Banana Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Muffins

These are fairly similar to my other banana muffin recipes (Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal, Healthier Banana Muffins/Bread, & Nutella Oat Banana Muffins), but with some slight variances. Honestly, I could probably cut down to just 1 or 2 banana muffin recipes... but I truly can't decide which recipe I like the most. So, I just keep them all! This recipe I like because of the chips in it.... they aren't overly sweet, but the chips add just enough!

I originally made an extra large batch of these with the plan of sending some as a snack for Gabriel's preschool... until he woke up sick. Poor baby, this is the first day of preschool he's missed, and I think he's pretty disappointed. So....since he isn't going to school, I have about 30 muffins in my house right now. Adrian ate 2 for breakfast (scratch that, while I was typing this he decided he wanted another one... in addition to the 4 smoky links he ate. Growth spurt, anyone?), which makes up for the fact that Gabriel has no appetite... but I hope my coworkers like them, I need somebody to eat more! My family cannot go through that many! (Well, Adrian might, at this rate...)

Check out the recipe, and let me know what you think!

Comments are loved--what is your favorite banana muffin/bread recipe?

Printable Recipe

Banana Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 ½ cups mashed bananas
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup peanut butter chips (or any other chips) This time I used a combination of peanut butter, mini chocolate chip, and semi-sweet, to empty some partial bags I had! They are great!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Grease/line with paper 24 count muffin tins.
2. In large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, vanilla and applesauce. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Carefully mix in peanut butter chips. 
3. Spoon batter into prepared tins. Bake for 12 to 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center muffin comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove muffins from pan and let cool on wire rack.

Yield/Time

22-24 muffins

30 minutes

Nutrition Facts

164 (based on 22 muffins)

Source (for original): Food

Herbed Wheat Muffins

My husband, Nate, doesn't have nearly as much of a sweet tooth as I do. Sometimes that's disappointing, sometimes it's just a fun challenge! I stumbled across this recipe when we were engaged, when he had a rough day and I wanted to show him how great of a wife I would be. ;)

I've made it quite a few times since then, but much more often in the last year. That is largely due to the fact that I acquired a tarragon plant at the farmer's market--this is one herb that's pretty expensive, and I'm too cheap to buy that very often. Now we always have plenty! (And usually have some to give away, if I'm keeping up on drying it! So, local readers... let me know if you need some!)

I will admit, this is a very healthy-tasting muffin. (So.... not my favorite.) Nate loves them, and so does my mom. The boys are touch and go--sometimes they will devour the batch, sometimes they hardly touch them. If you are looking for a good, healthy, breakfast or snack--try these!!

Printable Recipe

Herbed Wheat Muffins

Ingredients

• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ⅔ cup all-Purpose flour
• ¼ cup wheat germ *or cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ Teaspoon Salt
• ¼ Teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg, beaten
• ⅔ Cup buttermilk 
• ¼ cup honey
• ½ Teaspoon dried basil
• ½ Teaspoon dried tarragon
• 2 Tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Coat muffin cups with cooking spray (or use muffin liners).
2. In a small bowl, combine the flours, wheat germ, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
3. Combine the egg, buttermilk, honey, and butter; stir into dry ingredients until just moist. Fold in basil & tarragon.
4. Fill prepared tins ¾ full with batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Yield/Time

Yields: 8

Prep Time: 15 Cook Time: 20

Nutrition Facts

162 (using buttermilk sub)

Source (for original): Cooking for Two

Remember, comments are loved! What's your favorite healthy muffin?

(Healthier) Banana Muffins/Bread

We all, at some point or another, have bananas that get past their prime. I usually don't eat bananas until they are all speckly brown (about 2 days before they turn themselves into banana bread), but the boys will eat them whenever. Bright green, pretty yellow, almost completely brown... Adrian, especially, doesn't care. "Ba-nana, ba-nana!" With his love of bananas, we don't have nearly as many that get over-ripe, but with the humidity this summer it happened more often than not. Once that happens, our usual preference is banana muffins. I love making my traditional banana muffins/bread, but I have adapted that over the years to be a bit healthier. 

I honestly prefer these over my more traditional recipe. Knowing that it's healthier for me is a great, and I love the oats in this! Oats in muffins are some of my favorite things. They add a bit of texture, and some great health benefits.

In general, I love making things like this. Using up bananas that would otherwise go to waste, and making something that all my boys enjoy (and myself!), is a win-win situation!


Printable Recipe

Banana Bread/Muffins, Healthified

Ingredients

• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ¾ cup rolled oats
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¾ cups mashed bananas (approx 3 large or 5 medium)
• ¾ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil or applesauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° for bread, or 375° for muffins.
2. Grease bottom and ½” up the sides of 1 loaf pan OR grease 18 count muffin tins; set aside. Combine flours, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl combine eggs, bananas, sugar, and applesauce. Add all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 55-60 minutes for bread, or 18-20 minutes for muffins. (Or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.) If necessary, cover loosely with foil for the last 15 minutes of baking bread to prevent overbrowning. *note: it may just be me, but I always have to cook the bread about 10-15 minutes longer.
5. Cool bread in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack. 
6. Remove muffins from pan immediately and cool completely on wire rack. 

