Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Banana Muffins: Made with Applesauce and Honey

Happy Friday everyone!

My friend sent me a Banana Bread Recipe a few days ago that called for honey and applesauce instead of oil and sugar and I am so glad she did! I had all the ingredients on hand except for the natural/no added sugar applesauce. And perfect timing too, because I had a couple of large bananas becoming too ripe for my liking and it is one of my co-workers birthday today so I decided to make these last night.

The recipe she sent me can be found here http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/sweet-bread/banana-bread-with-honey-and-applesauce.html. I altered it a bit and made muffins instead of the bread and added peanut butter because….well do I really need a reason for that? 🙂

What you need: makes 16 muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup natural applesauce (no sugar added)

1/2 cup honey

½ cup natural peanut butter for the batter (I used chunky but you can also use creamy)

+ ¼ cup melted natural peanut butter (drizzled on top of muffins, again I used crunchy)

2 eggs, beaten

2 large mashed overripe bananas

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place muffin paper wraps in muffin tin.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce honey and the 1/2 cup of peanut butter.

Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; just enough to moisten.

 In muffin tin, pour batter into muffin wraps. (Note: you can also spray the inside of the muffin paper wraps to prevent the batter from sticking to those, or if you don’t have paper wraps- just spray each section of the muffin tin).

Bake approx. 15-17 min. Mine started to brown around 15 min. Just ensure the batter is cooked through by testing with a fork and making sure it’s clean when poking through one of the muffins. 

Jason and I sampled last night to taste test and the rest came with me to work today.

Enjoy!

Nutritional Info:

Calories- 185

Fat-7 g (mostly healthy fats from PB. If you want to remove most of this you can try using PB2, which is a powdered peanut butter that has most of the healthy fats from Peanut Butter removed)

Protein-7g

Carbs- 26g

Fiber-3g

“Smart and Chick” Peanut Butter Butterscotch Blondies

Peanut Butter is a wonderful thing. Enough said. Right?!I honestly could talk all day about it, I could list out the endless reasons why I love it and the different ways I eat it, but I won’t.  I made peanut butter blondies for a Super Bowl Party last month. While I really wanted to use that not-so-healthy recipe again that was delicious, I wanted to experiment with a healthier recipe while still getting my peanut butter fix.

I was at the end of the end of jar when making these last night (I know, sad, sad story). I found myself cleaning it out with a spoon for literally over 5 minutes to get every last lick out of the jar. Wasting any amount of peanut butter is just not right.

One other thing about peanut butter. While it is usually delicious no matter what brand or type you buy, I question whether you really need the added sugar and oils that are in most regular peanut butters? Not in my opinion. I prefer the natural stuff. When comparing the nutritional values of regular peanut butter vs. natural peanut butter, you usually won’t see much difference in nutritional value for calories, fat. Etc. You will notice the difference in the ingredients. Natural Peanut Butter should consist of 2 things, Peanuts and Salt. In regular peanut butter you will usually see things like added like sugar, hydrogenated oil, evaporated cane juice, etc. This doesn’t mean I don’t eat regular peanut butter, ever. However, it is good to know and when it was brought to my attention a couple of years ago, I tried the natural kind and I actually like the taste of it better. I am not a nutritionist but I do know I get my fair share of sugar from other foods throughout the day, I don’t need it added to my peanut butter. Both these types of peanut butter have the healthy fats that are “good for you” fats. If you are looking for a lower fat option, try PB2. It’s a powdered peanut butter without all the fat.

So much for not rambling on about peanut butter :). Now, on to the recipe and what makes these “smart and chick.”

Chickpeas! Before you think I am crazy, they came out tasty and only have a slight hint of the bean taste so don’t be afraid! I’ve always enjoyed them from the salad bar at work and lately I have been having them at lunch with my chicken and rice. I have also tried them as a snack “browned’ in the oven with garlic and olive oil. Did you know these delicious beans are packed with protein and fiber? I wasn’t necessarily trying to add protein to my blondies, but I have heard you can incorporate chickpeas into them to make tasty ones and have been wanting to try. Since there is no flour used in this recipe, you will see from the picture, they didn’t rise as much as blondies normal do, but they were still yummy and have no added oils, butter or flour!

What you need: To make about 12 blondies, in an 8 x8 pan.

• 1 can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (I used Goya, low sodium)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup quick oats (you can also use ground flax instead if you prefer)
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips (you can also use chocolate chip, or any flavor you prefer)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Blend all ingredients (except chips) until very smooth in a food processor (not a blender). Mix in chips, and scoop into a greased 8×8 pan. Bake for approx. 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Nutritional Information:

• Calories: 95
• Fat: 2.5 g
• Fiber: 3 g
• Carbs: 15 g
• Protein: 2.5 g

Strawberry Banana Protein Muffins

I was working from home a couple of weeks ago during one of our (many) big snow storms. I had a few extra minutes to spare before getting to work on the laptop. I was not in the mood for my normal breakfast of eggs or oatmeal. Instead I was craving muffins and came across this “clean” recipe for Strawberry Banana Muffins. I altered it a bit since I only had regular flour (and no wheat flour, which it called for), and realized (after starting) I was out of honey. Ohhhhhh the joys of spontaneous baking with not double-checking what ingredients you have on hand :).

I also wanted to incorporate Protein Powder some how. So instead of using the full 2 cups of wheat flour, I used one cup of white flour and 1 scoop of Strawberry Muscle Tech Phase 8 Protein Powder.

After about 10 minutes of prep time, and 20 minutes in the oven, I had some tasty muffins to start the snow day off with! I brought what was left of the 12 servings into work the next day and they were enjoyed by some co-workers. 🙂

Recipe: makes 12 muffins

1 egg
1/2 cup honey (I didn’t use this, but only because I didn’t have any on hand)
2 Tbsp canola oil (or any type of oil you prefer)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup nonfat plain Chobani yogurt
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup white flour (or wheat if you want it cleaner)

1 scoop of Strawberry Protein Powder (any brand will work)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with liners liners. Set aside.
Add the egg, honey, oil, vanilla, almond milk, yogurt, and mashed bananas to a mixing bowl. Stir ingredients together until combined. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and mix all of the ingredients together until no lumps remain. Be careful not to overmix. Fold in sliced strawberries.

Divide batter among muffin liners. Fill each muffin liner about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the muffins in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely

A few things to note: While I didn’t use the honey, my batter consistency was very thick. I believe the honey would have made it more “runny” and easier to pour into the liners. But no honey = less sugar you’re eating :). My muffins came out quite puffy and large. I am convinced you could make these without any flour and use 2 scoops of protein powder instead. I plan on trying this recipe again but instead adding peanut butter and peanut butter protein powder to make Peanut Butter Banana Protein Muffins.

Enjoy!

Nutritional Info:

Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 12
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 142
Total Fat: 3.2 3
Cholesterol: 16 mg
Sodium: 14.2 mg
Total Carbs: 35 g
Fiber: 3.2 g
Sugars: 12 g
Protein: 8 g