Whole Wheat Zucchini Banana Muffins

Gosh it has been a long time since I have blogged! The move was successful and I am enjoying my new house. There is still boxes to be unpacked but the important stuff has been done and most importantly my kitchen! I made these muffins before the move but didn't have time to blog them. These were great! Zoe loved her first taste of muffins and demanded more. I loved how healthy they were and I didn't have to change a thing.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp water

3 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)
3 bananas, mashed
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup sugar

2 cups unbleached white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves or nutmeg
2 Tbsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two muffin tins (24 muffins total) or use cupcake liners, set aside.

Combine ground flax and water, set aside. In large bowl, combine zucchini, bananas, sugar and vanilla. Add flax mixture. In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients in 2-3 batches. Mix until completely combined. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full.


Bake muffins for 30 minutes.

Banana Blueberry Muffins

I found this recipe on Martha Stewarts's site. I am not a fan or a hater of Martha but if these muffins hadn't sound good, I would have passed them by. They turned out amazingly! Full of flavour and healthy too and I am proud to say that I was able to make them even healthier than Martha! I am a big fan of healthy muffins that use lots of fruit or veggies. Next time I would probably add some flax too. So if anyone tries these muffins add some flax and let me know how it goes.

Ingredients

1 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of applesauce

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 ripe bananas (about 1 pound)

1/3 cup skim milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup frozen blueberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add eggs, sugar, applesauce, bananas, vanilla and milk then add the rest of the ingredients. Fold in the blueberries and then spoon in to greased muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Morning Glory Muffins

This morning Ally and I have had a baking spree; we made oatmeal cookies, apple crisp and muffins.  I discovered that I can't make cookies, the oatmeal cookies didn't turn out - they tasted great but didn't really stay together.  Good thing I like muffins better than cookies.

I discovered another muffin blog!  It is really great and I highly reccomend it.  That is where I got todays recipe from.  These muffins are really great, delicious and very healthy.  The amazing this that they have no form of fat at all and don't use applesauce!  They have 1 gram of fat and 130 calories.  These muffins are full of flavour and not to dense.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups carrots, shredded
1/2 cup raisins
2 apples, shredded or chopped
3 eggs
2 bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease or line 20 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the carrots, raisins and apples.

Mash the bananas. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, bananas and vanilla. Stir the egg mixture into the carrot/flour mixture, mixing just until moistened.

Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Banana Crumble Muffins.

I have been intimidated by crumble toppings.  I have purposely stayed away or excluded the crumble from the recipe because it seemed hard or too messy.  Today I decided to just do it and make the crumble topping.  I found this recipe here.  The muffins are delicious nice and light.  I like like muffins because it hides how high in calories they are.  I added some flax to the recipe to make it healthier but I didn't use my applesauce trick this time.  I chose not to because I was a little worried that they would taste similar to the ones I made the other day.  I enjoyed the crumble but it does add more calories and I am a bit concerned with calories these days, so I think in the future I would skip it.

  

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 (really over-ripe) bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp ground flax

For the topping:
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375° F. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, vanilla, egg and melted butter.  Then mix in 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Absolute Best Banana Muffins Ever!

Last week got away from me and I only made one batch of muffins.  This week I am  back at it and will continue with Banana week or weeks as it turns out.

I love weekends.  I love having my husband home and relaxing.  We have been busy and really enjoying our weekends as a family.  The major down side is that we relax and not keep the house clean.  So I spend all week getting the house clean and then the weekend comes and it is turned into a sty.  So last week in revolt I did nothing.  But the joke is on me because guess who is cleaning this week?  Me.

I do love when the house is clean and I am motivated to clean and cook.  It is almost noon and already I have made some amazing muffins, prepared supper and put it in the crock pot, clean the kitchen and washed the floor.  It feels great!  Now I am going to fix lunch and tackle more laundry and the living room.

But first here is my absolute favorite banana muffin recipe.  This is the recipe that turned me on to using apple sauce to subsitute for butter.  These muffins are delcious and have an interesting texture.  They are not as bready as some muffins.  They are almost creamy if that makes sense.

I got the original here.  I did not change a thing.  I liked this recipe because it used lots of bananas.  I originally searched out a recipe that had more than one banana because I really wanted to used up the brown bananas I had.

Ingredients

·         3 large bananas, mashed

·         1/2 cup white sugar

·         1 egg, beaten

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1 teaspoon baking powder

·         1 cup flour (you can use whole wheat for a change if you like)

·         1/2 cup rolled oat (instant is fine)

·         1/3 cup applesauce

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Add sugar to mashed bananas and mix. Add beaten egg and apple sauce then mix.  Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix well. Add chocolate chips and Stir.  Spoon into medium size muffin tin (I use paper muffin cups so they won't stick) and fill 3/4's full. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.

Nutella Banana Muffins

I realized today amounst the chaos of playgroup and trying to pack for my parents that I had taken out some ripe bananas from the freezer yesterday and that I had to do something with them or else.  So after all the kids left, I quickly vacuumed up the cheerios, fed Ally and started mixing up the ingredients.  I found the original recipe while I was searching muffin blogs and it sounded delicious.  I really wasn't sure how it would turn out since all the measurements were in metric and I don't know how the conversions work for baking.  The muffins turned out delcious.  I have also fallen in love with using applesauce instead of butter or oil because it makes for a healthier muffin that is nice and fluffy.

Ingredients (yield: ~24 muffins):

4 eggs

1/2 cup soft butter

1/2 cup of applesauce

3/4 cup of sugar

4 large ripe bananas

3/4cup Nutella

3/4 cup milk

2 tsp baking soda

3-4cups of flour

4 tsp baking powder

Mix butter, sugar, applesauce together then add each ingredient one at a time.  I used an electric mixer and  made sure everything was mixed well before adding.

Sorry ww fans - I couldn't figure out the pts but I would guess 4 pts (wow!)