Kid friendly healthy fruit and oats breakfast muffins without oil

I am not a morning person. Getting up and making breakfast at 7 in the morning is very difficult for me. The most I can manage is toasting bread. But when the husband is out of the house at 7, a real housewife cannot let him go without a real breakfast, can she now? And then there is the question of packing a healthy breakfast for the kid to take to preschool. "How can I pack the most nutrients in what little she eats, without adding any weird tastes", is a question I always struggle with. Anything other than chocolate, milk, plain rice falls somewhere in the weird tastes category for her.

Anyway, to help me with the breakfast question, I try to make a few healthy, freezable and delicious options when I have time and my brain is not working at a snail's pace (like in the morning). One of the breakfast which everyone loves is : muffins. All I have to do the night before is, pull a few out from the freezer to thaw in the refrigerator. And they are perfectly ready to eat in the morning.
I love to make muffins too because they really are healthy but feel like a treat. And there are so many variations that can be made that it never gets boring.

This particular variation was a big hit. It has no oil or butter. It has whole grains (oats and whole wheat). It has fruits. It does not have a lot of sugar. But while eating it, you will not know that it is healthy for you in anyway and it has chocolate :) This recipe is going to be made a lot in my kitchen.

My little girl helped me make them. And that might be one of the reasons they passed the toddler test in flying colors too. She loves to mix and pour the ingredients. They do not always stay in the bowls that they are supposed to but it is fun for her and it helps her to stay involved with the food she is eating.

Healthy Breakfast Muffins

Bananas, applesauce and yogurt provide enough moisture to the muffins that they do not miss having fat like oil or butter in the recipe. I also replaced one of the egg with a mix for flax seed powder + water. Flax seeds are a good source of fiber and are quite nutritious.
Let your little helpers have their fun with mashing bananas to mixing the ingredients.


This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients:

2	very ripe bananas
1/2 cup	applesauce * See notes
1/8 cup	yogurt
1 1/2 cup	whole wheat flour
1 cup	coarsely powdered oats
1/2 cup	brown sugar
1/4 cup	sugar
1/2 tsp	salt
1/4 cup	cocoa powder
2 tsp	baking powder
1 tsp	baking soda
1	egg
1 tbsp	flax seed powder
3 tbsp	water
1 tsp	vanilla
1/4 cup	orange juice
1 tbsp	lemon or orange zest

• Preheat the oven to 375 F and prepare the muffin pan by lining with paper liners.
• Mix together flax seed powder and water and set aside. This needs to sit for atleast 5 mins to get to an egg like consistency.
• Mash up the bananas. The over-ripe ones work perfectly for baking. 
• Add the applesauce and yogurt to the bananas..
• Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl : whole wheat flour, oats, brown sugar, sugar, salt , cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
• Mix well the wet ingredients in another bowl : egg, flax seed mix, orange juice and vanilla.
• Fold together the dry ingredients, wet ingredients and banana mixture and the zest. Do not over mix. Just fold gently till dry ingredients are wet. 
• Fill in the muffin cups till almost full.
• Bake for about 16 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin is not wet at all. 

Notes:

• I had a small 3.9 oz cup of applesauce leftover from one of the restaurant kids meal so I used it instead of half cup of applesauce. Applesauce can be used to replace oil in other baked goods too. 
• I also used fresh orange juice but any orange juice will work. 
• These muffins are not very chocolaty (just the way I wanted). 1/4 cup of chocolate chips can be added if you want more chocolate flavor in the muffins. 
• I used coarsely powdered old fashioned oats. Quick cooking oats can be used without grinding them

I recently made a variation of this recipe using strawberry puree. I used 3/4 cup of strawberry puree instead of 1/2 applesauce + 1/4 cup orange juice. I also skipped the white sugar and increased the brown sugar by using a tightly packed half cup. Using 1/2 cup almond meal to substitute 1/2 cup of the whole wheat flour adds more good fat and results in a softer crumb.