Today, we are being good.

We’re shopping with reusable bags. We’re raising our fingers in a sign of peace when a Porsche cuts us off in traffic, instead of raising something else. We might even be so generous as to leave the last slice of cake.

We are wheat grass, coconut water, hot-yoga good.

In fact, our commitment to personal health and purity today is so strong, it will be as if we didn’t gleefully stuff our faces with pork belly pancakes, pork nachos, bacon spaghetti, fried pickles, onion rings, smoked fries, a cupcake platter, and {insert your lucky number here} cocktails Saturday night.

A sweet sampler from Molly’s Cupcakes. Yes, I tasted all eight. No shame.

Or was that just me?

Ben and I visited friends in Chicago over the weekend, and our group bankrupted the pantry at Little Goat diner, Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard’s new restaurant. Holy moley. Our meal was so freak-out good, I did not regret my body forcing me to loosen my belt two notches. Immediately afterwards, I celebrated the birthday of my dear friend Jess (middle, below pic) by eating all of her cupcakes (all over, above pic).

See these smiles? We are thinking about fried pickles and bacon.

Today, however, is a new day, and I really should moderate my fried pickle/gin consumption. Enter Carrot Quinoa Muffins.

Carrot Quinoa Muffins are the yin to a gloriously excessive weekend’s yang. As their name suggests, Carrot Quinoa Muffins are choc-full-o good things your body is craving after a weekend spent enjoying fried objects: veggies, fruits, protein, and whole grains.

For this Carrot Quinoa Muffin recipe, I used one of my favorite healthy-baking strategies: capitalize on the natural sweetness of the ingredients themselves. Loading the batter with carrots, orange juice, applesauce, and raisins allowed me to skip 3/4 of the refined sugar used in typical muffin recipes.

{Tangent: The word moist totally grosses me out, but I have yet to find an acceptable substitute when describing food. “Gooey” sometimes works, but who wants a gooey muffin? Help!}

Speaking of the “M” word, these muffins are m***t to the max, thanks to an ingredient that may surprise you: quinoa. Though I frequently serve quinoa with stir-fries in place of rice or mix it with roasted veggies to create a quick salad, this was my first foray into baking with quinoa. Verdict: I have been missing out. Though quinoa makes the muffins more dense than flour alone, it also makes them incredibly filling and, you know…moist.

{Really, can someone please come up with a different word?}

We may not be able to restrain road rage, complete a full “sun salutation” in yoga, abstain from onion rings, or surrender the last slice of cake. We can, however, make muffins. Healthy, bright, feel-good, do-good Carrot Quinoa Muffins.