Banana Almond Muffins

I had some bananas and almonds that needed to be used...  so I used them to make some delicious muffins!  You could also use this recipe to make a banana bread loaf instead of muffins.  I just find that muffins are better -- due to portion control -- in this house!

Banana Almond Muffins 
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

•  2 large ripe bananas
• 1/4 c. melted margarine - I used Earth Balance
• 2/3 c. + 1 tsp. sugar - I used organic evaporated cane juice
• 1 2/3 c. flour - I used spelt
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2/3 c. almonds, chopped (or your choice of chopped nuts)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
• Grease or line the muffin tin.
• Mash bananas in a large bowl.
• Add margarine and 2/3c. sugar to bananas, stir until mixed well.
• In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, and baking soda.
• Add flour mixture to banana mixture and stir well (do not beat).
• Fold in 1/3 c. nuts (reserve other 1/3 c. for top of muffins).
• Spoon mixture evenly in muffin tin.
• Combine 1/3 c. nuts with 1 tsp. sugar and sprinkle evenly on top of each muffin.
• Bake for about 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center muffin comes out clean.
• Allow to cool 2-5 minutes until removing muffins from tin.

The next day after making these, I realized 2 people weren't going to be able to eat all of these before getting kind of dry from being exposed to the elements, so I wrapped some of them up in plastic wrap, gently squeezing any air out, and then put them in a freezer bag and stored them in the freezer.  Now all we have to do is unwrap and toss in the microwave for a minute and we can enjoy homemade, VEGAN Banana Almond Muffins whenever we want!

Nutritional Information*: 1 muffin = 202 Calories, 8g Fat (1g Saturated, 1g Polyunsaturated, 2g Monounsaturated, 0g Trans), 0mg Cholesterol, 207mg Sodium, 164mg Potassium, 31g Total Carbs (4g Fiber, 13g Sugars), 4g protein, 0% Vitamin A, 3% Vitamin C, 2% Calcium, 5% Iron

*Calculated by MyFitnessPal.com based on my entry of this recipe.

2 large bananas

mash the bananas

ta da! bananas mashed

Earth Balance is the greatest! I used the soy free kind in this recipe.

mix bananas, margarine, and sugar together

all mixed!

add flour mixture to banana mixture

all stirred together

I chopped the whole almonds I had, but you can buy your nuts chopped, too.

fold in nuts (I think I used too many here so I reduced it to 1/3 c.)

spoon mixture evenly into muffin tin

the nuts and sugar I reserved for the tops (tossed them into the measuring cup I used to melt the butter)

nuts on top of muffin mixture before baking

Mmmmm... all done!

yummy!

removed from the muffin tin

Yes, I ate one right away!