Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

I’m sure everyone with kids has had the experience where you take the kids grocery shopping and they beg for something and promise they will eat it and of course rarely do they finish it.  This happens all the time when it comes to bananas and my four year old.  She begs for me to buy bananas (and not just one or two but a whole bunch) and after eating half of one or two she’s done.  So then it’s left to me and my husband to finish them off.  Bananas are one of those fruits I just have to be in the right mood for so we always end up with those over ripe, black bananas.  Thus I set off on my hunt for a good banana bread recipe.  I tried one recipe after another and none tasted quite right until I came across this one in the Hawaii Soto Mission Cookbook my mom sent me.

I loved it and more importantly my kids love it.  It’s a loaf or muffin recipe but I usually make them into mini muffins and freeze them in quart size ziplocs.  Then every now and then we take out a bag to defrost in the fridge and then pop them into the microwave as a quick breakfast for the kids.  It’s also a great recipe to let the little ones help you out in the kitchen.  My four year old loves to mash the bananas and mix all the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups mashed, ripe bananas
• 2 cups flour, sifted
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup Wesson oil
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips or raisins
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Mash bananas and set aside
2. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl
3. Add sugar, oil and eggs and stir until blended
4. Add chocolate chips, bananas and vanilla; mix well
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour if using loaf pans, for regular size muffins 20 minutes and for minis I eye ball it and check it around 16-18 minutes

Now that I’m on a kick to try and cook/bake healthier foods I do want to try experimenting with less sugar and maybe replacing the oil.  Will have to see how it works out.