Chocolate Nut Butter Banana Muffins

Costco, or the " Hundred-dollar store" as I like to call it, has amazing deals, yes?

Bananas for example, you get something like 10 bananas for a little over a dollar. Of course, when you bought them you had every intention of eating them on a daily basis ( for the potassium, you know) and were confident the rest of your family would join in, making sure the bananas disappeared in a matter of days.

.....Except you didn't and they didn't, and now you are left with a pile of bananas similar to this:

I had begun to doubt my baking abilities. Recently, my baking experiments were not coming out up to par, I think the latest one could be best described as an unintentional Pake ( See, Drop Dead Diva).  But, thankfully, I've redeemed myself -- even without eggs at my disposal I managed to create a winner today :)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 cup almond butter
1 cup turbinado sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
 3 tbsp flax seed, opened with a few tablespoons of water
2 cups banana
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoon baking powder
10 squares trader joes dark chocolate ( lb)
1/3 cup sour cream

Directions

• Preheat oven to 360F
• Mix dry ingredients and set aside
• Cream together butter, peanut butter, almond butter, vanilla  and sugar until soft and creamy
• Add eggs, or in my case the egg replacement ( flax seed meal + water) and vanilla extract
• Now add the bananas.... cream until nice and smooth
• Add half of the dry ingredients, then the sour cream
• Add the second half of the dry ingredients
• fold in chocolate (chips)
• Bake for 25 minutes

Healthy Breakfasts

Scrambled egg whites served on top of an "alternative bagel" along with 2% American cheese and green onion, grapefruit

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

Ingredients

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 small very ripe banana
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg whites
1/3 cup , 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp organic plain nonfat yogurt

Directions: First mix the wet ingredients together starting with the egg whites, vanilla and sugar, then add the spices and yogurt. Finally mix in the banana , and lastly the flour.
Makes  slightly more than 3 pancakes at 1/4 cup batter each.

New Year, New Inspirations

Say hello to my yummy friend.

A simple banana shake to start of your day ( for the days where you don't want the green monster) :  one frozen banana, 1 cup lowfat organic milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Blend and top with 1 tbsp ground flax seed. Not only is it good for you but it adds an awesome nutty flavor.