Oil and Sugar Free Banana Muffins

You know when you get those cravings....for dessert....and you end up ravaging through your fridge and pantry to find something and end up eating boxed cookies or ice cream (vegan, but guilty) and feel like crap after? This recipe is for those days. The muffins are also perfect to make on a Sunday afternoon as meal prep for breakfast or snacks throughout the week. A delicious filling breakfast or an evening dessert. Not only will you enjoy them, but if you have kids they will gobble them up as well!

These banana muffins are gluten free, oil-free, and refined sugar-free, so no more feeling gross and guilty for eating a sweet treat. The base of the recipe is oats, which are a great source of healthy carbohydrates and fibre to keep you energized and satisfied for long. The main sweeteners in these muffins are dates and bananas. Dates are incredibly high in fibre and tons of vitamins and minerals, but also have a great caramely sweetness that works perfectly for desserts. I used smaller dates that aren't as soft and gooey as the medjool dates, but all you need to do is soak them for a few minutes to make them easier to blend. Since the dates and bananas are part of the wet ingredients as well, they are what makes the muffins so moist and soft that you would normally achieve with butter or oil. This goes to show that you don't need oil or sugar to create delicious, satisfying desserts.

To make the muffins heartier and tastier I added some chopped walnuts, chocolate chips (vegan), and chia seeds but you can add whatever you'd like. Some other options are flax seeds, coconut flakes, and cacao nibs. You could also try adding fresh blueberries to make banana blueberry muffins, which is something I will definitely need to try in the future.

But okay, let's just get onto the actual recipe now....

Banana Oat Muffins (GF, oil free, sugar free)

Ingredients:

-21/2 cups of quick oats (or oat flour)

-1 tbsp cinammon

-1/4 tsp salt

-2 tsp baking powder

-2 medium bananas, mashed

-12 small-sized dates (soaked for 5 minutes), or 6 medjool dates

-1 cup of almond milk (or any non-dairy milk)

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-walnuts, chia seeds, and chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.

2. Blend the oats in a food processor or blender until it forms a soft flour with no oat pieces.

3. Remove the oats and place into a large bowl. Rinse out the food processor/blender to blend the wet ingredients.

4. Add the mashed banana and dates to the food processor/blender and blend on high until it forms a caramel-colour paste and there are few pieces of dates left. Slowly add the milk and vanilla extract as it's blending until all the ingredients are combined.

5. Transfer the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and gently fold everything together until it forms a thicker batter.

6. Gently fold in the walnuts, chia seeds and chocolate chips (or anything you desire) so they are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

7. Use a non-stick muffin pan (it makes 12 small muffins) or grease the tins with coconut oil.

8. Add the batter to the muffin pan, filling each muffin tin approximately 3/4 full.

9. Place the pan in the oven and cook the muffins for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges.

10. Remove the muffins from the oven and cool for 10 minutes. Store them in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the fridge for longer. I doubt they will last that long though...