Banana Oat Muffins Recipe (Low Sugar AND No Oil)
Looking for a lighter lower in added sugar breakfast muffin recipe that is perfect to grab and go on busy mornings?
Try these yummy and easy-to-make banana oatmeal muffins for breakfast.
Perfect if you need to make use of over-ripe bananas, this recipe swaps out granulated sugar for honey and uses Greek yogurt in place of oil. I love that this easily comes together using a food processor to make oat flour with old-fashioned oats and is very quick to make.
Tip: You can even opt to freeze these muffins in an airtight container or freezer bag and then easily reheat for a few seconds in the microwave when you are ready to eat.
Breakfast Banana Oat Muffins
yield: 10 SERVINGS
prep time: 10 MINUTES
cook time: 20 MINUTES
total time: 30 MINUTES
Make these easy and delicious breakfast banana oat muffins for a meal on the go! Perfect for school lunch and budy week day mornings.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats (gluten-free if desired)
- 2 eggs
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed (*optional but great for added fiber & nutrition)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup mini or regular chocolate chips (*optional but yummy)
Directions
1
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Prepare a muffin tin with liners.
2
Pour oats into a food processor and pulse until you get a powder - about 10 seconds.
3
Add eggs, bananas, vanilla, honey, baking powder, flax seed, baking soda, and yogurt. Process until the mixture is smooth.
4
Stir in chocolate chips if desired.
5
Pour into greased muffin pans or use cupcake liners like I did. Bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes.
6
Insert a toothpick to make sure muffins are cooked through. Makes about 15 muffins.
If you do not have a food processor, can you just use the oats as they are? It would make for a more chewy muffin, but that is fine with me. These sound so healthy and low fat.
You could use small amounts in a coffee grinder or if you have a high powered blender like Ninja or Vitamix? I think they would come out more like a cookie 🙂
you can buy oat flour, which is just the same thing.
I made them in my blender. Worked just fine!
Could you use applesauce if you don’t have yogurt??
Hmm I’m not sure, may come out similar. What does everyone else think?
One caution: applesauce may make it a little “stickier” to the touch. But no less delicious, I’m sure. 🙂
These look fantastic, Lina. I love the whole grain & no added fat/sugar!
I use applesauce in place of oil for baking all the time and it works great
Great, thanks!
Not sure about this recipe but I put applesauce in any baked item instead of oil…cakes, muffins, brownies, etc….
You should be able to I have been using this exact recipe with coconut oil instead of yogurt and you can sub apple sauce for CO. I forget the ratio but yes it will work fine, I personally have not tried the sub for this recipe but have had no problems with other CO subs.
You can use sour cream, I’ve done it for banana bread before
I use applesauce all the time in muffins, brownies, and cakes instead of oil! 🙂
Love all ingredients in this recipe. Are these dense or light and are they moist?
Light and moist. I served it to all the neighborhood kids after school and they all LOVED 🙂
Great, thanks. You’re awesome. I can’t wait to try this recipe.
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That’s so nice! Thanks
Do you think I could use quick-cook oats? I have a few containers in my stock pile…. Just wondering if they might cook too quickly
Yes and if someone needs Gluten-Free oats they can use those too. Thanks!
Thanks Lina…I have a ton of old bananas & I was going to make banana bread but these ingredients are healthier & I have them all !
Could you use a regular blender? I only have a 12 speed blender. Thanks in advance!
Yes, that’s what I use (I don’t have a food processor) & it works fine. I just have to stop the blender every now and then, & push the oats around inside the glass pitcher so they all can be ground up.
Yes, I don’t have a food processor so that’s what I use when making this recipe.
Thank you!
Can you use sour cream instead of yogurt (I have the old one that I need to use), thank you
Yes, you can use sour cream…in fact, this morning I had made this recipe before seeing this post (I’ve been using this recipe for several years)…I didn’t have Greek yogurt so I used light sour cream and it turned out great!
