Maple Banana Blueberry Muffins

If you haven't caught the ripe banana train yet, you best get on board soon!  Seriously, where have you been?  What are you doing?  Take those brown bananas, peel and chop them up and freeze those suckers!  They're like gold!  

I am convinced they are by far my most useful and delicious staple ingredient in the kitchen.  Well, that and coconut oil.  And nut/seed butter. And dates.  Okay, I have many ingredients that are essential in our eating routines, but ripe bananas are definitely top of the list.  They are cheap, easy to use, perfect frozen, and turn many ordinary things into extraordinary.  Pure, natural banana.  And, it seems grocery stores have started to catch on, selling bags of 'baking bananas' they call them.  However, as we've doing for years, buying the old brown bananas from a local market or corner store, you can normally get them half price, easily.  The cashier may look at you kind of strange - but, you just gotta remind yourself, 'oh the things they are missing out on!'

Using bananas, ripe bananas, is a great way to make sweet, delicious treats full of nutrients without needing a bunch of refined sugars to make it taste good.  Similar to using apple sauce, however bananas aren't as liquidy and are sweeter.  They commonly appear, more than once a week, in our home in the form of banana ice cream (or our new favourite Chocolate Banana Ice Cream - post coming soon on that one!), frozen banana pops, or creamy smoothies or milkshakes. 

So, this stack of brown bananas on my counter calling fruit flies galore were staring me down one day.  I thought about sending them to the freezer but then I had a revelation.  I was already trying to make blueberry muffins.  But not boring old regular blueberry muffins.  Healthy but DELICIOUS blueberry muffins.  So, after perusing my cookbooks and favourite recipe sites online, I adapted to come up with this one - naturally sweetened, dairy-free, and another fantastic use for ripe bananas!  Oh, and did I mention easy?  I made these in 30 minutes exactly, start to finish. Baked to perfection in exactly 25 minutes and prep time was minimal as I just blended it all together step by step.  Bananas = easy peasy!

I'm going to go eat the last one right now.  Sweet banana bread and blueberry pops.  Hello.  Don't mind if I do! 

And, in case anyone is wondering, yes Life is nutso as I attempt to open my own school!  Reason why the posts are minimal. My apologies, I swear I'm still cooking, just living a whirlwind as well!  It's going great though!  I promise Chocolate Banana Ice Cream and Frozen Banana Pops will be posted soon!  If you're interested, check out the school Via Vita Academy - we teach cooking.... :) 

​Maple Banana Blueberry Muffins

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
3 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg (or flax/water egg replacer)
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
​1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup blueberries

What to do:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

2)Using a mixer, blend bananas until smooth.

3) Add sugar, maple syrup, egg, and coconut oil.  Blend until combined.  

4) Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix into banana mixture. 

5) Gently fold in blueberries. 

6) Spoon into 12 well greased or lined muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!