Low Fat Banana Muffins

I've been making this low fat banana muffin recipe for years every time I have bananas that are beginning to turn. For about 150 calories per full muffin, or under 40 for one of these mini muffins, you can't really go wrong! Mini muffins will yield a large batch, over 3 dozen muffins. As you can see, I made some small banana breads as well with the extra batter!

 

2 bananas, mashed

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup margarine or butter spread

2 eggs

1/8 cup water

1 1/2 cups flour

1 Tsp baking soda

1/4 Tsp baking powder

1/2 Tsp salt

 

In a stand mixer, cream the margarine or butter until soft and then add in the bananas, mashing completely. Add in the eggs and water, mixing gently. While the mixer is turning, add in the sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Lastly, fold the flour into your batter.



 Fill up muffin pans or paper liners about 1/2 to 3/4 full and bake in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick comes out clean. Mine usually take about 20-25 minutes for regular muffins and 15-20 minutes for mini muffins. You can also make banana bread loaves with this batter. Baking time will be about an hour.

Cool and store in a Ziploc bag on the counter for several days or in the fridge for a week or more.

Banana & Egg Flourless Pancakes

This is another recipe that I came across again and again, trending on Pinterest and it caught my attention. Who wouldn't want to try flourless diet pancakes? Well, as usual, I tweaked the recipes I found and came up with my own winning combination because I really didn't think that there was much pancake in the original "pancakes". I also like flavor, which I thought they lacked, even with adding some maple syrup.

 

2 bananas

3 eggs

1 Tbsp flour (if you want it gluten-free then don't use it, but I find that this tiny bit went a long way!)

1 Tsp cinnamon

1/2 Tsp vanilla extract

1 packet of sweetener (Splenda)

 

Recipe Adapted from Blogilates



Mash the bananas well using a blender or mixer and add eggs, whisking them. Slowly sprinkle in flour and add in the spices. I used a batter dispenser to form my pancakes and cooked them on a non-stick pan with a spray from my Misto. The batter is pretty runny! I did manage to cook two silver-dollar pancakes at once in a large pan, but I wouldn't go much more than that. They cook fast, about a minute or two only on each side.

Banana and egg are still the predominant flavors in these, not pancakes. In the future, I would forgo the maple syrup route and have them with butter, a small amount of peanut butter, some caramel, or a bananas foster topping that I make sometimes (will share at some point). All in all, it was a different thing to try but I wasn't totally sold on them. Give me my flour I suppose...



Low Fat Banana Cookies

I originally pinned this recipe because they were guilt free cookies. I ended up needing to bake for someone who was eating gluten free. You really can't get much simpler than these cookies though. And what better to do with bananas if they are starting to turn? I usually made some Low Fat Banana muffins with them but, I now switched to these. I now make these cookies EVERY time I have bananas that are starting to brown!

 

Recipe Adapted from The Burlap Bag

 

For each banana you have, mash them and add 1/2 cup of oats. I threw in some vanilla extract and cinnamon because I can never just leave a recipe alone. I'm sure I will be trying these with all kinds of mix-ins in the future! Each banana should yield about 2 cookies (apparently I made big ones), and it's so easy to keep track of what you are eating if you use an app like I do.

 

I added chocolate chips to them. I like to put them on top of cookies too because it looks nicer and you can count them out!



Lay your cookies out on a well greased cookie sheet! Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. When they come out of the oven, you have to let them cool for a few minutes so they will stay together. Don't leave them too long though, because they can be hard to get off the pan (maybe 5-10 minutes). Next time, I think I will try parchment paper and see if that makes it easier.

 

Hindsight: When I first started making these cookies, I used to puree the banana to an almost liquid. I have since figured out that the chunkier you leave the bananas, the easier the cookies come off the pan and the better they stay together!