Oatmeal Banana Breakfast Muffins

I swear there must be some Thing in our house that says "Bananas.  Since you've just come in from the grocery store I now command you to become brown and mushy."  Good thing that's the exact type of banana you need for this recipe :)  

Side note: In my desperate attempt to buy bananas for the entire week for Little One, I tried out a trick I found on Pinterest.  To keep the bananas from browning as quickly, pull the bananas apart from the stem when you get home.  That's right.  I bought the absolute greenest bananas I could find on Friday night.  When I got home I separated each banana from the group until I had all single bananas.  I laid them out on the table.  And by the next Friday my banana was perfectly ripe and just starting to get the brown speckled dots.  Amazing.  

Back to the original story.  Take a look at these delicious bites.  Let me be the first to say - these aren't your traditional muffins.  They are dense, but oh so moist.  Perfect banana flavoring with a hint of oatmeal.  To me, it felt like you were eating a bowl full of warm oatmeal in muffin form!  My recipe made 18.  Between DH, Little One and I, we ate 6 {half of the first batch} while the second six were baking ;)  I kept the leftovers in the fridge and Little One would pull the bag out and ask for one any chance he got.  They were a definite hit!!

Oatmeal Banana Breakfast Muffins - from this recipe

2.5 cups old fashioned oats (I used quick cooking)

1 cup plain low fat greek yogurt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar 

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 ripe bananas

A blender or food processor

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Gather ingredients.  Prepare muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or liners (I'd definitely use the liners).  True to form I had to do a little substituting.  I didn't have any old fashioned oats and just had the quick cooking kind on hand.  This could have been why the muffins were a little dense.  Maybe the longer cooking kind of oats would have given it more of a muffin texture because the oats would have acted a little more like flour.  I say, try what you have on hand!  If you don't like it - try something different next time! :)

 Put all the ingredients into a blender (I guess you could use a food processer too - I just didn't have one!) and blend until smooth.  I added the oats a cup at a time as to not crowd the blender.  I wasn't too careful measuring out a cup of yogurt.  I'm sure I got way more than what the recipe called for.  Oops.  This could also explain why the muffins were dense and super moist.  Again, totally worth it.  They were scrumptious!  I do know also that I used less than 3/4 cup of sugar since my bananas were super SUPER ripe and really sweet.

The best part about using a blender was the fact that it had a pour spout already on it.  The recipe said it would make 12 muffins - mine ended up making 18.  Divide batter evenly and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.  Mine took 22.  The author says to watch these closely in the oven because depending on altitude it might take less time.  Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

They smelled heavenly right out of the oven.  But as you can see, they deflated a little bit in the center.  Good news is though, it left the perfect spot for a little goodie.  I added some dark chocolate chips while the muffins were still hot.  Can I just get an AMEN?  Yum.

Enjoy.  Enjoy.  Enjoy.

The Verdict

These were the perfect muffin.  Although I have trouble calling it a muffin because of it's texture and density - they're really more like baked oatmeal.  I would like to try this sometime with the original old fashioned oats the recipe calls for to see what these would be like then, but honestly, I liked them enough like this to keep making them this way. These did stick to the liners a little bit, so they're probably not something you want to take to a fancy breakfast.  But, at home, when you're enjoying one of these dandy treats it really doesn't matter what they look like!  You inhale it too quickly to even notice much ;)  These are super kid friendly.  Hope you can use this recipe to help use up those over ripe bananas lying around your house! 

p.s. The original author's husband topped one with a little Nutella.  Yeah.  You just sit and think about that little slice of heaven for a minute.  Mmm. K.  Now my mouth is watering!!