Lisaopolis.comLisa’s Adventures in the Kitchen

A couple of days ago I was up early in the morning (yet again), and I decided to wanted a warm breakfast. I decided to make some muffins. I chose to make banana muffins. I have made many varieties of banana muffins over the years, but I had never tried to duplicate a muffin I use to buy often from Tim Hortens.

The banana nut muffin from Tim Hortens is likely my most purchased item ever from this particular fast food place. Back in my college and university days I spent a lot of time eating and studying at Tim Hortens or getting Tim Hortens to go, and studying elsewhere. Eating a lot of Tim Hortens food is likely one of the many factors that contributed my  weight gain in university that I am now trying to loose.

I set out to make a much more healthy version of the Tim Hortens banana nut muffin. Something I remember about the muffin from this fast food place is that after it sat in the take out muffin paper bag for a short time you could see the grease from the muffin on the bag. I wanted my muffin to not be like that.

I used one of my own muffin recipes, and changed it up a bit. I used coconut, pecans, and walnuts to get the nutteyness I was after. The result was a nutty banana muffin that actually tasted a lot like the Tim Hortens ones I use to enjoy! It was also not even slightly greasy, so it was much more healthy.

Here is my recipe.

Banana Nut Muffins
(makes 12 medium size muffins)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp white vinegar
½ cup skim milk (or slightly more of the dough is too thick)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp rum extract
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup white sugar
3 medium bananas
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup pecan pieces
¼ cup walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl add the flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and stir until well combined. Add all the nuts and stir well. In a blender add the bananas, rum, and vanilla extracts, olive oil, vinegar, and skim milk. Blend until smooth. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until smooth. Spoon into muffin tin(s). Bake for 30-35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a tooth pick comes out clean when poked in a muffin. Enjoy.