Not My Momma's Morning Glory Muffins

I must open by saying that the title is in no way a reflection of the value of my Mother's Morning Glory Muffins. Hers are very tasty, in fact. I simply thought the name rolled off the tongue quite nicely, and since I did use my Mom's recipe as a jumping off point, I went with it. I took her recipe, Emily-a-fied it a bit - using up items I always have on hand- and pumped up the whole grains. The result of a twice-adjusted recipe is a moist and flavorful muffin that makes a great breakfast and, here's the point: my whole family loves it. Justin liked them enough that when he took one for lunch, he still remembered to compliment me on it when he got home late that evening. That made me feel pretty darn good.
My original goal when I started messing with this recipe was to use up the pulp I get when I make fresh juice in the morning. I hate throwing away all that good fiber and flavor. I thought a muffin like this fit the bill. I was right. ;) That being said, if you are not a juicer and therefore do not have fruit and veggie pulp, just shred the carrots and apples - that's what my Momma used to do!

Not My Momma's Morning Glory Muffins

Ingredients
1/2 C brown sugar, packed
2 C whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 C oat flour (I grind my own from good ol' Quakers Old Fashioned Oats with my Baby Bullet)
1/4 C ground flax seed
1 T cinnamon
1 T baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C fruit and vegetable pulp (I use the pulp I get from juicing 1 medium sized apple, 2 large carrots, and one orange. Again, if you don't want to juice them - or don't have a juicer - just shred the carrots and apple and omit the orange altogether. You will get plenty of orange flavor from the juice added later.)

1/2 C coconut oil, melted for easier mixing
1/2 C orange juice (make sure to use a brand that is 100% with no sugar added)
1 C plain, low-fat yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C dried cranberries

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add brown sugar to a medium sized mixing bowl. Use a whisk to break it up now - I promise it's easier than doing it later. Add flours, flax, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Whisk. Add vegetable pulp (or shredded veg) and whisk a final time so that all ingredients are well incorporated. Add all wet ingredients, plus dried cranberries. Mix with a wooden spoon.
Use a 1/4 C measuring cup to scoop muffin batter into a lightly sprayed muffin pan (or use paper liners). The muffin cups will look pretty full - don't worry, these don't rise very much. Makes 15 muffins.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Transfer immediately to a cooling rack before storing. But don't miss out on enjoying one right out of the oven with just the tinsiest bit of butter. Yum!

I hope you like them! If you try them, let me know what you think.

Nutritional Data: for 1 muffin: Calories - 209, Carbohydrates - 30, Fat - 9, Protein - 3, Sodium - 338, Sugar - 14

I don't get this kid

I've really been struggling with getting my boy everything he needs nutritionally. He has limitations because of his anal stenosis - no bananas, no apple sauce, no white bread, no white rice - but on top of that, he is becoming increasingly picky. I don't understand. I feel like we're going in the wrong direction. Early on, he wanted anything we were eating. And not just to try it. He would eat substantial amounts of food off of my plate. Complex, highly seasoned foods. Salads. Steamed veg. Anything. But suddenly, all of that went out the window. I have to try over and over to find something he will eat. If it could be considered a bread product, he will eat it. So I try to bake a lot of good things - dried fruits and shredded veggies and seeds and nuts - into muffins and unsweetened cookies. But I know he can't live a life on bread products alone, as much as I may doctor them. So I try. Every time, I try. I try oranges and apples and pears and slices of cheese and grapes and soup and eggs and ..... sigh. I've tried it all. Sometimes I'll succeed, for a bite or two, but then he refuses to eat again.
So, when he reached for a couple of tangerines the other day, you can understand that I assumed he just wanted to play with them. They do look like balls, after all. Since we had so many of them, and he was being a pill, I decided to hand them to him. I watched him roll them and toss them for a minute or two before heading off to do the dishes. Imagine my surprise when I found him like this:

Yep. Eating the sad, beaten up tangerines. Peel and all. What? The last five times I had offered them to him - peeled and segmented, of course - every single segment had ended up on the floor. But look at him tear into this thing:


I watched this strange but fascinating phenomenon for a couple of minutes but then Drake gagged on a large chunk of peel he had torn off and I got nervous. Thinking he would appreciate the gesture, I peeled the rest off for him and handed him back the half eaten tangerine. He lost it. Absolutely lost it. He was so mad at me and refused to have anything further to do with his tangerine.
I'm so confused...

What challenges do you have feeding your family? Any tips or advice? I'd love to hear from you.