Strawberry Banana Yogurt Muffins

 You know the situation where you have either fruit or veggies in your house and they are on their last day before you have to sadly throw them in the trash.   All you want to do is think of anyway possible to incorporate them into a meal or make a new creation. Well, that was the situation with my bananas.  I have always LOVED the scrumptious taste of banana muffins so I thought hey!  why the heck don't you see strawberry-banana muffins out there very often?  I immediately rushed out to buy some fresh strawberries to go with my withering bananas and I was ready to get this project started.  I wanted to make this recipe somewhat healthy, hmmm well as healthy as it could be and still have flavor.  I will admit it took me a few tries to get this right.  First I followed a recipe using yogurt instead of butter and I changed the white  flour to Buckwheat flour (again trying to be healthy.)  This was a disaster as the gooey overly thick mixture baked into what I can only describe as mini brown turds, sorry its true. No flavor.  Then I did it again with white flour.  Still too thick and not enough flavor.   

Finally I got it right by giving in and adding 1/2 cup RAW sugar, cinnamon and low-fat milk.  The result -  I got More sweetness, moisture and overall flavor.  Oh and still on the healthier side!  

These little suckers are delicious if I do say so myself and I will definitely make them again.  I couldn't resist making them in 2 sizes, regular and mini and I am guilty of sprinkling some powdered sugar on top to make them pretty.  Happy Baking!

Yield: 15 muffins or 60 mini muffins

Ingredients:

2 large RIPE mashed Bananas (or 3 small) - must be ripe for sweetness!

1 cup chopped fresh Strawbwerries

1 cup chopped Walnuts (optional)

2 cups Flour

1/2 cup Sugar (I used RAW)

1/4 cup light Brown Sugar

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda 

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon 

3/4 cup plain, vanilla or banana Yogurt (I used Stoneyfield low-fat Banilla)

1/2 cup low-fat Milk

1 Egg lightly beaten

1 teaspoon PURE Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2. Spray a muffin tin or silicone tray with cooking spray or line with baking cups. (I used tin for regular muffins and silicone for the minis)

3. In a Large bowl comine all dry ingredients: Flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk all ingredients together until well blended.

4. Add chopped walnuts to dry mixture and stir until nuts are well covered.

5. In a medium bowl combine banana, yogurt, milk,egg, & vanilla extract.  Mix well.

6. Add the Banana mixture to the dry mixture and mix just until all dry ingredients are absorbed.

7. Gently fold in chopped strawberries to the combined mixture.

8. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 of the way. For the mini muffins I filled each cup to the top to create an exaggerated muffin top since they are already so small.

9. Bake muffins until they are slightly golden on top.  About 22-25 minutes.  To perform the toothpick test just insert a toothpick into center of a few muffins.  If it comes out clean then the muffins are ready!

10. ENJOY :)