These healthy banana muffins are a DREAM! Especially with the chocolate chips added in! And they are SO simple to make!
I’ll be honest… I’m a TOTAL “carbo-holic”… Like I may need help… HA!
So discovering a healthy banana muffin recipe to help with those carb cravings is so exciting to me!
Years ago while trying to eat healthy or follow an eating plan, healthy foods or substitutions were so hard to come by!
I didn’t even know about half the foods or ingredients that we use now! Let alone know where to find them!
I’m so grateful that places like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods exist!
I’m also blown away that other stores that aren’t traditionally known as “health food stores” such as Walmart are now carrying healthy foods and substitutions!
Having easy access to these healthy foods makes staying on a healthy eating plan SO much easier! Like the ingredients for these healthy banana muffins!
BACKSTORY
Eating whole and healthy foods is very important to us. But not for the reasons that most would think.
Like I said in my Hormonal Health Rollercoaster post, I have struggled for years with hormonal imbalance.
This of course affects so many things in my life not to mention weight control.
I have tried several different eating plans, (read my post on Intermittent Fasting!) Each of them have given me certain tools that I’ve continued to carry out in my lifestyle.
Each of the eating plans has brought new recipes, foods and ingredients to my attention that I hadn’t known prior!
AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE
While on one of the stricter eating plans, my husband, Matt, decided to follow the plan as well. This was great for moral support and encouragement!
Following the eating plan together also made it easier to meal plan and grocery shop.
We were both very successful and together lost over 150 pounds!
During the time we were on the eating plan, my husband got an unexpected surprise.
While at the doctor we were seeing to help us with this eating plan, he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Hashimotos.
This disease affects his thyroid. He constantly switches from hyperthyroid to hypothyroid.
Each of these states comes with it’s own challenges but the transition from one to the other and back is extremely exhausting, causing great pain and fatigue.
There’s not really treatment except through food aversion.
To help his disease, Matt has to eat what’s called Auto Immune Protocol.
Through this eating protocol, we have learned so many incredible recipes and ingredient substitutions!
The Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet is gluten free and dairy free as well as many other foods to avoid.
Without substitutions, eating AIP is nearly impossible!
That’s just ONE more reason why I’m so excited about these healthy banana muffins!
THE INGREDIENTS
As I was saying above healthy ingredients are very important to our family.
Besides Matt having to follow AIP, my oldest also has an allergy to dairy.
(Which is different than being lactose intolerant! He can’t have anything with dairy because of the proteins.)
Because of all this, we do our best to avoid a lot of foods.
Once again, this is why I’m so excited about these gluten free healthy banana muffins!
Just like every muffin, you have to have a base. Most are normal wheat or white baking flour based.
To keep ours gluten free, I used a bit of a mixture of flours.
For those of you who have baked with other flours, you’ll know… not all flours are the same.
Some are gritty, some act sticky and heavy when wet, some don’t rise well in the oven, some never get crispy like baking flour normally does… you catch my drift….
This is why I use several flours at once as a blend. This way all of the good things about each flour help to mask the not so great things.
I learned this technique from the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan! (Go read that post!)
The flours I used for the muffins were almond flour, coconut flour and also gluten free oat bran.
Oat bran is very hard to find. I’ve basically had to order it online if I want it. UNTIL! I realized I could just blitz up oats in my Ninja blender and make my one oat bran!
The other awesome thing about making my own, is that I can use gluten free oats! You think oat bran is hard to find… try looking for gluten free oat bran!
For the chocolate chips, I found Lily’s stevia sweetened chocolate chips!
And Walmart sells them! Don’t worry! If you’re not a huge stevia fan, you would never know that’s what these chocolate chips are sweetened with!
Besides switching around some flour and healthier chocolate, I also used almond milk instead of regular milk or greek yogurt or something along those lines.
That way the recipe is dairy free!
HEALTHY BANANA MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS:
(Makes about 15 muffins)
- ½ cups almond flour
- ½ cups oat bran (homemade gluten free if possible)
- ½ cups coconut flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 overripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup melted butter
- ½ cup plain greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 packet of stevia (optional for a sweater muffin)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 ½ cup Lily’s chocolate chips (optional- you could also use normal chocolate chips or even substitute blueberries!)
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 375°. Prep muffin pans with coconut oil (or oil of your choice) or paper muffin liners.
- Use mixer to whip bananas.
3. Slowly mix in eggs, melted butter, maple syrup, almond milk, vanilla. Mix until blended well.
4. Mix in baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until blended well.
5. Slowly add flours but don’t over mix!
6. With a spatula, fold in chocolate chips (or blueberries).
7. Fill muffin paper liners with batter ¾ full. (don’t fill to the top or overflow the tin!)
8. Bake 16-18 minutes until tops are golden brown or a toothpick comes out clean.
There you have it! My healthy banana muffin recipe!
They are amazing to store in the fridge or freezer and use as needed! I like to match several batches and freeze them for breakfasts on quick mornings!
The baby loves them too and since they’re so healthy, I feel comfortable giving them to him!
Enjoy!
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Did you try this recipe or a recipe like this? I’d love to hear your thoughts as well as your favorite healthy recipes! Shoot me an email! I’d love to hear from you! Be sure to subscribe below so you don’t miss a thing! As well as follow me on Instagram and Pinterest!