Healthy Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Why will you love the banana oatmeal muffins?

These banana oatmeal muffins are gluten free, vegan, easy to make, delicious, and customizable. You can eat them as breakfast, as a snack, at home or on the go. They are so fast to make and all you need is the ingredients, a blender, a muffin or cupcake baking pan, and your oven.

Key ingredients and items you need for these healthy banana oatmeal muffins

Ingredients

• Oat flour: or you can make your own using my oat flour recipe. If you are shopping for an oat flour, I recommend Bob’s Red Mill because it is gluten free.
• Gluten free flour blend or almond flour. Do not use coconut flour for this recipe since the ratio of coconut flour to other fours is not the same.
• Eggs or vegan eggs
• Milk: we use unsweetened almond milk
• Bananas: ripe bananas are perfect to use for baking because they are sweeter and easily mushed
• Vanilla extract
• Ground cinnamon
• Baking powder
• Sugar: since we are using ripe bananas, the use of sugar is optional. You may use any sweetener that you like that is the same ratio for granulated sugar. For example: coconut sugar, cane sugar, and brown sugar. Other sweeteners can also work such as maple syrup, honey or agave.
• Salt
• Coconut flakes: it would be ideal to use unsweetened coconut flakes
• Dried cranberries: try to select dried cranberries that do not have added sugars
• Chocolate chips: I recommend vegan and hypoallergenic. However, feel free to use your favorite chocolate chips.

Equipment

• Measuring spoons: 1 tablespoon
• Measuring cups: 1 cup, and 1/4 cup
• Whisk or mixing spoon
• Mixing bowls
• Blender or food processor
• Cupcake baking tray: you may need 2

What makes these banana oat muffins "healthy"?

Oats and bananas are the main ingredients in these banana oat muffins. Oats have a high content of vitamins and minerals, also are a great source of carbs and fiber, and provide more protein that most grains (1). These banana muffins are oil free and vegan, however you can use organic eggs instead.

How to make healthy banana muffins step by step

1. Warm up your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 176.6 degrees Celsius.
2. Next, we are making oatmeal flour. If you already have oatmeal flour, you may skip this step. Measure 3 ½ cups of rolled oats and blend in your high-speed blender or food processor until it reaches a flour consistency. It will result in 3 cups of oat flour.
3. If you have oat flour, measure 2 cups and add to a high-speed blender or food processor.
4. Add the rest of the dry ingredients (gluten free flour, cinnamon, baking powder, sugar, & salt) to the blender and pulse just until all the ingredients are combined.
5. If your blender or food processor is big enough, add the rest of the wet ingredients to it (milk, vanilla extract, bananas & eggs [vegan eggs or animal eggs]) and pulse until all the ingredients are incorporated.
6. Alternatively, if your blender is not large enough for all the ingredients to blend, pour the dry ingredients into a bowl and blend the egg, bananas and milk. Then add the mix of wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix until it is incorporated.
7. Fold in the cranberries and all the toppings.  Pour the mix into a prepared muffin tray. Scoop about ⅓ cup of the batter into each muffin section or about 2/3rds full on each muffin section.  Top with chocolate chips or any of your favorite toppings to decorate. Bake for 20 mins or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. 
8. Let the muffins cool down for about 10 minutes and enjoy or store in a container. These muffins can stay in room temperature for a day or two but can preserve well in the refrigerator for about one week. You can freeze them too.

Useful tips and tricks for the perfect banana oatmeal muffins

• Substitutions: the milk can be substituted by any milk you prefer either plant based or animal milk. I typically use unsweetened almond milk, and I have used unsweetened coconut milk. The gluten free flour can be substituted with any flour you like that is free of gluten such as almond flour, Buckwheat Flour, Sorghum Flour, Amaranth Flour, and many other options. However, I have only tried for this recipe all-purpose gluten free flour, almond flour, and buckwheat flour. The dried cranberries can be substituted with any type of raisins, or any dried fruit in small pieces.
• Add-Ins: we added cranberries, chocolate chips, and coconut flakes. You can also add nuts such as walnuts, pecans, and any dried fruits you like.

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