Fab Food: Flourless, protein packed Banana Muffins(aka Elvis Muffins)

Our family has been sick the last week. That on top of me just feeling "blah" lately definitely hasn't been fun. Yesterday though, the clouds parted, and we saw that light! I was finally feeling better and everything that I've been dealing with because of my thyroid felt better. I felt normal, like myself again. For the first time in a while.

That "good feelings surge" started me on a "busy spree." I cleaned, finished projects, played with my boys, and baked. It was fun, relaxing, and I was at peace.

The baking part of my day started with me needing to use up some bananas that had gotten old. A lot of people throw these out, but THAT IS A HUGE MISTAKE! Old bananas are the best.

--Here's a secret: I used to be a health nut. There was a time in College and early marriage that I loved recreating recipes to make them lower in fat and healthier over all. My husband didn't exactly care for this, mainly because he never knew exactly what he was eating. During my first pregnancy all that changed when all I wanted was meat and potatoes. The hubbs was a happy camper :) Now I am trying out "healthy" again and attempting to marry healthy and tasty to satisfy everyone(especially the picky kiddos).

With three HUNGRY boys in the house I always need something on hand that I can feed them--especially for breakfast. They don't mind cereal, but that gets old and isn't very filling so I try to have muffins, pancakes, or oatmeal already made to give them. I typically make whole wheat banana muffins for them with our old bananas, a fav, but I decided to try a recipe that I found on Pinterest instead. And of course because I always have to put my own spin on things, I changed it up a little. Ever heard of an Elvis sandwich? Peanut Butter, banana, and honey...grilled. This was partly my inspiration....

The original muffin recipe can be found here: banana oatmeal cups

This is my recipe:

Blue Suede Muffins

Ingredients:

3 mashed bananas

1 cup skim milk(original used Vanilla Almond milk, but we didn't have any)

2 eggs

1 TB baking powder

3 cups Old fashion oats

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 TB sugar (or you could use honey)---optional, and I opted!

4 Tablespoons Peanut Butter (Sunbutter is another great alternative!)

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (A MUST!!)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2) Spray or line muffin tins (Makes 18 muffins)

2) Beat bananas, milk, eggs, extracts, sugar, and peanut butter using an electric beater

3) Mix together the Oats and baking powder and add into your liquid mix

4) Fold in your chocolate chips

***Note, the mixture smelled horrible to me, but trust me....and yeah, DON'T forget the chocolate chips, they kind of "make" the muffins

5) Fill muffin cups 3/4 to almost full...will make 18 muffins

6) Bake for 22 minutes

7) Let cool about 10 minutes and ease them out of the muffin tin using a knife to loosen them.

Fiber, Protein, LOW sugar...love. Enjoy :) They are moist and the flavors are wonderfully subtle. Even the hubbs loved these and they are quickly disappearing. The best part? I don't feel guilty about eating them and they "stick" with ya for a while.

***An update***
I've revamped this recipe a little since this post. A few have asked for it, so here ya go....

4 mashed bananas

1 cup skim milk(original used Vanilla Almond milk, but we didn't have any)

2 egg whites

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 TB baking powder

3 cups Old fashion oats

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

--no sugar :) I added the extra banana to compensate!

3 Tablespoons Peanut Butter (Sunbutter is another great alternative!)

Less than 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips and Peanut Butter Chips combined (A MUST!!)

Bake 20 minutes at 375.