Healthy Banana Muffins

I've been trying to experiment with and use a variety of grains when I'm cooking and baking because they provide a variety of flavours to recipes, and are often healthier than plain old refined wheat. :P Some of the grains and flours I've been experimenting with include Kamut flour, quinoa, 7 grain flour (great for substituting in bread recipes!), flax and oats in various forms. I found an interesting website called Versagrain that provides you with lots of recipes and info on various grains. I've also been using a book called "Quinoa 365" to find some yummy recipes. The following is a recipe I tried off the versagrain website for healthy banana muffins. Give them a try!

Healthy Banana Muffins

(Makes 12)
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used 3/4 cup WW, 3/4 cup Kamut flour)
- 1/4 cup oat bran
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt (I used a healthy pinch!)
- 3 ripe bananas, mashed
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 egg whites (I used 2 eggs)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce or pumpkin puree (I used pumpkin, it was GREAT!)
- 3 TBsp ground flaxseed

Directions

Preheat oven the 375 deg F, spray muffin tins with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, oat bran, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together bananas, brown sugar, egg whites, vanilla, and applesauce. Add banana mixture to the flour mixture. Using as few strokes as possible, mix until everything is moistened (lumps are okay). Spoon banana muffin batter into prepared muffin cups, 2/3 full. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and sprinkle muffin tops with ground flaxseed.

One thing I did differently was that I mixed the ground flaxseed in the recipe instead of sprinkling it on top the warm muffins. These muffins were excellent, very hearty, very yummy. You'd probably be able to decrease the sugar to 1/2 cup and/or substitute it for maple sugar for a different taste. They freeze very well. This one's definitely a keeper!