sugar-free carrot mini-muffins

i was trying to think of a witty or at least more descriptive name for these guys, but nothing comes to mind. they're pretty healthy, as far as these things go, since they use date sugar in stead of regular sugar or artificial sweeteners, have carrots in them, and can be made whole wheat for extra awesomeness. i opted to use white flour because my newfound love of fiber is probably going to backfire on me soon and i don't want to overdo it. (date sugar is ground up dehydrated dates, which are my new favorite food.)

my apologies for the lack of picture, but they seem to have been eaten too quickly for me to get a good one!

ingredients:

1 cup soymilk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup minus 2 tbsp date sugar
1/3 cup pineapple juice
1 cup shredded carrot (about 2 medium carrots)
1 tsp orange zest (i buy it in the spice section instead of making my own)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg (fresh or not)
1 1/3 cup flour

directions:

preheat oven to 375f, and spray a mini muffin tin with oil. then mix everything up! in the interest of laziness, i mixed everything in one bowl in the order above (first letting the vinegar curdle the milk a bit). if you are fancier and less lazy than me, you can mix the wet ingredients together, and then sift in the dry. mix well, and spoon into mini muffin tin. bake for about 18-20 min, until a toothpick comes out dry. cool for a moment and then transfer to wire rack.

makes 24 minis! (if you want full-sized muffins, it should make about a dozen, and double the cooking time.)

variations: add 1/2 cup raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, and/or chopped walnuts. to make them less healthy, they'd be awesome with a crumb topping or cream cheese frosting!