Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour (regular flour is OK too)

1 cup of oats

½ cup light brown sugar (Domino)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice (stage one)

4 bananas

1 cup of milk

¼ cup of vegetable oil (I use organic canola or melted coconut oil)

1 tsp vanilla (watch for corn syrup)

3 TB butter, softened

1/3 cup pear sauce (can puree fresh boiled pears to make sauce)

¾ cups of chocolate chips (we use Ghirardelli)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat together milk, pear sauce, butter, bananas, oil and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until center comes out clean with a toothpick. Makes about 24 muffins.

Some pumpkin pie spices contain cloves which would be stage 2. You can make your own stage one pumpkin pie spice by combining 4 TB cinnamon, 4 tsp nutmeg, 4 tsp ginger, and 3 tsp of allspice. I put this all into my old pumpkin pie spice container when I ran out. McCormick sells a pumpkin pie spice without cloves.

To make your own pear sauce, I boil fresh peeled pears until soft. Drain the water, then mash or transfer to a blender. We have one specifically for making baby food that works well. I add a couple dashes of vitamin C crystals/ powder to help prevent it from browning. I transfer to ice cube trays and set in the freezer, then transfer to a zip lock freezer bag for storage. Can use apple sauce if you can do stage two.

I adapted this recipe from www.gatheredinthekitchen.com.

http://gatheredinthekitchen.com/banana-chocolate-chip-muffins/

Feingold Stage 1