Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins

Source: Mel's Kitchen Cafe (holy cow, I love her!)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup finely shredded carrots (about 2-3 medium carrots)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.

Make a small well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter, honey, egg, vanilla, and applesauce.

Stir ingredients together until just combined and there are still some spots of flour remaining.

Fold in the shredded carrots just until combined (don't overmix or the muffins will be dense).

Distribute the batter evenly among the muffin liners (I used a heaping 2 Tablespoons per cup and ended up with 14 muffins). Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. These muffins freeze wonderfully and keep well if covered at room temperature for 2-3 days.

Notes:
I barely squeaked in my monthly muffin challenge on the 31st of March with these babies.  They're definitely on the healthier tasting muffin spectrum, but they don't taste like dog biscuits by any stretch of the imagination (that's what one commenter on Mel's site said - sheesh!).  I must admit, though, that I did slather a tiny bit of left over cream cheese frosting from my birthday cake (the best ever cream cheese frosting, in my opinion) on a few and called it dessert.  Just perfect!