Grain Free Banana Pecan Muffins

First of all, let me say (albeit a few days after the fact), that I am so thankful there weren’t more fatalities as a result of the Asiana plane crash on Saturday. When I saw the story on the news, my heart sank – I was sure it was going to be very bad news. Praise God it wasn’t!

However, I was one of those passengers scheduled to fly through SFO airport on Saturday evening. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. After several re-bookings, cancellations, and re-re-bookings, I was finally put on a flight from LA to DC for Sunday. Fortunately for me, Papa Bear and Baby Bear hadn’t yet left the airport (we figured there was a pretty good chance I wasn’t flying out that night), so they came back to meet me and we headed back home.

Unfortunately my re-booked flight was a red eye, and I didn’t get back home until some ridiculous hour of the morning. So after I woke up on Monday (I had the foresight to call my office and let them know I wasn’t going to make it in) the first order of business was taking stock of my freezer and making a menu for the week. Well, actually the first order of business was coffee. Then I took stock of my freezer and made a menu. And you know what I found? A heck of a lot of frozen bananas. So you know what I did?

Most paleo breads and muffins I’ve found substitute way too many eggs for the flour, which is fine until I start spending a heck of a lot of money on eggs. I already buy two dozen a week at least, because I eat them for breakfast every morning, so I really don’t want to up that amount. So I browsed some recipes on the web and experimented a little bit and came up with these – they only have one egg, although they do have quite a bit of coconut oil. Still, I was pretty happy with the result!

They were still a bit wet when I first tasted one, but after they set for a while they are great – dense, almost chewy, and perfectly flavored. You could use walnuts in these instead of pecans, but pecans are my personal favorite. With just a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg they make the perfect breakfast accompaniment, or if you prefer they could also be dessert! And the best part is – I now have handy dandy snacks for breakfast, at work, or as an after dinner sweet! Score!

WHAT YOU NEED: (makes 12 muffins)

3 very ripe bananas (frozen work well), mashed

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg

5 tbsp coconut oil

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp honey

WHAT TO DO:

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients (except nuts) together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Combine wet and dry ingredients and gently mix. Fold in nuts. Pour in to individual muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.