Chocolate Chunk Banana Muffins

If you are like me, you often get a nagging sweet craving right after dinner. And sometimes you just can’t resist the urge to rummage through your kitchen looking for that sweet treat! More often than not that treat comes with a heaping pile of guilt on the side (a.k.a guilt that goes straight to my ass). This scenario plays itself out almost every single night of my life. I wanted my cake and I wanted to eat it too…ok maybe I wanted to eat the whole cake…sorry bout it. 

About a year ago I discovered Clean Eating. Not hip dip granola eating but CLEAN eating! For those of you who have never heard of clean eating it is the lifestyle of consuming food in its most natural state, or as close to it as possible. It is not another fad diet or frozen food with some special secret ingredient that makes you drop 10 pounds in an extremely short amount of time. That’s a bunch of bananas. It is a lifestyle through and through (cleaneatingmagazine.com) <— Check it out, it changed my life! Now, there are a few guidelines to eating clean, the top five are try to eat 5-6 times day, drink at least 2 liters of water a day, get food label savvy, avoid processed or refined foods and learn about portion sizes! Ever since I adopted this lifestyle I feel healthier than I ever have before. Clean Eating helps me to navigate a super market so I only buy the good stuff that makes me feel great and none of the crap. Dom and Jenn may define good stuff and bad stuff differently than I do, but hey! That’s the fun of food! 

Now back to these sweet cravings! With the help of clean eating I was able to make one of my favorite recipes clean! Chocolate Banana Bread…ohhhh yaaaaaaa! It’s the perfect combination of dark chocolately goodness and banana heaven. Your average Banana bread can be up to 250-300 calories PER SLICE! WOAH! Not ok…At all. Unless you make my clean Chocolate Chunk Banana Muffins. These will satisfy any sweet craving you have with its 70% dark chocolate chunks and its ooey gooey bananas! You can make this recipe in loaf form if you so desire but I prefer making them into muffins! This way my portion is already set and I know just how much I’m eating. Each muffin has only 182 calories and it has whole grain goodness to keep those cravings at bay all night long.  This is a muffin you can never feel guilty about. THANK GAWD. So give these muffins a good old college try, I promise they will make you feel happy and healthy! Whoever said healthy food sucks was an idiot.

Click Here for the PRINTABLE RECIPE!

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (If you prefer a less dense muffin, use half whole-wheat flour and half pastry wheat flour)
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ground flaxseed (I use whole flaxseeds for more texture)
 Pinch of sea salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
2 egg whites
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup raw honey (I use agave nectar, tastes just as sweet!)
1/4 cup sunflower oil (Olive oil or vegetable oil can be used as a substitute)
1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate (70% cacao or higher)
Olive oil cooking spray, optional



Here’s all the Equipment you need!!


INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, flaxseed and salt.



In a large bowl, mash bananas roughly with fork then with a hand mixer, beat bananas until smooth. Add egg whites and beat until combined. Gradually mix in applesauce, honey and sunflower oil.

Mash those bananas and mix it all up!



Mix dry ingredients into banana mixture; stir in chocolate.

Mist a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray or line a muffin pan with paper muffin cups and mist with cooking spray. Pour batter into pan and bake for 45 minutes if making a loaf or 20-25 minutes for muffins, or until browned on top. Let cool for 10 minutes and enjoy!



Now Shut Up and Eat.


Nutrients per muffin: Calories: 182, Total Fat: 6 g, Sat. Fat: 1 g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 3 g, Carbs: 32 g, Fiber: 3 g, Sugars: 16 g, Protein: 3 g, Sodium: 74 mg, Cholesterol: 0 mg

Recipe from Clean Eating Magazine