Food, Link Ups

What’s On Your Plate – The ‘Go Bananas’ Edition

Retirement Reflections

Can’t get enough of bananas (or have a few you need to use up)?
Can’t get enough of Harry Chapin?
Need a fun pick me up?
Then this post is for you.

Despite the rather awkward audience at the start of the video (seriously, was that the best they could get?), whatever you do, PLEASE. DO. NOT. SKIP. IT. It is worth watching the full performance. You won’t be disappointed!

Just plain fun, especially when you sing along from your kitchen!

Now On to the Food Part:
I’m dreadful at following a recipe — even when baking (disasterous, l know). But I love scouring numerous recipes and combining them into one that is right for me. This banana muffin recipe is a great example. And with relatively low calories (about 144 per muffin), sugar (less than 8 grams) and fat (7 grams), they provide you with fiber, protein, calcium, vitamins A & C as well as some iron. And they can be easily adjusted to be dairy-free or gluten free. Although I frequently bake muffins, Richard liked this recipe so much he asked me to write down what I had done so he could make some himself. Me write down a recipe? Richard bake? Shock and awe on both accounts!

Have a dish or a food song to add? I’d love for you to share it in the comments or the link up below.

Donna
(& Deb co-host)

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Published by Retirement Reflections

Prior to retirement, I lived and worked in Beijing China for fourteen years (Middle School Principal/Deputy Director at The Western Academy of Beijing). Leaving international life behind, my husband and I retired to Vancouver Island in June 2015. To document both this transition and our new adventures, ‘Retirement Reflections’ was born. I hope that you enjoy reading these reflections, and will be willing to share your own.

97 thoughts on “What’s On Your Plate – The ‘Go Bananas’ Edition”

    1. I know several people who don’t like bananas but do like banana cake. That makes sense to me — totally different taste and textures.
      I think that might be the first modified recipe that I offically wrote down — at least in a (semi-) organized manner! 😀

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  4. These look great Donna and I just happen to have some bananas in my freezer that I can use. I can sense your shock and awe at Richard’s request! That song was a hoot :). Thanks for the linkup.

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  7. We love banana muffins in our house, although hubby has never offered to make them. I have a couple of recipes I use. I often add bran and always cut the sugar in half. Bananas already have a lot of sugar in them. Honey is a great idea. That is a fun Harry Chapin video. He looks so young! Thanks.

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    1. Hi, Darlene – I almost always cut down (or cut out) the sugar called for in recipes. I find that sugar is often added as an ingredient when it is not remotely needed. And when sweetness is required, the amount can be easily reduced and white sugar replaced. I couldn’t source the year for that video, but Harry Chapin does seem very young there. So tragic that his life was cut incredibly short.

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  12. I used to buy bananas every time I went to the grocery store. Husband loved them. I hardly ever had over ripe ones to make anything. Now he can’t eat bananas due to some medical issue. So there are no bananas in our house. Sad.

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    1. Hi, Dawn – I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s medical issue. I hope that he is well. Richard and I are both big banana lovers so we seldom have any extras to deal with. In the case of my recent muffin making, Richard and I had both purchased a large bunch of bananas on the same day. Oops!

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      1. I wonder about that all the time. I think many food preferences are in the DNA, such as not liking cilantro. Since the boys are so much like Dom, maybe I wasn’t responsible after all.

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  14. I love a good muffin but probably not a banana one. (Makes no sense as I LOVE banana cake!) I have a great one with oats that you can add blueberries if you want. Muffins seem so much healthier than some other options out there (like cake!). My local grocery store makes one that I swear is really chocolate cake disguised in a muffin cup.

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    1. Hi, Kate – Richard loves muffins so they are frequently in our home. Although it is usually easy to modify a muffin recipe to make it healthier, my niece always argues that muffins are simply ‘single servings of cake’. No wonder Richard likes them so much! 😀

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  15. Donna, your recipe hardly resembles the traditional ‘unhealthy’ version of banana muffins – honey instead of sugar, eggs, milk, butter instead of oil, and the addition of cinnamon is a nice surprise. I’d make these. Of course, I’d have to toss in a handful of raisins and some pecans. Joining #WOYP on Sunday.

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    1. Hi, Suzanne – You are so right about traditional banana muffins. In my memory, a serving of 12 calls for 3/4 cup of white sugar, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, and all white flour (1 1/2 cups). That raises the total sugar, fat, cholesterol and calories quite significantly without actually tasting much better. Oh, and raisins and pecans would be a perfect addition to most muffin recipes!

