Healthy Banana Bars

A little while ago I came across this recipe for Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey Road Cake. And this morning, as a reward for the busy day I had yesterday, I decided to finally enjoy some quality baking time. Unfortunately I didn’t have one of the title ingredients — honey. But the fact it was the healthiest banana bread I had stumbled across in some time (possibly ever) made me decide it was worth trying anyway. And the substitutions I made seemed to work out perfectly. The only thing I think I could have added but didn’t think of until it was too late was chopped walnuts. Walnuts are always a great addition to banana bread. Oh well — next time! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup Splenda (or other sweetener of choice)
• 1 egg (or flax egg if making vegan)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 heaping tablespoon creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons apple sauce
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine banana, Splenda, egg, vanilla, maple syrup, peanut butter and apple sauce in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Ensure all banana lumps have disappeared.
3. Stir in flours, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
4. Pour mixture into a greased 8 x 8 baking pan. Even out mixture.
5. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes. You can check on it at 25 minutes but I find the bananas cause the mixture to take a long time to cook.
6. Let cool for 10 minutes or so as bread will continue to cook on the inside and then serve.

Note: Loaf can easily be cut into squares which are convenient to take with you as a quick snack or breakfast on-the-go.

Whole Wheat Carrot Banana Muffins

These sugar-free, whole wheat muffins are the perfect way to start your day! They are filled with yummy and good-for-you ingredients and the recipe yields about 16 so you’ll have plenty to last you through the week. I made some alterations from the original recipe to increase the nutritional content and I think they turned out great.

Whole Wheat Carrot Banana Muffins

Makes 16

Ingredients:

- 1 and 1/2 cups whole what flour

- 1/2 cup all purpose flour (to help them fluff out a bit more)

- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

- 3/4 teaspoon salt

- 2 teaspoons cinnamon

- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

- 1/2 cup chopped dried dates

- 1/2 cup hot water

- 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 and 1/4 cups)

- 1 and 1/2 cups shredded carrot

- 1/2 cup plain yoghurt (I used non fat)

- 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and walnuts in a large bowl.

3. In a small bowl combine dates and hot water and let sit so the water can soak up some of the sweetness of the dates and the dates can soften.

4. In a medium bowl combine bananas and carrots. Whisk yoghurt and eggs together in another small bowl and add to the banana-carrot mixture. Add in the date-water mixture.

5. Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined (you don’t want to over-mix)

6. Scoop the mixture into paper muffin cups or a well greased muffin tray. Don’t be afraid of filling them up too much as they will barely rise at all.

7. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes. Remove and let cool before transfering to an airtight container for storage. They will keep very well in the fridge or can even be frozen if you don’t think you’ll use them all within the week.

Hope they warm up your mornings as much as they did for me!

 

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Well, any recipe that involves peanut butter is good by me!This recipe is nice because it isn’t too heavy on the peanut butter so you get that nice nutty flavor without it being too rich. I didn’t have any flax seeds on hand so I made some alterations to the original recipe but they still turned out great. They’re a great way to kick off your day!

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Makes 14

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

- 1 cup oats

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/2 cup sugar (I used Splenda)

- 2 tablespoons oil (I used grapeseed)

- 6 tablespoons peanut butter

- 2 ripe, mashed bananas

- 2 eggs (lightly beaten)

- 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place muffin cups in muffin tin.

2. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl.

3. In a medium bowl combine peanut butter and oil.  Add banana and mix well. Stir in eggs and water.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well.

5. Scoop batter evenly into muffin cups. Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove and let cool – or if you’re me, snag one to eat for breakfast right away!

 

Banana Date Cookies

I love recipes that sweeten treats without sugar and this one is one of the best! And to make them extra filling you can easily toss in some nuts or sunflower seeds. Enjoy!

Banana Date Cookies

Makes 12 pieces

Ingredients:

- 1 and a half ripe bananas

- 1 cup rolled oats

- 1/2 cup chopped dates

- 3 tablespoons applesauce

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mash bananas. Stir in oats, dates, applesauce and vanilla. Let sit for 15 minutes.

3. With a spoon scoop 12 evenly sized cookies and place on pan. You may have to flatten slightly to ensure the insides cook.

4. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes. Let cool. Store in airtight container in fridge.

The All Time Best Smoothie

After many cases of trial and error through the years I finally discovered the trick to the thickest, creamiest smoothie:

Frozen Fruit!

If you make your smoothies with all frozen fruit they come out with a texture so thick they practically have to be consumed with a spoon! Using a frozen banana also helps to create the thickness and a little bit of Splenda goes a long way in terms of frothiness.

The following is just one example of the fruits you can use but feel free to play around with whatever you have on hand. As long as there is frozen fruit, banana, yoghurt and milk – you can’t go wrong!

