Chocolate Almond Butter Banana Muffins

I adapted this recipe from the cookbook "Peas and Thank You," "Beg-Worthy Banana Bread." I really like Sarah Matheny's ideas, but she uses a bit too much sugar and processed vegan food for my liking, so I love changing her recipes to my own taste. So here is my version, and it's delicious! I let John help me make these tonight, and he had so much fun. He mostly just played, and made a way huger mess than I would have by myself, but I know we are making fond memories, and he will remember baking with Mama in the kitchen, and how he loved it, and how I let him lick the spoon and the bowl, and even eat the batter out of the bowl with the spoon, and stick his hands in the dry ingredients, feel the texture, and play in it like it was a sand box (until he realized that it makes a fun dust cloud and a mess if you throw it up in the air). It's a good thing we washed his hands very thoroughly before we started. He had so much fun, and I love him, and I love making delicious treats for my husband and son that are much healthier than the alternatives. John could've probably eaten half the batch if I'd let him!

Chocolate Almond Butter Banana Muffins

Makes 24 large muffins

Ingredients:
Dry:
- 4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or white whole wheat flour)
- 1/4 cup ground raw flaxseed (don't get roasted. I promise you'll regret it if you do...)
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 2/3 cup organic brown sugar or cane sugar

Wet:
-1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/3 cup natural apple sauce (no sugar added)
- 4 heaping cups banana, mashed (about 6-7)
- 1/2 tsp almond extract (or vanilla if you don't have almond extract)
- 1/2 cup almond milk (or non-dairy milk)

AND:
- 2 handfuls of chocolate chips (you can decide how much that is :)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 muffin tins with coconut oil (or line with paper muffin cups and lightly spray with vegetable oil)
2. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients with a whisk.
3. In a medium sized bowl, mix coconut oil, almond butter, and apple sauce (using a fork). Then add mashed bananas, almond extract and almond milk.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until just combined, then fold in chocolate chips.
5. Divide evenly into muffin tins (makes 24).

6. Bake for 21-23 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

P.S. I know that my pictures of the food I post are usually only slightly better quality than you would find on the menu of an authentic Mexican restaurant, but I don't make many dinners or desserts in the morning when the lighting is great like many food bloggers do... And when I photograph our food, it is usually the moment before we pray at dinner and then eat it. So, I just don't have time to get out my giant higher quality camera, and try to make space around my galley kitchen and usually half covered in wheatgrass trays dining room table to set up a beautiful photo shoot space. Some day I will. And when that day happens, all of the children that we have will probably be in school, and at that point, I will probably have invented enough recipes to write my very own cookbook, which I will do. And at that time, I WILL redo all my photos, and they will be gorgeous. I do believe that the photos in a cookbook make all the difference. But, until that time, I will be content with my iphone photos and be grateful that I can take them instantly, and upload them right to my blog. A picture is better than no picture.