My husband and I are musicians. And we’re parents. When we are onstage, we do our best to really be ON stage. But all our “backstage” experiences with our son (our little frog) deeply affect who we are as people, thus musicians. Recent insights:

It is challenging to stay even-tempered when moving through time zones. When my family is on the road, it is a big priority for all three of us to take in plenty of water, food (and fresh air).

We each travel with a water bottle. And we aim to leave with plenty of food in our car or plane bag, including our marvelous Morning Glory muffins (recipe below).

I am not going to pretend that muffins are the cornerstone of a balanced diet. But I recently created this wildly successful zucchini-, apple-, carrot-filled recipe. Although my son is not a big zucchini fan, imagine my delight when he sampled freshly grated vegetables as we prepared these muffins. A catalyst for veggie snacking!

Starting off a journey with a reusable container filled with, say, these muffins is an auspicious move. Add instant oatmeal packs for luck. Refill your container along the way with grocery store carrot sticks, hummus, apples, oranges, whole grain crackers, goat cheese (goat cheese on cracker topped with dried cranberries!)

Whether you’re heading out on a trip, or hanging out at home, these muffins are the stuff! Thanks to my friend Val for encouraging veggie-filled muffins as a step toward getting more produce on our table.

Morning Glory Muffins

• SMALL Bowl #1) Cover 1/2 cup raisins with hot water. Set aside to plump.
  
• MEDIUM Bowl #2) Mix 3/4 cup brown sugar (or white sugar + 1 TBS molasses) with 3/4 cup oats. Then sift in 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp salt. Stir just until mixed.
• BIG Bowl #3) Prepare 2 cups grated carrots+1 grated zucchini+1/2 peeled and chopped apple. Then stir in 1/2 cup walnuts.
• MEDIUM Bowl #4) Beat 3 eggs (probably fine with just egg whites) and stir in a big dollop of plain whole milk yogurt (maybe 1/3 cup?), 2/3 cup canola oil (could probably use less), 2 tsp vanilla.

Preheat oven to 375.
Grease and flour muffin tins (makes 12-18 muffins)

Pour Bowl #4 (egg mixture) into BIG Bowl #3 (carrots, etc) and stir. Drain water from Bowl #1 and add raisins to Bowl #2 (sugar/flour)… and then add that to BIG Bowl #3. Stir until just mixed.

Fill muffin tins with batter ALMOST to the very top. We put a few TBS of water in each tin we did not fill with batter, so the empty tins would not burn.

Cook 25 minutes (or until inserted toothpick comes out clean). Cool in pan 8 minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack.