Banana Zucchini Bread Muffins

As I was looking through my fridge last night, I noticed a lone zucchini on it’s very last leg that was just begging to be used. Since I’m heading to NYC this afternoon for the weekend (!), last night was the night if it wasn’t going to go to waste.  My original thought was to make zucchini bread because, though I’m not much of a baker, zucchini bread is a quick bread (no yeast) and is therefore relatively forgiving and simple.

But then I realized I also had an extra banana that was starting to brown, so I was trying to figure out a way to use them both when it came to me – banana zucchini bread muffins.

These muffins are SUPER simple to make (combine dry, combine wet, mix together, bake, done), very healthy, and completely delicious. As I said, I’m really not much of a baker, but these turned out perfectly moist, flavorful and tasty, and are by far my best baking experiment to date.

Banana Zucchini Bread Muffins

Yields 10 muffins, 3 pts+ each. Printable version here.

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup baking stevia*

Wet Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 medium banana, mashed
• 1 cup zucchini shreds
• 1/2 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)

*I used baking stevia because I won it from a giveaway a while back, but feel free to use regular sugar if you don’t have any on hand. If you do use regular sugar, combine it with the wet ingredients rather than the dry in the first step, but note that the PointsPlus value will be affected.

Step one – preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Step two  – Combine all your dry ingredients in a large bowl.

White flour, wheat flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, stevia.

Stir ingredients together until well combined and set aside.

Step three – crack your two eggs into a separate bowl.

Beat with a fork, and then add in the rest of your wet ingredients.

Eggs, oil, applesauce, mashed banana, zucchini shreds, almond extract.

Stir until well combined.

Step four – pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry mixture.

And then – you guessed it – stir until just combined.

That’s it for the batter!

Grease 10 cups of a muffin tin with nonstick spray (or butter or oil).

And then pour the mixture evenly between the ten muffin cups.

Bake for 25 minutes until a knife or toothpick comes out clean…

And you have delicious banana zucchini bread muffins! Let cool for about 5 minutes, and then use a butter knife to loosen from the sides if necessary and remove them from the muffin tin.

I’m not gonna lie – I was a little impressed with myself for this recipe.

They are seriously DELICIOUS and have the perfect texture.

I wasted no time trying one to make sure they turned out as good as they smelled while baking!

And that they did!

Go make these now!!

A few notes:

• Feel free to experiment with different mix-ins for these – walnuts, raisins, and/or chocolate chips for example. Just note, this will obviously affect the points value.
• Also feel free to make this into a loaf rather than muffins. I imagine it will take 35-45 minutes to bake in loaf form, depending on the size of your pan. Just test it with a knife or toothpick to make sure it’s done. I tend to favor the muffins though just for the sake of instant portion control.

Are you a fan of muffins? What is your favorite kind?

To be honest, I don’t usually go for muffins, but these are an exception to the rule. If I HAD to eat one (other than these!), I’d go for chocolate chip or banana nut.