My banana oat muffins have returned – and with a twist! Over the holidays my sister and I have always gotten really yummy candy and treats as stocking stuffers, which I’ll admit to have always eaten most of before New Year’s Day. This year was no different, but come the universal January 1st resolution to get back on track, I still hadn’t touched a little pouch of trail mix that was laced with dried fruit, peanuts, and various little chocolate candies – aka, everything I love to snack on. The pouch itself was about the size of one of those individual nuts packets you can find in vending machines, but since there was also dried fruit and candy within, the package was labeled to contain 4 servings and a whopping 680 calories total.
I had two options – open up the package in the hopes that I don’t nosh my way through the whole bag, essentially having half of my calories for the day in one fairly small snack; OR figuring out a way to use (but not actually eat) the whole bag in one sitting so it wasn’t sitting in my pantry opened, tempting me. I decided this was a perfect opportunity to revive my banana oat muffins, which I’d retired for a while during my days on keto (which, side note, I don’t think I’m done with for good), and the trail mix would replace the chocolate chips that I would normally include in the recipe. I’ll point out here that a substitution like this works with really any leftover candy/snacks you have lying around post-holiday-season (and really with any baked good recipe). Just remember that when you’re adding sweet mix-ins to a recipe, reduce the amount of actual sugar/sweetener in that recipe. And, if safely possible, before you incorporate your eggs into your batter give it a taste to see if it’s coming along as you envisioned.
Overall, this recipe substitution was a win-win for a few different reasons, and I’m excited to share this little leftover hack with you guys! Normally I wouldn’t add nuts to these treats because I was never a big fan of nuts in baked goods (mostly because walnuts are in so many baked goods and I really just don’t like that flavor combination). However, I think the addition of peanuts gave the muffins a really great flavor (especially when paired with the banana), and also a great additional element of texture and crunch. I also normally wouldn’t have used a coated M&M type candy in these, but the candy coating bled into the oat mixture and actually gave the muffins a rainbow swirl, which was a pleasant surprise as far as I’m concerned.
Without further adieu, here’s everything you need to know:
Ingredients:
- Two cups oats (I used rolled oats, and not instant)
- Two bananas, mashed (Mine were medium sized, and very ripe)
- Two eggs (I used large)
- One cup Greek yogurt (any amount of fat is fine, I used 2%)
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
- Cinnamon to taste
- Mix-ins of choice (I used a trail mix that contained peanuts, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, M&Ms, and raisins [which I picked out because I don’t like raisins])
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a muffin tin (you can use liners as well, but you still might want to grease them). Mix all ingredients together (order doesn’t matter much, but I usually do the following:
- Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl
- Mash the banana and combine mashed banana with eggs and greek yogurt
- Mix in the dry ingredients to the wet
- Fold in the mix-ins
Divide batter among the muffin tin/cups (fill about 3/4 of the way). Depending on your oven and size of your muffin tin, these will bake for 10-15 minutes. I would recommend checking them after 10 minutes with a toothpick – when the toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are done!
Stats:
- Yield: 12
- Protein per Muffin: 6g
- Carbs per Muffin: 19g
- Fats per Muffin: 6g
- Total Calories per Muffin: 154 Calories
I also realize that I’ve been calling these treats “muffins” for this whole post, but they look more like a cookie in the photos. When I first started making this recipe, I was making them in a regular sized/shaped muffin tin and they were indisputably banana oat muffins. I have since purchased a different tin, which is more shallow than a regular muffin tin and the muffin rounds have a larger circumference. When I bake using this tin, the muffins are wider and flatter, and take the shape more of a cookie. Either way, the batter is the same and you can fill up the muffin tin/cup more to have them look more like muffins, or you can fill them up less and they will look more like cookies. Remember that if you fill the tin less, you will have to cook each batch for less time, so check them sooner!
I hope you give these a try, and I would love to see how you get creative with your mix-ins! Tag me in your posts (@liftinluxe #liftinluxe) and as always, DM or email (liftinluxe@gmail.com) with any questions or collab requests!
Stay fit and festive, all!
Maddie Danza 