Lightened Banana Bread Muffins

Desire to eat healthy has been wearing thin lately.  For lunch today, I had half a sandwich and a side salad.  I devoured the sandwich in a moments notice, but then I stared at this salad for 10 minutes before finally admitting defeat and picking out the good stuff (i.e. croutons and egg) before tossing the lettuce.  

Please tell me you all have done this?

Last night, I baked sliced chicken breasts in panko bread crumbs for use with salads, sandwiches, and for that nights dinner --chicken parm over pasta because it is basically all I can think about- and I am all into giving in every once - or twice - in a while.   

After dinner while cleaning up, two sad looking bananas sat among the mess.   These bananas have been staring at me for a while.  I should have taken a picture but they were beyond their prime.  Smooshy and bruised and not something I wanted to eat.   I hate to waste food, so I decided banana bread it was.   

I wanted a banana bread (CARBS CARBS CARBS), something that was tasty, but a little lighter I found this recipe from the Tastebook.   I lightened it a little bit and baked the batter in muffin tins for pre-portioned on the go convenience.   They are a little dense but are quite delicious.  Especially with a little bit of nutella spread on top for good measure... or something like that. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1 C whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 c Sugar- ( I used 1/4 C sugar  1/4 C splenda)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 medium (1 cup) ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 C canola oil  (I only did 1/4 C of oil - the oil grossed me out) 
• 1/4 C Milk- ( I used Sweetened Vanilla Almond Milk)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 C mini chocolate chips  (and I added walnuts and sweetened coconut flakes on top!) 

*If you want to lighten it further you can substitute the oil for applesauce, use all wheat flour, and leave out the chocolate chips walnuts and coconut!

DIRECTIONS

• 1
  Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, line the bottom with parchment paper and spray the paper with cooking spray.
• I used a large muffin tin and instead of traditional liners, I cut parchment paper into squares and used that as a liner.  

• 2
  Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl whisk bananas, eggs oil, milk and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula just until moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips.
• And fold in the walnuts!

  
  
• 3
  Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool bread in the pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling completely on a wire rack.
• I poured the batter directly into the un greased parchment liners, topped with shredded coconut, and baked about 25 minutes or until a toothpick was inserted and came out dry!