Banana Nut Muffins...Tweaked

I've been working on ways to stretch our grocery budget, so today I made banana nut muffins. I had everything on hand and they're perfect to freeze and eat later for quick breakfasts. I started with my mom's recipe (my favorite!) and have tweaked it a bit. I used ground flax seed in place of some of the butter and one of the eggs. Here's the recipe:

Banana Nut Muffins

5 tbsp butter
1 cup natural cane sugar
2 eggs
9 tbsp ground flax seed
3 tbsp water
3 large ripe bananas
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Cream butter, sugar, water, and ground flax seed. Add eggs, add bananas. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; add to banana mixture. Add nuts and coconut.

Bake at 350 degrees for 17-19 min. Makes 24 muffins.

Both the natural cane sugar and the ground flax seed can be purchased at Wal-Mart. The sugar is less processed and using the ground flax seed reduces the saturated fat content. According to the box, ground flax seeds can be used in place of some of the fat/oil/butter content and/or eggs in recipes. This is how I first came up with the idea to tweak the recipe. The oat flour also adds some insoluble fiber and is heart-healthy. The unbleached white flour, wheat flour, and oat flour all came from Whole Foods.

These "tweaks" to the recipe have come after several attempts different ways. I have found that making this recipe as muffins is much preferable to a loaf of bread since the bread tends to be a bit more dense (possibly due to the oat flour...it is mostly gluten-free).

I like that these muffins still taste just like my mom's did growing up, but now they have added nutritional benefits. If you try out this recipe, let me know how it turns out for you!