Amazing Smoothie

Serves 1 as a meal or two as a snack or beverage

Ingredients:

- Half a banana (sliced and frozen)

- 4 strawberries (cut in half and frozen)

- half a peach (cubed and frozen)

- quarter of an avocado (cubed and frozen)

- 1/4 cup yoghurt

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1 tablespoon Splenda

Directions:

1. Begin by blending frozen fruits in a food processor.

2. When they have broken down add milk, yoghurt and Splenda. Continue to blend.

3. Transfer to a glass and drink up!

Banana Bran Muffins

I absolutely love baked goods but hate how filled with sugar and fat most of them are. But these Banana Bran Muffins are a whole other story. They are full of food value and even better – they’re delicious! You can warm them up and enjoy them with a nice cup of coffee. Or toss them in your bag for later on your way out the door. You can even keep them in the freezer and take one out the night before a long day. No matter how you consume them – there is no doubt you will enjoy them!

Banana Bran Muffins

Yields 12 muffins

Preparation time: 25 minutes, Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

- 1 cup bran (I used all bran buds and just spun them in a food processor until fully ground)

- 1 cup milk

- 2 ripe bananas

- 1 egg

- 3 tablespoons butter (I used low calorie margarine)

- 3 tablespoons sugar (I used Splenda)

- 1 cup whole wheat flour

- 1/4 cup all purpose flour

- 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place 12 muffin cups in a tray.

2. In a medium bowl mash bananas thoroughly. Mix in bran and milk.

3. In a small bowl soften butter. Whisk in egg and sugar. Pour this mixture into banana blend and combine well.

4. Stir flours, walnuts, cinnamon and baking powder together in a large mixing bowl. Add wet mixture to dry and ensure everything is well distributed.

5. Scoop dough evenly into each of the 12 muffin cups.

6. Place in oven and bake for about 20 minutes.

7. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes. Then remove muffins from tray and let them continue to cool completely before placing in an airtight container. Store in fridge for up to a week.

My thanks go out to Food4Thought for inspiring me to make these delicious goodies. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

And the award for best hot weather snack goes to…frozen bananas!!

Yes it may sound crazy but once you try it you won’t be able to stop. All you do is take some very ripe banana (not so ripe that they’ve turned brown and mushy but ripe enough that there is a lot of flavour to them). You chop them up, lay them flat in a ziploc bag and put it in a freezer. Then whenever the weather gets to be too much for you or you just need a quick pick me up you can pop one in your mouth. It’s incredibly simple and incredibly healthy. Enjoy!

Banana Date Muffins

I came across the incredible deal of bananas at 29 cents a pound and that’s a hard thing to turn down! But that also meant that I had a lot of very ripe bananas to make use of. So it was time for Banana Date Muffins! I adapted it from a loaf recipe but turned it into muffins because I often need to eat on the go and halved it because I’m leaving town soon and didn’t want the rest to go bad. So here we have a recipe for 6 delicious and nutritious muffins:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Between 1/3 and 1/2 cup chopped dates depending on desired sweetness

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup boiling water

1 ripe banana

1 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 egg white

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F and line muffin tin with 6 muffin cups.

2. Mix chopped dates and baking soda in small bowl. Pour in boiling water.

3. Let date mixture sit while you sift together flour, baking powder and cinnamon.

4. Mash banana, lightly beat egg white and combine the two.

5. Stir olive oil into date mixture and then add to other wet ingredients.

6. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix throughly.

7. Pour into muffin cups and bake in oven for 18-20 minutes.

 

Tropical Muffins

Other than dessert I would have to say that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. It just has so much delicious potential – and can really set you up right for the rest of the day. Nothing puts me in a good mood quite like a nice, healthy muffin. I based this delicious recipe off one found on Kitchen Catharsis. It caught my eye because it has a delicious blend of fruits and nuts and is low in sugar. Hope you like it!

Ingredients for 12 Tropical Muffins:

For muffins:

- 1 and 1/2 cups flour (I did 1 cup whole wheat and 1/2 a cup all purpose so they would be healthy and still rise properly)

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

- 6 tablespoons margarine

- 1 egg

- 1/2 cup sugar (I did 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup granulated Splenda)

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 2 ripe, mashed bananas

- 1/2 cup heavily diced pineapple

- 1/2 cup nuts (I did 1/4 pecans and 1/4 cup walnuts because that is what I had around but I’m sure any nuts would work)

- 1/4 shredded coconut (optional – it wasn’t in the original recipe but I really love coconut)

For topping:

- 3 tablespoons very chopped nuts (I did walnuts but it’s totally up to you)

- 2 tablespoons brown sugar

- 3 tablespoons shredded coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Chop nuts and toast in oven. Check on them often to make sure  they don’t burn.

3. Place 12 muffin liners in muffin tin.

4. In a small bowl mix together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg).

5. In a large bowl thoroughly mix wet ingredients (margarine, egg, sugar and vanilla).

6. Add half the dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix.

7. Add mashed banana, diced pineapple toasted nuts (minus those meant for topping) and stir.

8. Add in rest of dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated.

9. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full with mix.

10. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle a heaping teaspoon over each muffin.

11. Bake in oven for 25 minutes.

I love this recipe because the inside is soft and moist, while the top has a nice crunch to it. Hope it makes your morning a good one!