Chocolate chip banana oat muffins

We eat a lot of bananas in my house, but I like them almost green. Once they start looking like this:

...my family knows they're getting some muffins!

There are a million ways you can (and I have) modified this recipe, but let's start with the basics.

mushed up bananas

WET ingredients:
3 bananas all mushed up until it's banana goo (I just put them in my mixing bowl and let the electric mixer do the work)
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. milk (y'all know I only use sugar free almond milk, but any milk will do)

DRY ingredients:
1 1/2 c. flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 t. cinnamon (optional)
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all the wet ingredients well in a mixing bowl. Less mess if you add a little at a time, but your choice!
Dry ingredients come next and I cheat and do it right on top of the wet, but just make sure you get the baking soda and powder all mixed nicely with the flour so the magic happens.

I just put all the dry ingredients on top the wet and carefully mixed the baking powder/soda together with a fork rather than messing up another bowl.

Now...mix the chocolate chips, dry and wet ingredients all up but as little as possible, just until mixed. Muffins are a "quick bread" in cooking terms and quick breads become overly dense and don't poof up all nice if you mix them up too much.

Just until blended - that's about right!

I use an ice-cream scoop to neatly fill 12 muffin cups and they fill up pretty full. Bake about 14 minutes, but just check for them to be lightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean. After you get the hang of it, you don't need to waste toothpicks and you can just touch it, but that's harder to describe. You'll get it. I know this won't be the last time you make these guys. Trust me.

Using my ice-cream scoop to fill the cups

ready to go in that 400 degree oven!

Variations:

Vegan: omit the egg using chia or flax seeds (see my GF Blueberry Banana Muffins recipe) and use almond or coconut milk. Of course, you'll have to get you some special vegan chocolate chips too. Or just use 1 cup of blueberries instead!

you can grind them up (probably works better) or microwave them 20 seconds and let soak 5-10 minutes

Guess which I did? Easy route for sure, nuked em. See the gel?

Low fat: use 1/4 c. oil instead, or walk on the wild side and leave it out altogether and just use an extra banana! I think they're better with some oil in there though :) Just a tad dense and moist without it.

Low sugar: use 1/4 c. 100% fruit juice concentrate instead of the 1/2 cup of sugar. Or just use 1/4 cup of the sugar. Who am I kidding, I've forgotten the sugar before and they were good - the chocolate chips do the job! I think you need at least a little though or they are a bit bland.

Ch-ch-ch-chia!: Put a couple tablespoons of chia or flax seeds for some added nutrition.

Now you get to see the final product! (err...umm...that is if like me you can't ever follow a recipe and you always have to change things up...I used 1/4 c. 100% grape raspberry juice concentrate instead of the sugar, 1/4 c. organic coconut oil and the chia egg thing instead of the egg.

I put them on a piece of foil on a baking rack to cool

tear into them- you know you wanna!

These are a little flatter than if you follow the recipe as-is but I was going for a little less sugar and fat. Mix it up!

Watermelon "cake" and whipped frosting

This isn't an actual cake, but it's pretty and healthy too! I've become known for making cakes, but I was supposed to bring watermelon to our gathering. What else did they expect from me? ;)

So how can you make your own? It was surprisingly easy compared to the cakes I normally make, that's for sure!

STEP 1: I found a nice heavy for its size watermelon and washed the outside thoroughly. You don't think about it, but when you cut it, the knife brings all those germs from the outside right on in!

STEP 2: Carve your "cake." Cut off the bottom 2 inches or so, creating a flat bottom. Then, begin slicing the rind off all around the sides. I like using a little turntable underneath my cutting board so I could rotate the melon another few degrees as I sliced off the rind, but it is not necessary. Finally, chop a flat top on your melon. I used a ruler to make a few notches so it was sort of level. Let's face it, it doesn't have to be perfect. The whipped frosting will cover a multitude of sins!

STEP 3: Make the whipped topping. Now, you can use Cool Whip, but a) it doesn't taste as good as this and b) it doesn't hold up as well either. So, give this a try!

Whipped frosting recipe
Beat until creamy:
8oz package of neufschatel cheese (or cream cheese)

To that, add and whip the living daylights out of:
2 c. heavy whipping cream
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract

You want stiff peaks, so basically, if you were to remove the beaters, they leave an imprint in there that stays. It varies how long it takes depending on your equipment, but 5 minutes maybe? Go by what you see, not the clock.

STEP 4: Still have that watermelon? Does it look like a good cylinder? Now it's time to dry that sucker off! You want to remove as much moisture as you can. Be careful handling it though, you don't want to stick a finger into it and make a hole. But if you do, just put some extra whipped frosting in there!

STEP 5: Now comes the fun part! Ice the "cake" with the whipped frosting. You can put it in a piping bag and use a decorating tip to make it extra pretty. You can even color it and pipe "happy birthday" or make other designs! It will hold the piping too and won't "melt" like whipped cream alone or Cool Whip will. So there!

Step 6: Decorate with a bunch of pretty fruit. If you want some on the sides, you'll need to put toothpicks in there to hold them (like I did with the blueberries).

Done! Enjoy guilt free!*

 *If you're all about the guilt, by the way, the whipped frosting is INSANE as a filling for cake. It is especially yummy if you put a ganache in there with it. What I'm trying to say is it's an extremely versatile recipe!

GF Blueberry banana muffins (Gluten free, no added sugar)

Gluten free, no sugar added banana blueberry muffins

We're not gluten free in my household, but it's looking better and better the more gluten free recipes I try! These are moist and delicious, lightly sweet. If you prefer your muffins sweeter, you could add 1/3 c. honey or brown sugar instead of the juice concentrate, or even just more juice concentrate and reduce the amount of milk. Also, if you have nut allergies, use cow's milk or coconut milk instead of the almond milk. 

These easily become vegan as well by omitting the eggs and adding 2 T. of chia seeds to 4-6 T water. Let them soak 5-10 minutes. It works better if you grind up the chia seeds in a coffee grinder, but I cheat and stick them in the microwave a few seconds to get the "gel action" going. I realize not everyone is as "play it by ear" as I am, so here are some official instructions I just found, along with more about the benefits of chia seeds! 

Experiment and enjoy!

Wet ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

¼ c. coconut oil

3 T 100% juice concentrate (apple, grape or the like)

1 t. vanilla extract

1 t. almond extract

¾ c. almond milk

Dry ingredients:

2 c. gluten free all-purpose flour with xantham gum (I used Pillsbury gluten free flour)

1 t. baking soda

2 t. baking powder

1-2 t. cinnamon

Pinch of salt

2 T. chia seeds (optional)

Mix wet ingredients well in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Pour dry into wet and add add blueberries. Mix all just until combined.

Spray cooking spray in a muffin pan and fill (they will be tall!) and bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven until lightly browned and until they test done with a toothpick. In my oven, I checked at 13 minutes and set the timer for another 2 minutes, which was just right! Makes 12.

Nutritional info:
12 servings- each muffin has:
173 calories
6g fat
2 .5g fiber
27g carbohydrates
3 .7g protein

28mg sodium (omitting pinch of salt)

99mg potassium