Yield/Time

1 loaf (16 servings) OR 18 muffins

Prep: 15 minutes Cook: 20-60 minutes

Nutrition Facts *I calculate nutrition facts for reference only, this is not done scientifically

Bread: 120  

Muffins: 106

(using applesauce)

Source (for original): Better Homes & Gardens, adapted

Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffins

Well, I've been slacking about blogging lately, but given that I am the size of a hippopotamus, tired, working full time, and chasing a 2 year old.... think you can forgive me? :)

Although, to be fair, in about 5 weeks it's going to be worse. I won't be the size of a hippopotamus (hopefully) or working out of the house full time, but I will be even more tired, chasing a 2 year old, and taking care of a newborn.

Anyways, on to the recipe... I've been looking for a health(ier) muffin recipe for awhile, that actually looks good. Some of those healthy muffin recipes out there don't really look that appealing... I want healthy AND tasty! So when I saw this, I knew I had to try it! I love bananas (and need them for the potassium a lot right now), and I love peanut butter.... definitely worth a try!

They are very much a healthy muffin.... they are very thick, and not very sweet. But, that being said, they are still really good! Fresh of out of the oven, I thought they could use more banana--but when having another one cold, the banana is much more noticeable.

If you are looking for something healthy & yummy... these are worth making!!!

Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 medium size bananas, mashed
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease muffin tin, or line with paper cups.
2. In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients together. In medium size bowl mix the wet ingredients well. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until no flour streaks remain.
3. Divide batter evenly into muffin tin, filling almost to the top. Bake 16-20 minutes until toothpick stuck in center comes out clean.
4. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Yield/Time

18 muffins

30 minutes

Source (for original): Life is Nothing Without Him

Whole Wheat Honey Cinnamon Muffins

Nate is a huge fan of honey, and whole wheat, so when I saw this recipe on one of the blogs I follow, I had to try it! 

This is one of those recipes that I saw, and just decided to make right then-which is great, because it's something where I have all the ingredients on hand! (Well, except for the whole wheat flour.... I apparently did not have a full bag in the back of the pantry, like I thought. I had 1/2 cup, and that was it. So, I subbed regular flour.) I love finding recipes like this... and Nate does, too!

As usual, Gabriel helped me to make these, too! I love having a little helper in the kitchen! He'll be 2 in a couple weeks, and as soon as he sees me cooking, he comes out and tells me to get his stool out so he can help! What a sweet little boy. :)

Overall, this was a big hit with my boys! (I liked them too, but Gabriel & Nate really liked them!)

(I did adapt this recipe quite a bit. If you follow the link to the original, you'll see that it calls for 2 cups of her quick mix. Well, I didn't want to make a full batch of the mix, so I just cut it into 1/5, which made about 2 1/2 to 3 cups. I adjusted the rest of the recipe accordingly.)

Whole Wheat Honey Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup honey
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Thoroughly cut in Crisco until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
3. Add in cinnamon, honey, milk, and egg; mix all ingredients until just combined.  (Do not over-stir.)  Scoop batter into 12 paper lined muffin cups.  Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

Yield/Time

12 muffins

45 minutes

Source (for original): Heavenly Homemakers 

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

My family is not the type to accept anything in return for doing you a favor. Get a Grandma or Aunt to watch the baby at the last minute? (Or, in the case of my mom, on a regular basis in place of daycare?) If you try to pay them, not only will you offend them, but you'll get an earful about it. (I have a few funny stories about that, too.) So, I have just learned to provide 'payment' with food. "Oh, you watched the baby for me? Here, have a batch of cookies." No one turns down food. (Not in my family, at least.)

So when Mama agreed to watch Gabriel overnight the other day, in addition to watching him during the week, I knew I should do something nice for her. What to do, what to do. I wanted to try a new recipe for her, one I knew she would like--and I've been eyeing the raspberry oatmeal bars over at Heavenly Homemakers (an awesome blog, btw) since she posted them a couple weeks ago. It's something she's guaranteed to like, but was easy to make when I made the decision at 9:30 at night. 

Essentially, it's a bit like a cereal bar, with jam between 2 layers of an oat mixture. Mmmm!

They even have whole wheat flour & oats--that makes them good for you, right? ;)

It did stress me out to use an entire jar of strawberry jam for this. If these hadn't turned out, I think I would've cried.

 

I did play with the recipe a bit, but there are more changes I would recommend. 1, if using sweetened jam (like I did with my homemade jam), cut down on the brown sugar. Maybe ¼ cup? And 2, cut down on the butter. A lot. I would try ½ to ¾ cup; 1 cup is entirely too much for my tastes. The pan may need to be greased if you cut it down too much, but it would be worth taking the extra butter out. (And please let me know if you try this! I would love to hear how it turns out!) 
 

 Remember: Comments are love! And if you have a problem commenting on the blog, please let me know! I know people have in the past, but I think that should be resolved,
 

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ cups rolled oats
• ¼ - ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ - 1 cup butter, melted
• ¾ cup strawberry jam, warmed (Or blackberry, or blueberry, or peach, or apple jelly, or....whatever!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients.  Stir in melted butter until crumbly. (You need to be able to press it into the pan, but don't necessarily want it to be soaked in butter.) 
3. Press half of the mixture into an 8”x8” baking pan.  Spread jam evenly over the top.  Sprinkle remaining oat mixture on top of the jam layer, pressing down to cover.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Yield/Time

20 pieces

45 minutes

Source (for original): Heavenly Homemakers