You just can’t mess up a muffin!

When camping season hits, out come the frozen bananas, and the baking begins! I happen to have some self proclaimed infamous banana chocolate chip muffins that always get brought the May Long weekend, so as camping season approaches, I set out to make the batches that I knew would get passed around the campsite. But I decided to do a little experimentation with one batch...yes, no panicking... I will make the usual... but one batch I made a little different for me and the kids. And sure enough...more Kitchen Magic!

I decided to test out my new NINJA food processer (which by the way...LOVVVVEEE IT!) and, using my old recipe with a few twists & turns created some amazing muffins that passed the kids and husband test!

Mixing it all in the Ninja making it super easy....as follows: I kind of threw together stuff, so the recipe is FAR from exact...Here are my guesstimates...

First I crushed some fresh pineapple I had in the fridge, in the small attachment, that came to approx 2/3 cup I then added it to a lunch kit size organic applesauce cup, around 2/3 cup butter, and about 2/3-3/4 cup organic agave syrup and 2/3-3/4 cup organic raw cane sugar into the largest mixer and blended it well. Then I blended 4 eggs separately, again in the small attachment and 6 bananas separately, in the medium attachment and added them together to the big blender with the mixture.

In a large bowl I stirred together 1 cup whole wheat flour & 1 ½ cup white flour, 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp baking soda, sprinkled in about ¼ cup organic ground flaxseed and made a well in the centre.

I added the wet mixture to the dry ingredients, stirred until well mixed and added about ¾ cup of chopped pecans and poured into lined muffin pans. (No greasing the pan here!) I sprinkled a few pecans on top for visual and a little extra crunch and baked them at 350 for 18 min.

YUP! New Ninja + Old Banana muffin recipe + Healthier mindset = Kitchen Experiment perfection!

It made 2 dozen muffins, and you could definitely do this with a hand mixer and canned crushed pineapple I’m sure would be just as good. Pureeing the pineapple and banana just left for a smoother texture and blended the fruits into the muffin beautifully.

and WOW!... They turned out great! Yup! I’m impressed with myself...a little self-pat on the back for me today thank you very much! Mind you, I’m of the belief that you can throw just about anything in a muffin and rarely ever mess it up. It’s my favourite way to pack extra nutrients into the day since the kids love baking and it is a treat for them. I soon realized these had passed the kid test as my son snuck a second one before they were even cooled, yes, he eats anything...but I couldn’t resist either as I ate TWO warm out of the oven with my afternoon latte. They have great flavour, are very moist and have a nice crisp crust. Not bad for a baking experiment, and I can feel better knowing that my family is getting less sugar, more whole grains, extra fruit packed into their snack and healthy nuts instead of chocolate chips. I’m sure that walnuts would be great too with all the healthy omegas, so maybe next time I’ll try walnuts, or even half n half with the pecans. Mmmm. You just can’t mess up a muffin!