It’s muffin time again! What? Oh yeah the juicing post….well I never said I don’t like muffins just that they aren’t exactly health food…appropriately, I eat them for breakfast almost everyday. When you have an infant and a school-aged child, mornings are busy and I don’t have time for elaborate breakfasts. So once a week I make enough muffins for my and Tyler’s breakfast. This week, however, I had a baby shower to attend so no Farmers’ market and I refuse to make muffins with that nasty dry pulp from juicing. I do have four really ripe bananas so banana muffins it is.

Since, the fam really loved the Zucchini Yogurt Muffins, I look for a banana yogurt muffin and as usual Google doesn’t disappoint. I found this recipe on honestfare.com (which is a beautifully designed site I might add) and it surpassed my expectations for healthiness. For starters, it is wheat-free! It is made with whole oats and oat flour and no wheat flour whatsoever which is awesome. (Despite all of the nonsense with bread you have seen on this blog, wheat makes my body do embarrassing things. So if I can avoid it without depriving myself of the joy of baked goods, I am a happy girl. ) Second, it has very little sugar or fat. This muffin is practically a bowl of oatmeal in muffin form and apparently the universe wants me to eat more oatmeal (two blogs that I subscribe to had oatmeal posts on the same day, here and here. I was pretty sure it was a conspiracy to keep me from eating muffins). Since I don’t want to piss off the universe or let those bananas go to waste, Camden goes in his sous-chef chair and we commence the baking.

First off, don’t worry if you don’t have oat flour. We are going to make some with the handy dandy food processor. Second, don’t worry if you don’t have low fat yogurt or milk. Low fat is more of a suggestion than a command, like stop signs and cell phone laws.  According to Honest Fare,  here’s what you need:

• 1 ¼ cup rolled oats
• 1 ½ cup oat flour 
• 1/2 cup plain, low fat yogurt
• 1/2 cup low fat milk or soy milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sunflower oil ( I used 1/4 cup apple sauce and 1/4 cup canola oil)
• 2 large, really ripe bananas mashed

• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 lightly beaten egg
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup raisins, walnuts or both
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. First we are going to make that oat flour. Honest Fare recommends milling 2 cups to get 1 1/2 cup of oat flour. I’m not very precise and I use oat flour in other recipes so I just dump a bunch in the food processor.

2 cups rolled oats yields about 1 1/2 cups oat flour

It’s ok if there are some bigger pieces of the oat flour. Honest Fare says it should look like “dry grits”. Truthfully, I have only seen grits on Top Chef and Iron Chef, but I have baked with oat flour and this looks about right: powdery with some bigger particles.

2. Next you are going to mix the rolled oats (not the flour!), the milk, and the yogurt for 10 minutes to soften the rolled oats.  Note: I do not start pre-heating the oven until this 10 minutes is up.

Oat, milk, and yogurt mixture

3. While the oats are soaking, combine oat flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in a separate bowl.

Combine the rest of the dry ingredients (except nuts and fruit) in a separate bowl

4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

5. Put banana, egg, and oil (and/or applesauce if you are substituting) in the food processor and blend until smooth.

Banana, oil (applesauce), and egg

6. Add banana mixture to oat/yogurt/milk mixture

Fold in banana mixture

7. Incorporate dry mixture and mix well.

Add dry mixture

8. Add raisins and nuts if desired. I used craisins instead of raisins otherwise no one will eat these except me.

8 1/2. Don’t forget the baby spit!

I only use Camden brand baby spit in my baked goods

9. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full. FYI, the batter is pretty thick. It has the consistency of thick oatmeal.

Thick and healthy just like ME!

10. Bake for 15 minutes

Is it breakfast yet???

11. Try not to eat them all at once.

Check out the comments for this recipe on Honest Fare’s site for cool/interesting substitution ideas!  :)