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    1. Hi, Dorothy – Thank you for adding the information about Harry Chapin’s advocacy for hunger awareness. In 1980, he created Long Island’s first food bank, and revolutionized their regional approach to addressing food insecurity and hunger.
      In 2021, Long Island Cares distributed 14 million pounds of food — the equivalent of 11.5 million meals — and it now has a half-dozen storefront locations across the Island. The agency was instrumental in addressing crises like Superstorm Sandy and the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. And because no member of a family — included the four-legged and feathered ones — is spared from hunger, the seventh location, Baxter’s Pet Pantry, is dedicated to collecting and distributing pet food and supplies to families in need.
      Along with his incredible music, that is quite the legacy!

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  18. Like a couple of others, I don’t do banana. Never have and never will. I literally saved a co-worker when I took a bite of the chocolate cake and spit it out. It had banana in it, and she is anaphylactic to banana. So frustrating that people didn’t label goods like they were supposed to. 🙄. I feed bananas to my kids and am almost gagged as I did it! I fill my muffins with zucchini or pumpkin or apple.

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    1. Hi, Bernie – I totally get that bananas are not for everyone. I don’t like chocolate cake or chocolate icecream. I have no explanation why. I’m not sure that I have ever had zucchini in muffins but that sounds great to me!

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  19. It’s always good to have a recipe like this in your back pocket to use up all those overripe bananas. Maybe not 30,000 lbs worth though! I used to listen to that song on our road trips all the time when my husband was alive. Great post, my friend!

    Deb

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    1. Thanks, Deb – I have an aversion to putting bananas in my freezer. Why? I honestly have no idea. This banana recipe is the next best option for when I have too many bananas lying around and beginning to darken. It’s quick, easy and (relatively) healthy. ❤

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  23. I our house, there are “today’s bananas” (the perfect ripeness to be eaten today), “tomorrow’s bananas” (a little too green), and “yesterday’s bananas” (starting to become over ripe and best used for banana bread). The next time we have a few “tomorrow’s bananas” we’ll try your yummy-sounding recipe.

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  26. I am the same when it comes to baking but it seems that banana bread which looks very similar to your muffin recipe, is forgiving of poor measuring and inattentive ovens. Also, Harry Chapman is a bit of a hero here on Long Island. He and his family had established The Harry Chapman Food Bank. Always loved his music.

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    1. Hi, Antoinette – I am always grateful for recipes that are forgiving of guess-measuring and inattentive timers. I am glad to hear that Harry Chapin remains a hero on Long Island not only for his music, but for all that he put into place to address food insecurity.

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  27. I was a huge fan of Harry Chapin but have not listened to anything by him in such a long time! I have banana trees and am going to keep this recipe for the next ripe bunch. I made a lot of banana bread and frozen chocolate covered bananas last time. Nice to have another option.

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  31. You are very talented! These muffins look delicious 😋 I often adjust recipes too but not so much with baking. It infuriates my husband because if he likes something, I can’t always remember what I’ve changed to be able to replicate it again. Congratulations on getting your recipe written down.

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  35. Hi Donna: I couldn’t figure out how to attach this recipe to a “Reply” on your blog, so I leave the Tekky stuff to you to incorporate this and the recipe into your blog. Richard will no doubt remember the UBC Buns. Product warning: This recipe is by all counts nutritionally bad, bad, bad……but SO GOOD. Note my reference to using “sweetener” instead of white sugar. I do that when Linda is vetting the ingredients on the counter. There might be differences of opinion as to using raisins. I am a raisin person but L is not, so I do ½ and ½. I don’t often make these, because even I understand that wolfing down most of a whole tray of buns in a day or two really isn’t “good” for a person. I say “most” because L will at times reluctantly (she says) yield to temptation. The buns do freeze well, but who wants freezer burned buns months later? Enjoy.

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  38. Hi Donna – thanks so much for sharing this banana muffin recipe. I bake a lot of muffins and recently made banana ones, but they weren’t very good (compared to banana bread). I’m wondering if I could add chopped walnuts to your recipe? I took a picture and I’m going to try it out. 🤗

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  40. Catching up on #WOYP before the next edition drops.
    I am not the most diligent in following recipes either – everytime I tell Younger Child “read through your recipe first”, I giggle a little bit because I am not the one to talk!

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      1. I know, right? My favourite story is of a blueberry muffin we make once or twice a month – it was only after a year or so that Older Child (who happens to read recipes diligently) pointed out to me that I was supposed to mash some of the blueberries up before folding them into the batter 😅

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