Banana Crumb Muffins...The Remix

I love looking at food blogs/recipes/cookbooks etc. While looking at allrecipes.com today I decided I want to see what their top rated/reviewed recipe was. I thought it might be a main dish, but it was these delicious looking Banana Crumb Muffins. The recipe looked verrrry yummy. My eye quickly went to the nutrition facts, and I saw that each muffin contained 263 calories and 8 grams of fat. I knew I could do better than that...and I did.

MY Health-i-fied Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 egg whites
1/2 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
1 vanilla pudding mix (fat free sugar free)

Streusel Topping: 
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon wheat flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Directions:  
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugars, egg whites, and yogurt. Once mixed add pudding mix. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into muffin tins sprayed with non-stick spray or lined with liners.
 In another small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and cinnamon. Sprinkle topping over muffins. 
Bake for 16-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

They turned out SO GOOD. If I do say so myself. 

The Stats...

The smell of baking banana bread-ish foods always makes the kitchen smell so good. Today I was reminded of the days growing up that I would come walking into the kitchen from a long day at school, or a busy night of dance practice and my mom had something tasty cooking in the kitchen. 

My mom is an excellent cook, and she always let me bake along side her growing up. Her patience and willingness to teach me instilled in me the love that I have for cooking today. Despite our conflicting busy schedules, my mom always made an effort to have home cooked dinners around the table for my family, and I am so appreciative of that. 


Dinner time to so many today has been nixed for convenience. Home cooked meals have been replaced by a trip through the drive through, and the dinner table by laps and car seats in the car. With these replacements we've lost nutrients, proper portions, and most importantly quality family time. Of course there are times that life is just busy, and all feeding the family in any form possible is work enough, but imagine the difference we'd see in the health of Americans today if more people would take the time to cook a healthy meal at home instead of devouring deep fried potatoes and sugary sodas at every meal. 

I now realize the time and effort it takes to prepare healthy meals, as well as the importance of doing so. Good health comes to those who make it a priority in their lives. 


Did you come from a family that ate together? Were your meals healthy? I didn't realize until now home much my parents health habits have been instilled in me. Do you take the time to cook healthy meals for you or your family? It really is a lot of effort, but it is something that is so worth taking the time for.