Banana Business - Healthy Banana Muffins

Hello my lovelies, 

A quick apology for the lack of posts recently, so far I have spent my half term driving to and from places and bing-watching Gossip Girl, but now the weekend is over I've got lots of posts planned.

Today I've been baking something so delicious and incredibly low in fat that it makes me want to leap with joy (yes, they're that good)

Here are my healthy and scrummy banana and chocolate chip muffins. As I have already said, these are very low in fat and the beauty of them is you can alter the recipe to make it as healthy as you like. I opted for 1/3 plain flour, 2/3 wholemeal as I think adding a bit of plain gives the muffins abit more flavour. I also threw in a handful of plain and milk chocolate chips, but feel free to add either one or the other, or go all out and have white chocolate instead (equally yummy but I do often find this rather sickly). Another alternative is blueberries which is equally delicious. 

Similar recipes that I have seen have stated their muffins were under 200 calories. I have no clue about these but I'd assume that these are in fact under 200 as well, therefore perfect for pre/post workout snacks, everyday snacks and delicious puddings when warmed up and covered in cream or ice cream. I bet that made your mouth water just a little.

Ingredients:

- three bananas ~ as ripe as you can get

- one egg

- a quater cup of honey

- a half cup of Greek yoghurt (this is in place of butter)

- one tablespoon of vanilla extract/ essence

- one tablespoon of melted coconut oil (olive oil will work too)

- one tablespoon almond milk (dairy milk or any other alternatives will work)

- one cup of wholemeal flour

- a half cup of plain flour

- a teaspoon of baking soda

- chocolate chips (as many as you like, blueberries work great with this aswell)

Method:

- Mix together the bananas, egg, honey, yoghurt, vanilla, coconut oil and milk for a minute or until smooth and evenly combined. 

- Add the flour and baking soda and mix slowly until combined before folding in the chocolate chips/ blueberries. 

- Then spoon the mixture into twelve. I used cupcake cases but if you have a nonstick muffin tray that would be perfect. Alternatively you could use baking parchment/ paper to make your muffins a lot edgier and more photogenic than mine.

- Pop these in to the oven at 180 celcius for 20-25 minutes. Your kitchen will smell incredible as these beauties bake, I couldn't wait to take them out. Cool on a cooling rack for at least five minutes before indulging yourself.

Enjoy! 

Lots of Lurveee from my bananary bliss,

Maddy xx

Peanut Butter Goodness - A Healthy(ish) Cookie Recipe

I adore weekends. I mean, don't we all? The opportunity to laze around, eating good food and watching equally great films, without feeling guilty. Weekends are also a great time to catch up with your favourite hobbies. This weekend was spent catching up on vlogs and blogs whilst in the kitchen making these guilt-free beauties: my healthy(ish) peanut butter cookies. 

If the mention of 'peanut butter' makes your excited then these are the cookies for you. They are flourless and butter-less and taste yummy. 

(One thing to bare in mind: they are healthy so don't expect sweet, light cookies. Once you remember that, they are actually rather delicious)

The recipe is easy-squeezy-lemon-peasy with a few ingredients and a 30 minute chill before baking to allow you time to wash everything up… or take photos of your dog being quite frankly adorable 

What You'll Need:

two-thirds of a cup of oats 

two hundred and fifty grams of peanut butter (it's better if you use organic)

ninety grams of light brown sugar

one large egg

one half of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon

one teaspoon of baking soda

seventy grams of dark chocolate chips - optional but completely necessary

What You'll Have To Do:

Temperatures:

- 180C

- 350F

- Gas Mark 4

1. Toss together the oats, cinnamon and baking soda

2. Beat the egg

3. Mix the peanut butter and brown sugar with the egg 

4. Mix in the dry ingredients slowly and you don't want to over-beat the egg 

5. Pop the mixture/dough into the fridge for half an hour to chill 

6. Line two baking trays will baking parchment 

7. Scoop the dough onto the trays - aim for about 1.5 tablespoon sizes (I did mine much bigger and they ended up as monsters!)

8. Press down the cookies will the back of a fork to flatten them and get a rigid effect - use a spoon if you are going for a neater look

9. Bake for 10 minutes and allow to cool on a cooling rack 

and ta dah! 10-14 delicious cookies that are perfect for pre/post workout or just for guilt free snacking and are helpfully very filling. They also taste gorgeous when eaten with raspberries - something I just discovered on the way back to school.

I assure you, they are much better than my dreadful food photography and presentational skills- I'll be working on that! 

Happy baking and have a fabulous week into the new month - crazy how fast it's gone already!

Love and Cookie-Crumbly Kisses,

Maddy x