::muffin me crazy::

I love muffins for breakfast or as an afternoon snack with a cup of coffee, but they are usually extremely fattening. I wanted to create a low fat muffin that still tasted delicious. These definitely hit the mark!

Jessica's Low Fat Banana Oat Muffins

=Preheat to 350º=

*1 cup oats, lightly crushed (you can do this in the food processor, or put them in a freezer bag and roll a rolling pin over them)

*1 cup all-purpose flour

*1 tsp baking soda

*1 tsp baking powder

*1/4 tsp cinnamon

*1/8 tsp nutmeg

*1/2 tsp salt

*1/3 cup sliced almonds (you could also used chopped pecans or walnuts)

*1/2 cup white sugar

*1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar

*1/2 stick of butter, room temperature

*2 large eggs

*1 tsp vanilla

*2 large overripe bananas, smashed

*1/2 cup plain Greek non-fat yogurt

*2 tbsp milk

Combine dry ingredients: oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, Cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and nuts. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together butter and sugars. Add eggs. Whisk until well combined, making sure you work out any lumps of brown sugar. Stir in vanilla, yogurt, mashed bananas and milk until smooth. Pour in dry ingredients. Gently fold into wet batter with a spatula until just mixed. DO NOT OVERMIX! (That's right, just walk away...) Batter should be lumpy. Spoon into paper-lined muffin tins. Fill each cup almost all the way up. Bake at 350º for 25-30 min, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from tins immediately and allow to cool on a rack (your counter top also works if you don't have one).

This recipe yields about one dozen muffins. I had a little extra batter, but I think my tins are a little smaller than standard. They tend not to rise much, so its OK to fill the cups pretty full. You could also add dried cranberries or chocolate chips to this if you wanted. I personally like my muffins to be a little less sweet, so next time I might omit the 1/2 cup of white sugar. You could probably bake this batter in a loafpan as well, just increase the cooking time and do the toothpick test. I encourage you to try my recipe and let me know what you think! Happy baking!