Oatmeal Cinnamon Banana Muffins

Due to my recent
banana bread craze, my freezer found itself still hiding some of the left over fruit and being inspired by David Lebovitz (which I’m a devote blog follower of his) to never throw anything away, I figured it was a good time to put some muffins to the test!

Since my aforementioned banana bread is very similar to muffins, difference in the form of loaves versus tiny cakes, I figured it would be a good idea to add more ingredients to the muffins to change things up a bit. I like my banana bread plain with no added nuts or spices, so why not throw in some cinnamon and oatmeal for the muffins, which works well with the recipe I had in mind. Apparently changing the shape of the baked treats opens up my imagination to limitless opportunities (if you worked at a 9-5 job, your imagination needs to be stimulated somewhere).

The recipe that I followed, found on the Best Health Magazine website, is healthy due to its low fat and high protein content, however substituting the recommended oat bran for oatmeal does lower the protein down a bit, but definitely doesn’t change the flavour. I actually believe that using oatmeal instead of the oat bran makes it more moist and fluffy. Let me know if you do decide to try the original recipe and what you think of it!

Nutritional Tidbit: Both oatmeal and cinnamon are extremely healthy ingredients. Oatmeal has been proven to lower bad low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol because of its high concentration of soluble fibre. Adults should aim to get 25-35g of fibre a day and oatmeal contains roughly 5g of fibre in one serving (equal to ½ cup). Cinnamon on the other hand is full of antioxidants, which prevent free radical damage and has also been shown to prevent type II diabetes and lower blood pressure. Both are great additions to any type of cooking!

Source(s): Mayo Clinic, McCormick Science Institute


Ingredients: (Makes 12 muffins)
1 cup rolled oats
¾ cup skim milk
3 bananas
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1½ cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp baking powder

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Oil muffin tray or line tray with paper muffin cups.

Mix oats with skim milk and let soak while preparing other ingredients.

Peel and mash bananas, add brown sugar, canola oil, vanilla extract and egg, mix well and add in rolled oats mixture. Sift whole wheat flour, baking powder and cinnamon in to a bowl and slowly add in to wet ingredients.

Spoon mixture in to paper cups (or well oiled muffin tray). You can sprinkle with cinnamon and additional brown sugar on the top of each muffin if you would like a little more texture and sweetness, but that’s optional.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Let cool and serve! Can also be kept in a tight container and frozen for up to a month.