Our Stronger Leaner Faster philosophy takes into account that treats are an unavoidable part of life.  A healthy lifestyle is fully capable of accommodating a little sweetness.  Especially, during the holiday season, potluck parties and when you have too many ripe bananas on hand.  The later reason is precisely how our Banana Nut Muffin recipe came about.

At S&S we like to see how healthy we can make a dish and still keep it’s delicious flavour.  After trying a few recipes, we came up with a winner! 

People often mistake homemade muffins, or even store bought ones as healthy alternatives to other treats.  This could not be further from the truth.  Problem with muffins is the empty calories in way of added Sugar and Butter. 

Muffins from your favourite coffee shop with a crunchy top contain a crumble made of sugar, butter and all-purpose flour.  These are empty calories, with no nutritional value and will go straight to those hard to lose fat areas.

Our goals with this banana nut muffin recipe are:

  • cut the amount of sugar but still keep the sweetness. 
  • cut the amount of butter or other added fat contact but still keep the moist texture.
  • last but not least, have a crunchy flavour that we all love from fine bakery style muffin tops.

The recipe below accomplishes these goals as the amount of sugar and butter are cut down by 1/2 of a typical Banana Nut Muffin recipe.  Result is a deliciously sweet, moist and crunchy muffin that you can have a moment with.

Fit Tip:  Bake these muffins in small muffin tins. That way you can enjoy a sweet treat more often without the guilt of excess treat calories. 

At S&S household, we don’t count calories anymore but rather focus on nutritional value of food.  However, we understand caloric amount maybe important to you.  So, we’ve included a calorie amount below for your convenience. 

Banana Nut Muffins Recipe

healthy banana nut muffins

Per 1 muffin: Calores 240, Carbs 31g, Fat 12g, Protein 4.5g, Fiber 3g

12 medium size muffins

1.5 cups Whole Wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose, white flour

1.5 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup Brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted Butter — melted, cooled

1 cup apple sauce, unsweetened — quick version, blend 1 apple with 1/2 cup of water

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Grease or line 12-hole muffin pan.

Dry ingredients — In medium size bowl, mix (using sifter to remove any lumps) WW flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and set aside.

Wet ingredients — In lager bowl, cut bananas into little pieces and add to the sugar. Using hand blender, whip up this mixture until it starts to look like banana cream, 3-5 minutes.

To this mixture, add cooled melted butter, eggs, vanilla and mix for another 2 minutes.  Add in the apple sauce and mix for 1-2 minutes. 

Fold dry ingredients into wet with a rubble spatula.  Chop up the walnuts and coat them with 1tbsp of flour before adding to the wet mixture.

Fill up muffin tins almost to the top.  Option, sprinkle with finely chopped walnuts. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Check for doneness at 15 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the muffins, if it comes out clean, they are done.

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!  As this recipe is low in sugar and made of all natural ingredients it’s best to keep leftovers in fridge for up to 4 days and warm-up in microwave, if desired.

We hoped you enjoyed this recipe, if so, please share it on your favourite social media so, we can get on google’s radar.  Fell free to leave us a comment and start a discussion on the topic.

If you are looking to make changes towards a more healthier you be sure to learn more about our food and training books:

The No-Diet Book

Stronger Leaner Faster Her

Stronger Leaner Faster Him

Resources:

Nutrition Facts: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/