lowfat banana chocolate chip muffins

Hello dear reader!  I know it’s been a long time.  In fact, when I peruse back through my postings I am a little embarrassed about how long it’s been since my last post.  I have been shamefully neglectful but!   I have excuses!  They involve a broken Pentax camera, a hot summer and even hotter kitchen, and, well, general laziness.  You can all thank my friend Joy for being a little piece of inspiration to get back to writing…and eating.   She’s a peach, that Joy – the real Southern, sweet kind.  So here I am…and all that summer cooking reading I’ve been doing is about to pay off in a little flurry of food postings over the next couple days (or so I’m hoping).

Up first:  muffins!

I have been eyeing a banana loaf recipe for a couple months now.  It seems that when I buy bananas, I can never eat the last two of the bunch.  It’s like I get bored of them or something.  Since I don’t like throwing them away, I usually stick them in the freezer thinking I’ll need them at some point. 

I’ll tell you what.  That was a GREAT idea until my freezer got so full, I opened it and a nice cascade of hard, frozen, black bananas came tumbling out onto my foot.   This means war… and by war, I mean banana bread.

Now here’s my quirky thing about banana bread:  I really, really don’t like pouring oil into batter for food.  Butter is ok.  Cream is fine.  Oil is just plain weird to me, and most traditional banana bread recipes call for it.   So instead I found a recipe from a blogger for lowfat banana chocolate chip muffins – the lowfat part being absolutely brilliant…applesauce!  Check it out…plus, they were so simple to make.

Since I wasn’t in the mood to sit and wait for a loaf to bake, I decided on muffins.  Muffins are also good because they’re handy and I can tote them around for breakfast, snack, or post-run pick-me-up. 

I simply peeled my unsightly freezer fruit after delicately defrosting them, and tossed them into a bowl, gently mashing them.   Very therapeutic!   Then I literally dumped all the remaining ingredients on top (I used Splenda sugar blend and half wheat flour) and proceeded to stir.  I greased the muffin tins, dropped 1/3 cupfuls into each slot. 

(*ahem* I like my muffins with a little muffin top, if you know what I’m sayin’.)

After exactly 19 minutes for each batch, I had 14 beautiful banana chocolate chip muffins.  As I always do in tradition, I popped one out of the tin and ate it.   I swear it was like a warm chocolate chip cookie with a hint of banana sweetness.  And the best part…I didn’t feel guilty after eating it and my freezer says, “thank you”.

Ingredients
4 very ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar (I used Splenda Sugar Blend)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
4 tablespoons applesauce
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preparation

1. Mash bananas in a bowl.
2. Add all other ingredients and mix well.
3. Pour into greased loaf pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes if making muffins (or 50 to 60 minutes if making a loaf), or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Yields 16 muffins or one loaf.

Thank you, Nosh With Me!

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