Banana bread and muffin recipes baffle me a bit; there’s always so much sugar and so little banana! Why would you not use an ingredients list to capitalize on the good stuff, and employ the natural sweetness of a banana?

These Healthy Banana Muffins use at least three times the banana that a normal recipe calls for, and it replaces the typical (nutritionally null and void, refined) white sugar for honey or agave nectar. The shortening or butter that a regular recipe calls for has been replaced with a small amount of vegetable oil, which offers a more preferable ratio of poly and mono unsaturated fats. Another tweak of the recipe that makes the breakfast muffin less of a desert and more of a wholesome meal is the substitution of a whole grain oat/wheat bran mix in place of some of the more processed white flour.

In the end, you get a guilt-free batch of Healthy Banana Muffins that are moist, flavorful and very filling. Just one gives you over 25% of your daily fiber content.

Ingredients
3/4 Cup Honey or Agave Nectar
3 Ripe Bananas
2 Cups Bob's Red Mill Organic High Fiber Hot Cereal with Flaxseed (or any combo of whole grain oats, wheat germ, oat bran, etc)
1 ½ Cups Flour
¼ Cup Vegetable Oil
¼ Cup Plain Yogurt
1 Egg
½ tsp Vinegar
¼ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Baking Soda
¾ tsp Baking Powder
1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
2 ½ tsp Cinnamon

In a large mixing bowl, blend the honey, vegetable oil, eggs, thoroughly mashed bananas, plain yogurt, vinegar and vanilla extract. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl; salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, flour, and high fiber whole grain mix. Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the mashed banana and honey mix.

If the batter seems to be too thin, you can always add more bran mix or flour, but the ingredients as listed above make for a very moist end product.

Lightly grease a muffin pan with shortening and use a spoon to scoop the batter out and evenly into the pan. Bake at 375° for 17-20 minutes, or until the tops are firm and cooked throughout.

Makes 12 large Banana Muffins.

You can make these even healthier by lessening the amount of honey in order to further cut down on calories and sugar content. Enjoy!

Also try these Low Fat Oatmeal Cookies that are so healthy you can eat them for breakfast.

Nutrition Information
Calories: 268
Total Fat: 7.3 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 83 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 50 g
Dietary Fiber: 6.5 g
Sugars: 21 g
Protein: 6.3 g