Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

I'm a self-proclaimed carb junkie. I love anything and everything baked, especially muffins. Unfortunately, muffins have never loved me back, until I discovered a great recipe in one of my new cookbooks, Rocco Dispirito's "Now Eat This! Diet". If you aren't familiar with his work, Rocco Dispirito is a chef who focuses on finding ways to cut the fat and calories in traditional "off-limits" foods without sacrificing taste. As an added bonus, he also uses natural ingredients. Oh and did I mention he's gorgeous? His books are full of pictures of him cooking. (Add a couple pictures of him vacuuming and washing dishes and it'd be lady-porn.) Ok ok, enough fantasizing. Back to the muffins. These muffins are great because they're delicious, low in fat and calories, made of all-natural ingredients and they're high in fiber, so they fill you up and keep you satisfied. I have one every morning with 2 egg whites and a cup of coffee and I'm good to go until lunch time. Plus, agave nectar keeps your blood sugar normal, so you don't crave sweets mid morning or suffer a sugar crash. They're practically miracle muffins!

His recipe is for banana-walnut muffins, but since one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations is banana and peanut butter, I tweaked the recipe a little to be able to add peanut butter chips without adding a bunch of calories.

P.S. - The recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour, which is an important distinction. If you use regular wheat flour, your muffins will come out very dense and chewy. Pastry flour will give you the light and fluffy texture you'd get from white flour, but the fiber and nutrients of whole wheat.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Ingredients:

Non-stick cooking spray
2 cups + 2 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 packets (4 grams) powdered stevia, such as Truvia or SweetLeaf
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp banana extract
1/2 cup liquid egg white substitute
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
12 walnut halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-ct muffin pan with paper baking cups and spray each cup lightly with non-stick spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, stevia and salt. Stir to combine well, and set aside.

In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine milk, agave nectar, mashed bananas, applesauce, vanilla, banana extract and egg substitute. Whisk until well blended. Slowly pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold together to combine. Stir just until well-blended. Add in peanut butter chips and stir.

Spoon batter evenly into each paper cup and top each with a walnut half. Bake 18-22 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Another great thing about muffins is that they can easily be frozen and defrosted as necessary. Just put them in a plastic freezer bag and they'll keep for up to 3 months. To defrost, just place one on a plate and microwave it for 1 minute 30 seconds. Then you're out the door with a hot, yummy and healthy breakfast.