Unsweetened Banana Muffins with Chocolate (Carob) Chips

I am always in search of clean eating recipes for me and my family to consume, the entire purpose of this blog. When I use the phrase clean eating, I refer to unprocessed and totally sugar free without any honey, agave, and especially without any artificial sweeteners. Sometimes though....I crave something sweet, usually chocolate...o.k. to be honest the only sweet thing I usually crave is chocolate.

When you bake muffins following this recipe, the ripe bananas add enough sweetness that you do NOT need to add sugar, honey, or sweetener of any sort. Add some cinnamon along with the bananas and the muffins are sweet enough to eat. I have made this recipe before and have even included the recipe on my blog, but this time, we added "carob" chips to the mix for a different twist and to sedate my chocolate craving. To be honest though, "carob" chips are not chocolate and I would prefer 70-80% cocoa chocolate chips with very low sugar content, but the kids find dark chocolate too bitter for their taste buds.

What are "carob" chips you ask? I am so glad you asked..."Carob" chips are made from the carob plant. It is an evergreen plant native to the Mediterranean region, but now grows in other locations, like California. To find out more about "carob" chips, visit this link at eHow Food.

There are some health benefits to eating carob chips. Carob needs less sugar than chocolate to make it sweet, carob chips have one third of the calories of chocolate, and because it is not chocolate, it is safe for animals to eat!

 Ingredients:

6 lg. bananas
2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
2/3 cups melted butter
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
3 cups organic whole wheat flour
1 cup "carob" chips or dark chocolate chips (70-80% cocoa content)

Mash bananas. Add cinnamon and slightly beaten eggs. Add melted butter.
Sift dry ingredients together and add to above mixture. Add carob or chocolate chips. Mix until moistened. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. This makes two dozen muffins, which my kids loved as a snack!

Mix the dry ingredients together first. My kids love making this recipe!

Add the wet ingredients to the sifted dry ingredients.

My dear son loves to break the yokes with his fingers.

Truly Sugar Free Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

I am always in search of clean eating recipes for me and my family to consume, the entire purpose of this blog. When I use the phrase clean eating, I refer to unprocessed and totally sugar free without any honey, agave, and especially without artificial sweeteners. When you bake muffins with ripe bananas you do not need to add sugar. Add some cinnamon, and the muffins are sweet enough to eat. The previous banana muffin recipe in my blog not only used brown sugar, but honey as well. The recipe we tried today, truly sugar free, no sweetener what so ever except the bananas themselves.  It was a big hit with the kids, but I can't lay claim to this recipe. I found it online at Hub pages, uploaded by Bob Ewing. His original recipe yielded 12 muffins, not enough for my family, so I doubled the ingredients.

 

 Ingredients:

6 lg. bananas
2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
2/3 cups melted butter
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
3 cups organic whole wheat flour


Mash bananas. Add cinnamon and slightly beaten eggs. Add melted butter.
Sift dry ingredients together and add to above mixture. Mix until moistened. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. This makes two dozen muffins, which my kids loved as a snack!

Truly Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Early Out because of snow (which now seems to have stopped) and a something sweet craving have lead to the search for a truly sugar free peanut butter cookie recipe. Why peanut butter do you ask and not chocolate like I normally demand? An over abundance of Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter in my cupboard. And when I say I am looking for a sugar free recipe, I mean without even sugar substitute, only natural ingredients.  I didn't want to give in completely to my sugar cravings (Valentine's Day was difficult, I ate an entire bag of M&M's by myself, UHG! Talk about not healthy!) and I wanted to find some healthy and unprocessed treats for the kids to enjoy as well, so my search led to a vegan peanut butter and banana recipe from About.com with some modifications of course!


Ingredients:
1/2 cup natural peanut butter without sugar
2 ripe bananas (overripe is fine), mashed
3 TBSP honey vanilla Greek Yogurt
2 TBSP honey
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

In a large bowl, I mashed bananas with a fork until smooth.

Then, I added peanut butter, Greek yogurt, honey, and apple sauce and mixed well. Next, I added the remaining ingredients and stirred until well combined. A little note, before adding the oats and flour, I thought the batter tasted divine! Once I added the dry ingredients, I thought the recipe became a little bland...

Even though the batter tasted slightly bland, I went ahead and dropped spoonfuls of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I line mine with aluminum foil, just in case the cookies stick, to make clean up easier) and bake 13-16 minutes at 350 degrees, or until lightly browned on the edges.

