recipe of the week: yummy banana muffins

here's another way to apply the principle of "waste not, want not" (see previous post). i love these muffins and they are a great way to use up over-ripe bananas and of course, they don't have any oil or butter in them. if you're not into whole wheat yet, try using 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wheat flour. ease your way in. :)

yummy banana muffins

makes 12 muffins

1 egg (or 1 egg white if you want to eliminate a few more calories)
1 1/3 cups mashed ripe banana
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (a little bit less is still yummy if you want to make them extra healthy)
1/3 heaping cup applesauce (or plain fat free yogurt)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (expensive and definitely optional!)

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. lightly grease one 12 cup muffin pan.
2. in a large bowl, combine egg, banana, brown sugar, applesauce and vanilla. in a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. gently stir flour mixture and oatmeal into banana mixture. fold in walnuts (optional). pour batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. bake in preheated oven or 15 to 20 minutes, or until light brown. remove muffins from pan and place on a wire rack to let cool before serving.

up next - my adventures in cooking for a family of 5 for a week! lots of recipes and just good plain fun (a hilarious 4-year-old, sous-chef was involved - how could it not be fun?)

recipe is a modified version of "seminary muffins" from allrecipes.com. photo is from the same.