Pumpkin Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Do you like pumpkin, cinnamon and chocolate? I hope so because today I am sharing what might be my all time favorite muffin ever! Seriously these are more decadent than any other muffin you have had – you could serve them to me for dessert on Thanksgiving and I would be quite happy. Go ahead and make a double batch so you have some left for the freezer – I’m just saying these are so delicious your family is going to gobble them up.

There is no need to use oil in a pumpkin muffin as the pumpkin (and in this recipe the addition of bananas) adds all the moisture you need. I found this recipe over at Wendy’s Healthy Girls Kitchen blog and she warns, “try not to eat these all at one sitting”! If you need something special to bake to take to work this is the perfect recipe. If you like to give holiday food gifts to your neighbors and friends I think these muffins would be a nice change from the usual plates of cookies.

I served these to some grown men who couldn’t stop at just one – they went back for seconds! M-m-m good! They don’t taste like a healthy recipe – they taste like a full fat, moist, sweet treat! You would never know these are made with whole wheat flour – they have a nice light soft texture. Trust me I have eaten plenty of healthy muffins over the years and these happen to be exceptional in flavor and texture. Two Thumbs up!

Pumpkin  Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup organic sucanat
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• wet ingredients:
• 2 medium frozen bananas, placed into a bowl and defrosted in a microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes
• OR 2 medium very ripe bananas, mashed until creamy
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or non-dairy milk of your choice
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup grain sweetened vegan chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cup cake liners or spray with non stick spray or use silicone baking pans.

Into a big bowl, place all of the dry ingredients. Stir gently to incorporate. I like to use a wire whisk for this.

Into a medium bowl, place all wet ingredients. Stir well. You can use an immersion blender or whisk to blend wet ingredients if you have large banana pieces in your wet ingredients this will break them up.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir together – but do not over mix. Muffin batter doesn’t need a lot of stirring. Add the chocolate chips.

Line muffin tins with cupcake papers or spray muffin tin with nonstick spray. Spoon batter into prepared 12 muffin cups about 2/3 full.

Bake in preheated 350 degree  oven for 20 – 24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of  a muffin comes out clean.

Yield: 12 Muffins

Serving Size: 1 muffin

Nutritional Information

Per Serving; 161 Calories, 2.4 g Fat, 0 mg Cholesterol, 0 g Trans Fats, 195.3 mg Sodium, 34.8 g Carbs, 138.5 mg Potassium, 3.2 g Fiber, 2.4 g protein.

Recipe from Wendy at Healthy Girls Kitchen

This recipe is featured on Carrie’s Healthy Vegan Friday Post.

Nutmeg Notes

My week went a little wacky as I ended up joining hubby Tom for an out of town business trip. We decided at 6:00 in the morning I would be his driver for a business trip and I had just 2 hours to shower, pack and get ready. Yikes! I was moving at lightening speed to get ready and managed to get it all together with 10 minutes to spare. Go me!

With me driving, hubby Tom was able to work on his computer, conduct business on the phone (safely) and take notes. Usually when he travels he calls me from the car and has me take notes for him – but this way he could make notes as he talked! There was no time to prep food for the road but I threw some raw veggies, fruit, nuts and snack bars in the cooler. I also had made some wraps the day before that could be eaten at room temperature so that was lunch the first day. Recipe coming soon as my home made wraps were amazing.

 Using the iPhone I could locate restaurant menus and find plant based options so it all worked out. In my rush to pack I forgot my camera but thank goodness for the iPhone camera – this was my first time eating at the Pita Pit. They were helpful in making suggestions for a vegan pita wrap – it included hummus, spinach, tomatoes, black olives, red onion and cucumbers wrapped up in a whole wheat pita. It was really good! I added an apple out of the cooler for a complete lunch. There is a Pita Pit near where we live so I will be trying it again.

I had some free time to shop and this little saying in a gift shop gave me a chuckle!

We got back late last night so today I will be playing catch up  – laundry, cleaning out the fridge and some menu planning. We hope to get in another hike this weekend as the weather is going to be fantastic for being outside.

Happy Weekend!

Tami

I love reading your comments and questions.

Do you give home made food gifts?

I have given lots of food gifts over the year. Everything from caramel apples, dipped pretzels to honeyed nuts, cookies, granola, pancake mix, seasonings, sweet breads,cinnamon rolls, hummus (with purchased chips), sugared cranberries and bags of pistachio nuts from a local farm. I have to say everything has been a big hit but I think people appreciate the less sweet treats even more because they are already overloaded with so much sugary stuff. It’s time to start thinking about what those homemade gifts might be this year. I would love to hear your thoughts.

What are some of the favorite food gifts you have given or received?

One of the best food gifts we received one year was a huge basket of oranges from one of hubby Tom’s business associates who had an orchard. They were so juicy, sweet and a nice departure from all the sugar laden goodies. We also love the boxes of fruit from Harry & David we have been sent. Fruit seems to be a theme here!