Banana Nut Muffins

Banana Nut Muffins - Light, fluffy, gluten-free and dare I say moist and delicious! 

Muffins are a staple at my house! Not only are they great as a carb source for breakfast, but they are great as a grab and go snack! What I just now realized is that I have more muffin recipes on the blog than anything else! 

Another realization is that I have not one but two banana style recipes. The infamous paleo banana nut bread naturally sweetened with just bananas and 5-ingredient banana bread muffins that is also in the Nourished Cookbook! 

I may be mildly obsessed…

But this recipe variation in particular is my pantry/fridge clean out - banana nut recipe. Why? Because the ingredients are so practical! 

I typically have all of these ingredients in my fridge or pantry and do not realize it until some bananas are looking a little brown and I need to think fast on my feet! 

Don’t have overripe bananas but need them fast to make this recipe!?

The fastest way to ripen bananas for baking is to just bake them! Simply preheat your oven to 400 degrees F, place your bananas on a baking sheet, and bake them for five minutes, until they’re browned. That’s it! 

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo to #fromtherootsblog on Instagram. We love seeing what you come up with!

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Banana Nut Muffins - Light, fluffy, gluten-free and dare I say moist and delicious! 

Servings: 12 muffins | Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 20 min

Ingredients 

• 1 ½ cups 1:1 gluten-free flour

• 3 medium overripe bananas, mashed

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp pumpkin spice seasoning

• 1 egg, room temperature

• ½ cup coconut oil or grass-fed butter, melted

• ¼ cup maple syrup

• 2 Tbsp coconut milk or milk of choice

• ¼ - ½ cup coconut sugar (depending on your sweet level) 

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• ½ cup walnuts, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a muffin tin with muffin cups or spray tin with oil spray. 

2. Mash the bananas with a fork or meat masher in a mixing bowl. Add all the wet ingredients (egg, oil, syrup, milk, vanilla) and coconut sugar to the mixing bowl and whisk together until combined. 

3. In a separate bowl, add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and powder, salt, spices) and whisk together until combined. Add your dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk together until batter is thick yet pourable. Add the chopped walnuts and fold in until combined. 

4. Evenly divide the batter between 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle a little extra chopped nuts on top. 

5. Bake the muffins for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and they’re lightly golden on top. Enjoy! 

Notes

• Don’t have overripe bananas? That’s okay! Simply, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F, place your bananas on a baking sheet, and bake them for 5 minutes, until they’re browned. That’s it!

5 Ways To Use Chamoy Sauce

I had to make a separate blog post on this sauce because there are just too many ways to use this crack sauce “aka” chamoy sauce.

You can go straight to the mango melon sorbet with chamoy sauce post for the recipe, or you can grab it here:

CHAMOY SAUCE

• ½ cup fresh lime juice (5-7 limes)

• 1-3 dried ancho chilies 

• 1 - 10 oz jar organic apricot jam

• 1 tsp salt

• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

To make the chamoy sauce

1. Tear the stem off and deseed the ancho chilies. Submerse dried chilies in boiling water for a few minutes until the chilies are soft. 

2. In a high speed blender, place the soft ancho chilies along with the entire jar of apricot jam, lime juice, salt, cayenne pepper, and a ladle or two of the water that the ancho chilies were in. 

3. Blend on high speed until extremely smooth. Taste sauce and adjust flavors if need to (i.e. I typically add an additional ½ tsp cayenne pepper because I like it super spicy!) as well as sauce consistency. This should make about 2 cups worth. If you are unsure about the sauce consistency, look at the pictures above for reference. 

4. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 2 months. 

Now that you have the beloved sauce recipe, let’s get into 5 ways to use chamoy sauce!

To get a visual: check out IG reels below!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Candace Dorsey| From the Roots (@fromtherootsblog)

1| Mango Melon Sorbet

You can grab the recipe here

2| watermelon slices

3| Mangonada

• 1 cup mango chunks, fresh or frozen

• 1/2 cup coconut milk, coconut water, or water

• Juice of 1/2 lime

• Tajin or chili lime seasoning, for the rim

• chamoy sauce

• Tamarind stick, for serving (optional)

Directions

1. Rim a glass with a lime wedge and tajin seasoning. Squeeze chamoy sauce inside the glass using a swirling motion.

2. In a blender, add mango, liquid, lime juice, and a handful of ice and blend until smooth and creamy.

3. Pour the mango smoothie into the prepared glass about halfway, then layer the smoothie with chamoy sauce, repeat with more smoothie picture and top with chamoy sauce, tajin seasoning, fresh mango, and tamarind stick if desired. Enjoy!

You can also use this chili lime smoothie recipe as well!

4| Mango Slices

5| Fresh watermelon juice / Watermelon margaritas

Here are some quick recipes:

Spicy Watermelon Margaritas

Strawberry Watermelon Mint Agua Frescas

Watermelon Lime Refresher

Watermelon Ice Cubes

5-Ingredient Vegan Pesto

This vegan pesto will soon become a fridge staple as it uses 5-ingredients in less than 5 minutes!

Pesto has got to be my most favorite sauce of all time!

But unfortunately, since I am lactose intolerant, it can be very hard finding a vegan version of pesto in grocery stores and in most restaurants since parmesan plays a major role in the sauce.

Well, what do I do?! What can I do to resolve this issue!?

Create a super easy vegan version of pesto with just 5-ingredients is what I can do! (That’s a mouthful!)

You will probably have most of these ingredients on hand except maybe nutritional yeast. For my vegan and vegetarian subscribers, I know it can be hard to incorporate vitamin B12 into your diet, and often plant-based eaters end up deficient since B12 occurs naturally in animal foods. Nutritional yeast is a great way to get your daily recommended amount of vitamin B12! See source for more information.

Adding nutritional yeast will not only help with vitamin B12 but will also give the pesto a “cheesy” flavor.

Pesto is a great everyday sauce that can be used in many dishes such as pasta, appetizers, chicken and/or potatoes. Pesto is great in the fridge for up to a week or stored in the freezer (in an airtight container) for up to 1 month. One of my favorite things to do is to pour pesto sauce into an ice tray. All you need to do is heat up a skillet, pop out a pesto cube or two, and let it melt! Add chicken breasts or tempeh to the skillet and you will have a very simple and easy side dish!

What do you like to put pesto on? Please let me know in the comments section and if you tried this super easy 5-ingredient vegan pesto! Don’t forget to subscribe and share! :)

This vegan pesto will soon become a fridge staple as it uses 5-ingredients in less than 5 minutes!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups packed fresh organic basil

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

• 5-8 raw almonds

• 3 large cloves of garlic (peeled)

• 1/3 cup EVOO (oil free version-water or veggie stock)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a food processor, pulse almonds and garlic until finely chopped.

2. Add basil, yeast, and S/P on high until loose paste forms.

3. While the processor is on low, pour the oil through the feed tube gradually. Scrape down the sides and add more if necessary to achieve the desired sauce consistency. (Oil-free version* add water or vegetable stock gradually until desired consistency)

4. Taste and adjust if necessary, adding more nutritional yeast for that cheesy flavor, salt for overall flavor, garlic for that “bite” or almonds for a nuttier flavor.

5. Best stored in the fridge for up to one week or freezer for up to 1 month.