These fluffy and moist banana muffins are loaded with spinach but taste just like your favorite banana muffin – without the taste of spinach. They are healthy, fun and easy to make – even the pickiest of kids will love them!
Aren’t these muffins the coolest ever? That bright green color is brought to you by spinach – can you believe there is no food coloring in there at all? AND they don’t taste like spinach, not even a little! The best part is that my 1 year old loves them, I keep them stocked in my freezer for a quick breakfast when we are short on time because I know he will always devour them in an instant.
Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of hiding or sneaking vegetables into your kids food – I’m a big proponent for having kids know what’s in their food and enjoy eating it because it’s good, veggies and all. However, sometimes it’s nice to get healthy things into food in creative ways – like adding kale to a smoothie, butternut squash to your mac and cheese or these spinach muffins.
So I can’t totally take credit for the idea behind these muffins. You see, my friend Amy is obsessed with adding spinach to everything (sorry Amy, I’m calling you out here). Seriously, she adds it to half the food she makes for her kiddo, because it’s so darn easy to throw it in. She text me one day about some spinach muffins she made for him, asking me if I knew how to get more oomph into the muffins – more flavor and more protein. Challenge accepted, Amy.
I started with my favorite muffin recipe and tweaked it from there. I wanted to make sure I had a good, flavorful muffin that happened to have some healthy additions. I used a mix of flours here – whole wheat flour, cake flour and almond meal. The almond meal adds a little extra protein and the cake flour keeps it all from getting too dense. Super ripe bananas and lots of spices are what make these muffins really delicious. I like to use real butter to get some good fats into my kiddos diet (like Kerrygold Grassfed Butter) and it tastes great in these but you could totally swap it out for coconut oil or oil of your choice if you’re avoiding dairy. I love the extra vanilla flavor you get from the unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but you could easily use plain as well.
Here’s the other thing about these – I used my blender to mix up all the wet ingredients before mixing them with the dry. Sounds kind of crazy, but it gets the spinach all pureed so it bakes flawlessly into the muffins – not a spinach leaf in sight!
- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- ½ cup almond meal
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp allspice
- ⅓ cup butter, melted
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 ¼ cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almondmilk
- ¾ cup ripe banana, mashed (about 2 large bananas)
- 6 oz fresh spinach
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners, or lightly spray muffin pan with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together cake flour, whole-wheat flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
- In a blender place melted butter, brown sugar, almondmilk, banana and spinach. Blend on high until mixture is completely pureed and no pieces of spinach remain, about 1 minute. Add in eggs, vanilla and blend on low, until just combined.
- Pour spinach mixture into the bowl with dry ingredients. Fold with a rubber spatula until just combined. Do not overmix. Using a ⅓ measuring cup, portion batter into each muffin cup.
- Bake muffins until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 20-25 minutes. Let muffins cool slightly in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool about 10 minutes before serving.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Almondmilk. The recipe and all opinions shared are my own.
© 2012 The Marvelous Misadventures of a Foodie | Nicole White
