Healthier Monkey Muffins

Hello there! I am Ashleigh, and here to share recipes, planning meals, grocery shopping trips, and anything else food related that excites me. I want to document my recipes on here, and meal plans for each week, and learn and try new recipes and techniques. I have to say I LOVE cooking/baking, but I tend to stick to the same standby recipes, and they are generally easy. There may even be recipes I post that need a little extra something, I'm hoping we can figure that out together!  I would love to read comments, ideas, and helpful tips from all of you, maybe even trade some recipes. :) Let's get started!

Healthier  Monkey Muffins

I JUST got done baking these, well actually I just ate TWO of them hot out of the oven-I wanted to because they were warm and I HAD to taste them, and then I cut one in half to take a picture, so it had to be eaten too. :) This is a new recipe I found, and I had bananas in my fridge that were screaming banana bread, but I wanted to try something different so I made Healthier Monkey Muffins.  I got my inspiration from this recipe http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Monkey-Muffins  but I changed quite a bit.  With just about everything I bake, I try to substitute out the fatty ingredients with healthier options. I'll explain a few ingredients along the way. Here is my recipe!



Ingredients

• 1/2 cup apple sauce(rather then butter) I used Seneca No Sugar Added Natural Apple Sauce Cups
• 1 cup granulated sugar(I actually used a smidge less than a cup because the apple sauce added a little sweetness and I though they turned out perfectly sweet)
• 2 eggs(I used Nulaid Reddiegg Real Egg Product because my Husbnd and I don't eat many eggs, and they only had 12 packs of eggs or more at the store) So I used 1/2 cup of the Reddiegg)
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 2/3 cup Peanut Butter
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole wheat flour(I was going to do half white, half wheat but didn't know I was out of white flour until I was back from the store)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butterscotch chips-I had them on hand so I figured what the heck...oh man they are GOOD in these muffins too!
• 1/3 cup water( my batter was really thick so I added water. I know it is because I used all whole wheat flour, so if you do half white, half wheat you may not need any water. Just go by the consistency of the batter. You want it thick, but you still want it to fall off the spoon! :) OH, and if you want to do more experiementing, maybe try adding a 1/3 cup less whole wheat flour instead of the water. I'm learning as I go, and this may work?? I'll try this next time!

The ingredients(don't mind my sink to the right, and please don't make fun of my overly ripe brown bananas :))

First you mix the apple sauce and sugar together

Then mix in the eggs

Mash up a cup of banana

Add the banana, peanut butter, milk, and vanilla

mix it all up

Add all the dry ingredients in a seperate bowl

Mix, then slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mix

Add the water to the batter if it is too thick

Add the chips, and fold in to combine

Grease your muffin pan, or use paper cups

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for doneness

Make sure you eat one or TWO fresh out of the oven! MmmMmm! Enjoy! Don't be guilty because they are the healthier version!

I couldn't wait to take a picture so I cut open my muffin when it was still hot-notice how its a little smooshed!? oh well still tastes the same! :)

Let me know if any of you make these yummy muffins!