A Mom's Year

{ Hi everyone! It’s Lexie here. Starting this year, I’m going to be guest blogging!! Mostly about food and cooking (which I have a newfound love for), but also health and the like. I’m super excited to begin, so here we go. }

A few weeks ago, I got an inexplicable and quite bizarre craving for banana muffins. That might not seem so strange if not for the fact that…I really don’t like bananas. I know, I know. Something about the mushy texture and those weird stringy things…. But anyway, all of a sudden I wanted one, still warm from the oven and preferably slathered with a generous slab of melting butter. Luckily, it struck just in time for Muffin Monday!

We had a few recipes for banana muffins in our collection of cookbooks and recipes, but most of them contained refined white flour and a lot of sugar. I was not impressed. Granted, bananas or not, muffins aren’t exactly hailed as a health food, but I thought they could at least house a little nutritional value. So I hit the web, combined a couple promising-looking recipes, and got cooking. I had to hurry and set aside the bananas ahead of time, lest they be devoured by the primates (males) of the family.

The result? Delicious. The muffins were perfectly moist and chewy, with just the right balance of banana-y flavor. And they’re made with real foods: whole wheat flour, olive oil, bananas, and honey*!

Honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference. The whole wheat flour gave them a nice brown color that I really liked.

They were a total hit; everyone loved them!

Here’s the recipe, for anyone wondering. Seriously, try them out. They’re addictive, and super easy, too.

Lexie’s Real Food Banana Muffins

Ingredients:

1-¾ cups whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur’s)
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp. salt
⅓ cup olive oil
½ cup honey
2 large eggs
2 bananas, mashed
¼ cup hot water

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 12 muffin tins with liners.

Combine the whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside. In a larger bowl, whisk together the olive oil and honey. Add in the two eggs, whisk well. Add the mashed bananas and mix well. It’s okay if it seems rather clumpy at this point; it’ll smooth out.

Slowly stir in the dry ingredients a little bit at a time, alternating with the hot water. Mix well until fairly smooth.

Ladle about 1/3 cup of batter (this makes fairly large muffins; if you want them smaller, just pour in less batter and adjust cooking times accordingly) into each liner and bake for 20-25 minutes or longer. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes one dozen or more, depending on how high you fill the muffin cups.

*It should be noted that honey, though natural, is still a sugar. But since it’s a real food, it’s a bit better than pure table sugar. Just a bit. 🙂

Note from Mom: Yum. Lexie’s taking advantage of school being canceled today to make a batch of granola. It smells amazing, so be sure to come back next week and see how it turned out!