Low-Sugar Banana Muffins

I have been trying to be conscious of the amount of sugar that my family consumes.  We aren't concerned with natural sugars found in fruit and dairy products, but all the added sugar in so many foods.  We eat decently and thought we were pretty conscious about added sugar in foods, but when I calculated how many grams or teaspoons my children consume in a day it still was above the maximum recommended by the American Heart Association for children!  We are not anti-treat but I do want my kids to know when they are having a treat so they can enjoy it, and make healthy choices the rest of the time. We make a lot of what we eat and our store-bought peanut butter, apple sauce, and most yogurt choices have had no added sugar for a long time.  We limit cereal and go for low sugar options when we do have it. Still, sugar sneaks into so many everyday inconspicuous items like ketchup, spaghetti sauce, some types of bread, and other surprising foods.  My kids were asking for a treat every day in their lunch in addition to wanting something after dinner.  Even our homemade oatmeal jars have some added sweetener (pure syrup) in them. Yes non-refined sweeteners may be a better choice but they are processed by your body the same way sugar is - and it all adds up! So I decided it was time to dial it back a bit.  I found a healthy recipe and modified it even further by cutting the syrup in half and replacing the oil with greek yogurt and my kids still ate them! You could even throw a few chocolate chips in and call them a treat.  

Ingredients:

2 cups white wheat flour
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon quality cinnamon
2 large ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
chocolate chips, nuts, or other add ins, optional

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare a muffin pan with cooking spray or muffin liners. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl or 4-cup measuring cup (I love using that to save washing a big bowl and make pouring easier!) . In a separate large bowl mash the bananas with a fork.  Add eggs, maple syrup, greek yogurt, milk, and vanilla and beat to combine. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Add the optional add-ins, if using.  Fill the prepared muffin wells (it made 16 for us) and bake for 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
Enjoy with butter, plain, or with peanut butter!

Adapted from a recipe from:
http://gimmedelicious.com/2016/03/02/healthy-banana-oatmeal-muffins/

Peanut butter coconut protein balls

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats (old-fashioned)
1 cup vanilla whey protein powder
2-3 Tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup all-natural (no sugar) peanut butter
6T honey or real maple syrup
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
8 T milk of choice
1/2 - 3/4 cup mix ins (we used unsweetened coconut flakes and white and semi-sweet chocolate chips) You could try dried fruit, raisins, chocolate chips, etc.  Add some flax if you want too! Make them your own.

To make:

Mix the oats, protein powder, chia seeds and cinnamon together in a bowl.  Add the peanut butter, honey or syrup and vanilla and stir to combine.  The mixture will be very thick. Add 4 Tbsp milk, mix and add more milk 1 Tbsp at a time until you have a good consistency to roll into balls.  Stir in your mix ins and then get rolling! Use your hands to roll into balls. I rolled them slightly packing them as I rolled and put right into a storage container to keep in the fridge. If you prefer you could roll and place on a cookie sheet until they set up in the fridge but I didn't feel like making extra dishes/taking this extra step and they came out fine.  You can store in the freezer if you don't plan on eating them all within the week - but in our house this is never a problem.

We made some with just coconut, some with coconut and regular chocolate chips and some with coconut and white chocolate chips for my little white chocolate lover.  They were a hit!

Based on the recipe from:
http://www.thehealthymaven.com/2015/08/no-bake-oatmeal-protein-energy-balls.html