The very first thing I baked after my first trimester kitchen hiatus was banana muffins. Looking back on it, I still can’t believe how long I went without cooking a single thing. It was insane. In addition to my exhaustion, cooking smells were my worst enemy and this meant I stayed out of the kitchen for a good, long while. If you know me, this is unheard of. Finally, one Saturday morning several weeks back, I woke up and I actually felt decent. I was starving and nothing but banana muffins would do, and even better, I actually felt like baking them myself. But there was one catch.

My absolute favourite banana bread recipe has cream cheese, which we didn’t have on hand. Oh, and I really didn’t feel like using my mixer either. I wanted a one-bowl deal. I did a quick Google search and landed on this recipe. It was super fast to whip up and it totally hit the spot. I started making a batch every week or so but in the New Year I decided maybe it was time to find a healthier alternative. I tinkered with the original quite a bit and these came out even better than I had dreamed, on the first try. No butter, no refined sugar and no gluten if you use gluten-free oats. They are filling and perfectly sweet, although I love them spread with a little strawberry jam. Even if you’re on a resolution diet of some kind, these will probably still be allowed for a guilt-free treat. My biggest problem these days is always having enough ripe bananas on hand!

Hearty Banana Oat Muffins

Makes 12 standard muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• Pinch salt
• ¾ cup coconut sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups oat flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12 cup standard muffin tin with liners.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Melt your coconut oil and add it to the mashed banana mixture. Stir in baking soda, salt, coconut sugar, egg and vanilla. Once this is combined, stir in the oat flour and cinnamon.

Scoop into lined muffin tin and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Notes:

I measured my coconut oil in solid form before melting it.

I made my own oat flour by pulsing 1 1/2 cups rolled oats in my food processor.

I buy my coconut sugar at Bulk Barn.