Banana Oatmeal Muffins

These muffins have great banana flavor, a hint of sweet, nice bite and bake very pretty.  The girls love to eat them as a snack or for breakfast.  My favorite way is warm with a tiny bit of butter or margarine.  We "healthed" up the basic banana muffin recipe to make a more filling snack.  You could go even further and substitute 1/3 cup applesauce for the oil.  Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Ingredients

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 egg or 1/4 cup pasteurized egg product

3/4 cup coconut milk (almond or skim plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice would work too)

2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 medium mashed bananas, around 1 and 1/4 cups

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine dry ingredients flour through nutmeg and whisk together.
3. In a large bowl thoroughly mix the egg, oil, milk, vanilla and mashed bananas.  Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined.  Do not over mix the muffins will be tough
4. Pour batter into lined or oiled muffin tins.  Fill 3/4 full.  This recipe makes 12 muffins in my square pan and enough left over batter for 10 mini muffins.  We like a light sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar on top before they bake.
5. Mini muffins bake for 10-12 minutes.  Regular muffins bake for 12-15 minutes.  These bake fast, be careful not to over bake.  Remove from pan after they have cooled for 2 minutes

Dark Chocolate & Tart Cherry Granola Bars

I saw this recipe and thought what a great idea and then completely forgot about it!  Thanks to the magic of Facebook and Pinterest, I rediscovered the recipe.  Homemade healthy granola bars that my girls and I would love and are easy to throw in my purse to eat when you need a snack.  What could be better!  After reading the reviews I made some tweaks and came out with a healthy, yummy, chewy, chunky and portable granola bar.  I will definitely be trying my hand at granola bars again.  I'm thinking of doing a cinnamon maple oat one next.  These are seriously so easy to make and you'll get a more nutritious bar for much less bank.

Recipe Modifications

• used 1/4 cup canola and 1/4 cup olive oil
• used 1/3 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped dried tart cherries
• cooked in glass dish and bars were about 2.5 inches thick instead of 1.  made 20 bars
• cooked for 20 minutes and let cool hour.  They crumbled when cut so baked additional 25 minutes. smushed down when I got them out of the oven to really compact.  Then cooled for 30 minutes.  Then put in fridge until they were cold.  After that they cut great!  Next time just bake for 40, smash to compact and cool in fridge before cutting

Ingredients

4 Cups Old Fashioned Oats

1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 Cup Shredded Unsweetened Coconut

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Chocolate Chips*

1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt

1/2 Cup Canola Oil

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 Cup Honey

Recipe

This recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs weelicious

Click Here for Recipe

Easy Blender Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

So my girls wanted pancakes and eggs this thursday morning.  I wanted them to have a healthy version so I took a stab at my own recipe.  The flavor is great and I will be making and tweaking this recipe in the future, success!  The batter is a thinner batter so smaller fast cooking pancakes are best.  You can let the batter sit for a while for a fluffier pancake, well if your family isn't as impatient to eat as mine is!  I read an interesting article on the affects of baking powder and baking soda, kinda cool to learn the science behind the ingredients The Food Lab: Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cups old fashion oats

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon or to taste

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup rice milk (can use milk/soy milk/almond milk)

1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup pasteurized eggs or 2 eggs

1 really large or two small bananas, in pieces around a cup

Recipe

1. Place all ingredients in blender and blend until just mixed.
2. Heat oiled/buttered griddle over medium high heat.  Add batter 1/4 cup at a time.  Flip when bubbles begin to form