The cookie was not as sweet after baking and was somewhat bland (like I didn't know that already after tasting the batter), but not terrible by any means. My youngest son ate the cookie without complaint and even asked for seconds and thirds!

I think next time I will add some salt and maybe more peanut butter. I think the peanut butter flavor could have been stronger.

So instead of throwing the batch and starting from scratch, I thought...hmmmm, how could I add more flavor without wasting these cookies?  How about a topping for Greek yogurt! and wouldn't you know, it tasted just like granola mixed in with yogurt, SO YUMMY! I will try this recipe again, but with some additional modifications. I will let you know how it works!

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

Josh keeps telling me for his birthday all he wants is cereal and milk, but that is not a very special birthday breakfast for my little man, so I decided to whip up some banana pancakes....I think he still wants the cereal (he loves his cereal), but this is still a great recipe.  With only 1 cup of milk added to the recipe, the pancakes are thick. If you wish for them to be a little thinner, add a touch more milk.

1 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cinnamon
dash of salt
1 c. skim milk

1 TBSP honey
1/2 c. mashed, ripe banana (1 banana)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine first 5 ingredients. Stir well. Combine milk and next 4 ingredients. Add to dry ingredients, stirring until smooth. Yield: 9 (4 inch) pancakes.

Fruity Banana Chutney

Here's a chutney you can make at any time of year because it uses a combination of dried fruits and those that are available year-round. Try it with grilled chicken for a delicious treat.
Makes about 6 (8 oz) half pints. I tried this recipe with only 2 TBSP of the dark brown sugar.  Many of the fruit are sweet enough on its own...Why add all the sugar.  When it was cooking on the stove top, it smelled sickeningly sweet, glad I didn't add all that extra sugar.  We used it on tilapia tonight and broiled it for 15 minutes in the oven. Very Tasty!

View Half Recipe

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup chopped cored peeled apple (about 2 medium)
1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 5 medium)
1 cup chopped pitted dates (about half a pint)
1 cup chopped pitted prunes
1 cup chopped onions (about 1-1/2 medium)
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 raisins or craisins
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 TBSP lightly packed brown sugar
(original recipe called for 1-1/2 cups lightly packed dark brown sugar)
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tsp ground ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger (original recipe called for 1 tsp grated ginger root)
6 (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands
(I actually filled 4 pint jars, original recipe says it will fill 6 half pint jars.)

1.) MEASURE vinegar into a large stainless steel saucepan. To prevent the apples from browning, drop them into the vinegar as they are being chopped, stirring to ensure all surfaces are covered.
2.) ADD bananas, dates, prunes, onions, apricots, raisins/craisins, and garlic. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Add brown sugar, water, coriander, cayenne, allspice, turmeric and ginger, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil gently, stirring frequently, until the chutney is thick enough to mound on a spoon, about 15 minutes.
3.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside. (I use the rinse cycle on my dishwasher and let it continue to the drying cycle until I am ready to use the jars.)
4.) LADLE hot chutney into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Remove air bubbles and adjust head space, if necessary, by adding hot chutney. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
5.) PROCESS jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

The jars didn't seal right away so I reprocessed it for a second time for an even longer time (15 minutes) and instead of removing it from the water bath, I left it to cool with the water.  We will see if it works the second time.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

Moist Whole Wheat Banana Bread Recipe and Instructions:

Be sure to use ultra ripe bananas for this. Their skins should be mottled black and they should feel soft to the touch. Using what you would normally consider to be ripe bananas will diminish the bread’s rich flavor. Recipe from www.breadtopia.com.

½ cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter
½ cup (3 ¾ ounces) packed light or dark brown sugar
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups mashed ripe banana (3-4 medium to large bananas)
¼ cup (3 ounces) honey
2 large eggs
2 cups (8 ounces) whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat
½ cups (2 ounces) chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Instead of Lightly greasing a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan as the recipe suggested, I put muffin papers in muffin tins. It yielded about 18 muffins.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the banana, honey and eggs, beating until smooth. Add the flour and nuts, stirring until smooth. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups and let it rest at room temperature, uncovered for 10 minutes.
Bake the bread for 50 minutes. I baked the muffins for 10-15 minutes. When baking as a loaf of bread, lay a piece of foil gently across the top and bake until a cake tester (like a toothpick or fork) inserted into the center comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes more. Remove the bread/muffins from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely.
My kids loved this recipe and it turned out great! definitely one I will make again.