins! Made with wholesome ingredients like bananas, oats, applesauce, and a handful of spinach, they’re freezer-friendly, perfect for snack time or lunchboxes, and naturally sweetened with the bananas and applesauce.
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Table of Contents
Why You'll Love These Toddler-Friendly Banana Spinach Muffins
- Naturally sweet with no added sugar: Perfect for younger toddlers, as these muffins have no added sugar and are sweetened naturally with bananas and applesauce.
- Iron boost: These muffins have a boost of iron using iron-fortified oat cereal (but don't worry you can omit this ingredient if you don't have it!)
- Perfect kid-friendly texture: They’ve got the perfect soft texture, are nut-free, and freezer-friendly, making them an excellent snack option.
Ingredients
Here is what you will need to make these yummy veggie toddler muffins. With toddler muffins, I like to incorporate wholesome ingredients that provide important nutrients for toddlers. I've used regular flour, oats, and a boost of iron-fortified oat cereal for added fibre and iron, spinach for a veggie boost, and sweetened with the banana and applesauce.
- Bananas & applesauce - provide natural sweetness and moisture
- Spinach - make these muffins a fun colour and provide + key nutrients like vitamin K, vitamin A, and vitamin C
- Oats + flour + iron-fortified oat cereal - fibre, staying power and an iron boost
- Eggs, milk, vanilla - structure + flavour
- Baking powder and baking soda - magically make the muffins rise!
- Chocolate chips (optional but highly encouraged) → fun, toddler-approved
See recipe card for quantities.
How To Make These Yummy Banana Spinach Toddler Muffins
Here is a brief overview of this recipe, or you can scroll down to the recipe card for the full instructions.
Add the wet ingredients and the spinach to a blender or food processor and blend on high speed until smooth. Make sure there are no spinach chunks, you want the batter to be smooth and a fun green colour!
Pour the green mixture into a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients.
Stir all of the ingredients to combine. Gently stir in the optional chocolate chips.
Scoop out the batter into a lined or greased mini muffin pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18-22 minutes.
Toddler Tip: Let your child see you add the spinach into the blender, or better yet, let them add in a handful! This is a great way to provide exposure to food in a non-pressured way and to involve your child in the kitchen.
Substitutions
- Dairy-free: Swap out the whole milk for plant-based alternative beverage like soy, oat, or almond
- No chocolate chips: Try raisins or leave out
Variations
- Beet Red - If you want to play around with a different muffin colour, swap out the spinach and add in pureed beets! They make such a fun red colour.
Looking for other toddler muffins? Check out my ABC (Apple, Banana, Carrot) Muffins for Toddlers, or my very popular Apple & Pear Crumble Muffins, or these yummy Banana Chia Muffins (no sugar added!).
I also have a full round up of over 14 Healthy Toddler Muffins!
Equipment
- High speed blender or food processor
- Mini muffin pan
Storage
Store in an airtight container on the counter for 2-3 days, in the fridge for 5 days, or freeze them in an airtight container for 1-2 months. These muffins freeze so well. When you're ready to have them, simply thaw overnight in the fridge or pop them in the microwave or a toaster oven! They are also great for adding into lunchboxes. And if you need other easy items for lunchboxes, check out my Ultimate List of Toddler Lunch Ideas!
Dietitian Tip
- Spinach adds iron, while the banana + applesauce provide vitamin C to help with absorption.
- Oats + flour bring in fibre, supportive for digestion
- Banana & applesauce naturally sweeten the muffins and keep them nice and soft
FAQ
Yes, just skip the chocolate chips (which are optional anyways). These muffins are naturally sweetened with banana and applesauce, and are a perfect moist, soft texture, making them a great muffin for baby-led weaning!
I recipe tested this with a lot of kids and they all reported back that these muffins have a delicious banana flavour to them - no spinach taste! I do encourage you to talk with your kids about the fun colour of the muffins and how they are green from the spinach! Try naming them like "Hulk muffins" or "Green monster muffins".
You can, just thaw first and squeeze out excess moisture.
Recipe
Banana Spinach Toddler Muffins
Equipment
- 1 Blender or Food processor
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1⅓ cup bananas 2 large, or 3 small
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups baby spinach
- ⅓ cup milk (milk of choice)
- 3 tbsps coconut oil melted
- ½ cup applesauce unsweetened
- 2 tsps vanilla
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¾ cup large flaked oats
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅓ cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
- ¼ cup iron-fortified oat cereal if you don't have this, add an additional ¼ cup flour.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line or grease a mini muffin pan.
- In a blender or food processor, add all of the wet ingredients. Blend on high for 30 seconds, until well combined and the spinach has blended in.
- Pour the green mixture into a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients. Stir gently to combine. If using chocolate chips, fold into the batter.
- Scoop out the muffin batter into the mini muffin pan.
- Bake in the oven for 18-22 minutes, until golden brown on the top and a centres cooked through.
- Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
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L says
These turned out really well and there was no spinach taste, but still a fun green color. Thanks!