Lowfat Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

I've discovered Pinterest and am COMPLETELY obsessed.  I have found countless recipes, decorating ideas, and food blogs.  One blog I've started following is www.skinnytaste.com.   I saw this muffin recipe and it sounded appealing.  I made them this morning and they are DELICIOUS!  So moist, I've already had 2!  The hubs loved them as well (he ate 1 because he has more self control than me).

3 ripe medium bananas
1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour (I used oat flour)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 large egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
8 tbsp REAL peanut butter (I used Kirkland's organic real peanut butter from Costco)
preheat oven to 325
mash bananas in bowl, set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.
In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, apple sauce, vanilla, and 8 tablespoons peanut butter, and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl
Add flour mixture, then blend at low speed until combined. Do not over mix.
Pour batter into muffin tin halfway and bake on the center rack for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies have a story.  I first made them for my husband, John, 7 years ago when we were dating.  Everyone knows the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and I was pretty determined to win him over.  One day during work, John went to Subway and picked up a sandwich and a peanut butter cookie for lunch. He went home for his lunch break to eat and take his dogs outside.  John never got to eat his cookie because his dog Chloe got to it first.  So, I made him these cookies and let's just say the rest is history.  John loved the cookies and even his friends were requesting I make them.  Today I modified the recipe to make them more nutritious:

1 cup oat flour
1 t. baking soda
1/8 t. salt
3/4 cup turbinado sugar
1 stick of butter
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla
1 cup REAL peanut butter
preheat oven to 375
mix together oat flour, baking soda & salt.  set aside.  in large bowl mix soft butter with sugar, then add peanut butter.  I am generous with the peanut butter.  beat until smooth then add egg and vanilla.  at low speed slowly add in flour mixture.  bake 10-12 minutes.
prep time: 15 min.

A few notes:  white flour has no nutritional value.   Instead, think of using oat flour or wheat flour.  They are both high in fiber and protein.  Turbinado sugar is a more pure sugar and has fewer calories than white granulated sugar.  I bought the oat flour and turbinado sugar in the bulk section at Whole Foods.  Real peanut butter is SO much better for you than Jiff or Peter Pan.  Real peanut butter only contains peanuts and salt.  We eat a lot of peanut butter in our house so I buy the 2-pack Kirkland brand at Costco.  Jiff, Skippy, Peter Pan, etc. are high in sugar and contain both partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and fully hydrogenated vegetable oil.  These oils  are trans fats, which are the worst kinds of fats.  They raise your bad (LDL) cholesterol and lower your good (HDL) cholesterol.  These trans fats are also very hard for your body to digest.

TIP: when baking cookies, don't be afraid to use less sugar then the recipe calls for.  They'll still taste great, they just won't be uber sweet.