Almost Vegan: Banana Berry Breakfast Muffins

Banana bread has always been one of my favorite breakfast foods. My great-grandmother (who was apparently an amazing cook), has passed down many recipes, but I would have to say that her banana bread is one of the best! I think the key is to use plenty of banana (duh) and to keep it nice and moist.

Over the past year, my great-grandmother's recipe has been 'under construction.' With a few tweaks, these muffins are now whole grain, vegan and don't have any white sugar. We eat them for breakfast at least three days a week. In fact, I make them so often that I have the recipe memorized and can mix them up in about 10min flat! For breakfast, we usually cut a muffin in half, pop it in the toaster oven and butter it up (with Earth Balance, of course). Although we make this recipe into six large muffins, they're great as smaller muffins, or even in a loaf of bread. I hope you love them as much as I do!

Ingredients:

4 medium, overripe bananas (that have been previously frozen and thawed out)

1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour or Whole Grain Spelt Flour

**Honestly, I usually do a mixture of something like 3/4c. spelt, 1/2c. oat and 1/4c. brown rice flour. If you are gluten-free, these are delicious with 1 cup oat flour and 1/2 cup brown rice flour.

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup alternative dry sugar (maple, coconut, palm, turbinado or date sugar are all delicious!)

1/4 c. flax seed meal

1 tsp. cinnamon...or more if you want

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup applesauce

1/4 cup safflower or canola oil

3/4 cup frozen berries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Take bananas out of the freezer a few hours ahead of time and let defrost on the counter. If you don't have time, then the microwave will work too.

2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. Smash the bananas with a fork or pastry cutter, then add the oil and applesauce and mix well.