Lunch Made Easy: Happy Earth Day 2013!

Little Miss and I had a lot of fun making these Dye Free, Gluten Free, and Top 8 Allergen Free Muffins to celebrate Earth Day today for her school lunch!
They're simple to make and packed full of nutritious ingredients - None of those icky artificial colors or expensive natural dyes! Just spinach and blackberries. That's it! Keep reading to see how we did it...

We used our favorite King Arthur Flour Gluten Free Muffin Mix for our base. KAF Gluten Free mixes are free of the Top 8 Allergens!

Make mix per your allergen needs but instead of adding oil, we used the following:
For the green: 4 Cups of PACKED fresh spinach + 1 cup of applesauce. Process in your food processor or blender until smooth.  For the blue (it did turn a wee bit more purple than I'd have liked so I may try mixing blackberries and blueberries next time): On the stovetop, in a small saucepan, add 1 pint of blackberries. Cover in water. Bring water to a boil. Boil for 2-3 minutes. Let simmer. 

At this point, I separated my mix into two bowls. In one I added the green spinach mixture in lieu of the oil called for. In the other bowl, I took my boiled blackberries and lightly mashed them into the mix. I then added the water they boiled in slowly and stirred until it reached a desired consistency (it took about half the water used). 

In my greased muffin pan, I added spoonfuls of each color, layering it in each cavity.  Bake per directions on box and enjoy!

For the rest of her lunch, Little Miss will be enjoying turkey roll-up hearts on heart picks, a heart shaped apple with two heart apple slices, and two of her spinach-blackberry Earth Day muffins.
I also found a cute Earth themed LunchBox Love Note from one of our sets! Score. 
CLICK HERE to see our Earth Day lunch from last year.