Banana Blueberry Muffins

These muffins are a product of my quest to find a delicious, gluten free, sugar free, easy, inexpensive muffin.  I found this recipe on The Paleo Gourmet (a great site!) and it was exactly what I was looking for!  I use almond meal and olive oil instead of almond flour and butter (I prefer olive oil to butter and was able to find almond meal cheaper than almond flour).  Since finding the recipe 3 months ago, I have baked these babies 4 times!  Rem says these are now his favorite thing I bake! 

One thing I’ve learned about baking these muffins is to USE MUFFINS LINERS.  If you don’t, you will spend an hour picking muffin bits off the pan and soaking it multiple times to try to clean it.  Muffins liners = easy clean up!  Also, I recommend using Trader Joe’s “Just Almond Meal” because it is the least expensive brand I’ve found.  You can find it in the aisle with the nuts, and it’s only $3.99 for a 16 oz. bag.  So that I can make these muffins whenever I feel like it, I always keep ripe bananas in the freezer.  Most grocery stores occasionally have discounted bags of ripe bananas, so I grab those whenever I see them. Keeping the peel ON the bananas, put them in a Ziploc freezer bag, and freeze until ready to use.   About an hour before baking, take the bananas out of the bag and defrost them at room temperature.  Then, when you’re ready to bake, just squeeze the bananas out of their peels and into your mixing bowl.  You can always use regular, unfrozen ripe bananas for this recipe instead.  Just don’t use bananas that have ANY green on them.  The riper (ie. the more brown spots they have) the bananas, the sweeter your muffins will be!

Another note on bananas: if you have ripe bananas on your counter, or buy ripe bananas at the store, and don’t want to freeze them for baking but don’t want to throw them away, freeze them in a Ziploc freezer bag with the peel OFF.  Then you can make smoothies OR this yummy banana soft serve.  Ok, that’s enough about bananas...

These muffins have a different texture than ones made with regular flour- they are springy and moist, not dense.  They are just sweet enough from the ripe bananas, which give them a nice banana bread-like flavor.  You just have to try them to find out how good they are!

Banana Blueberry Muffins

Originally from The Paleo Gourmet 

3 c almond meal

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp baking soda

2 T olive oil

4 eggs

5-6 mashed, very ripe bananas (5 large or 6 small)

1 c frozen blueberries, thawed and drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place 18 muffin liners into muffin tins.  In a large bowl, combine almond meal, salt, and baking soda.  In small bowl, whisk eggs and olive oil.  Stir wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until combined.   Add mashed bananas and mix to incorporate.  Stir in blueberries.  Spoon into muffin cups.  (I like to use a ¼ cup cookie/ice cream scoop).  Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and spring back to the touch.  Cool completely in the pan.  Once cool, remove to container and store in the fridge.  They can also be frozen and then thawed in the fridge to eat.  Makes 18 muffins.

Macronutrient Breakdown

Full Recipe: 3360 calories, 241 g carbohydrates, 92 g protein, 230 g fat

Per muffin (18 muffins): 187 calories, 13 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 13 g fat