Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Every once in a while, I make a breakfast smoothie consisting of Light & Fit yogurt, milk, strawberries, peanut butter, and a little honey. Realizing that the peanut butter is the best part, I was inspired to look for a peanut butter muffin recipe with a reasonable calorie count. Surprisingly, I hit the jackpot right away with this Skinnytaste recipe. The secret is a natural substitute called Better N' Peanut Butter. I'm leery of food products (or any products) with N' in their names, but this stuff really is natural - they sell it at Trader Joe's. So despite my skepticism and the $6 price tag, I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised. (It's available at Target for those of us who don't have a Trader Joe's.)

These muffins are SCRUMPTIOUS, and lighter and fluffier than most of my go-to recipes. I ate two straight out of the oven.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
Via Skinnytaste. Makes 12 muffins, 160 calories each. With real peanut butter, they're about 190 calories each.

Ingredients:
3 medium ripe bananas
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (can substitute some whole wheat flour)
1/3 cup light brown sugar
10 Tbsp Better N' Peanut Butter (divided into 8 Tbsp and 2 Tbsp)
2 large egg whites
2 Tbsp butter, softened
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a muffin tin. Mash bananas in a bowl and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, applesauce, vanilla, and 8 Tbsp peanut butter. (If you forgot to mash the bananas, like I did, you can break them up and toss them in at this step. They blend just fine.) Beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

4. Add flour mixture, then blend at low speed until combined. Do not overmix.

5. Fill each muffin cup halfway, then add ½ tsp peanut butter to the center of each muffin. Top off with remaining batter. (I didn't do this, but it got rave reviews on the original post.) Bake on the center rack for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.