Here is an awesome twist to cornbread…if you are a baker…
Box of Jiffy cornbread or your own recipe…
Add a heaping tablespoon of sourcream…I never measure just go by the consistency…
Line bottom and sides of iron skillet or pan with bacon. Then add mixture on top and cook.
“Good enough to slap your grandma”…lol JK Can you tell I am a good ole southern cook???…hehe! Absolutely delicious! 😀
Actually I am bedridden but my mom and I work as a team….I come up with recipes in my head and she cook them. I have a few that I may post sometime but I never write down amounts…guess I can give up writing recipes for Southern Living huh…lol 🙂
Haha that sounds great!
Can I substitute eggs for something else?
In most recipes you can use 1 Tbsp. soy flour + 1-2 Tbsp. water as an egg substitute. You can also grind flax seed and add water (haven’t tried this one; not certain of amounts). If you try it with this recipe, be sure and let us know how it turns out!
Flax seed egg substitute is 1 tbs ground flax seed and 3 tbs water = 1 egg
most banana breads don’t need an egg/egg substitute. they’ll stick to gether without. I’ve made this recipe with no eggs cause of an allergy and it was great. good luck
Can this be made into a bread loaf instead?
Old fashioned oats and flax seed are good for milk production, so if you added some brewer’s yeast to this recipe they would make awesome lactation muffins for the breastfeeding mamas. 🙂
i have oat flour on hand, how much roughly do you think the oats become once made into flour I was guessing 1 3/4 cup
Yes i would guess that too after searching some oat flour recipes. Thanks!
This is my family’s #1 fav snack! I usually make these once a week & they normally do not last but a day! You can also add walnuts to make a healthy banana nut muffin!
I just set out all the ingredients to make these in the morning. I’m debating about adding cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger OR cocoa powder…has anyone tried either of these with this recipe?
Can’t wait for breakfast tomorrow!
Haven’t tried with this recipe but you can’t go wrong with cinnamon and chocolate 🙂
I add cinnamon every time, it’s delish!
Thanks for the feedback, Rachel & Julia. I tried some modifications today, and they turned out great! Here’s my version, which made 18 standard-sized muffins:
*omit chocolate chips
*add 2 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger (or add 1/2 tsp. dry if you don’t have fresh)
*add 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
*add 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
*add 2 oz. pecans after all other ingredients are blended
I’ve polished off 2 with a cup of hot green tea, and the others may disappear throughout the day. 🙂
Thanks again for sharing, Lina. I don’t bake much (ever?) anymore since eliminating most bread/flour/sugar from my family’s meals, but this recipe fits beautifully into our lifestyle and is definitely a keeper!
Yum!
Isn’t half cup of honey a lot? Could you substitute with something else?
Yes you could use a little brown sugar ir other sweetner. Thanks
1/2 cup = 8 Tbsp. If your recipe makes 15-18 muffins, that would mean you’d get about 1/2 Tbsp. honey per muffin. That doesn’t seem like too much to me, but of course, it depends on your nutrition goals. I can say that the batch I made seemed just right–not super sweet–to hubby or me.
Well said. Thanks
For an idea on the calories, honey is generally 20 calories per teaspoon and 0.5 tablespoon is 1.5 teaspoons. So about 30 calories of honey.
Good timing on this recipe! I make 2 doz. healthy muffins every 2 weeks and freeze14 of them. The 10 that I keep out, mom eats for her breakfasts, which keeps her from buying those pastry muffins at fast food places. I’ll make these this time, in place of the banana oat bran muffins I’ve been making.
For today though, my cooking will not be as healthy. I’m making reduced fat mini cheesecakes for my son’s desserts the rest of the week and 2 French silk pies for my mom’s birthday. That’ll be plenty to do…haha!
Hi Lina,
I LOVE LOVE LOVE your recipes, but I was wondering if you could include nutritional information as well. I am counting calories, and this would be such a BIG help to me and many others I am sure! Keep ’em coming, but please include nutritional information.
Thanks!
Thanks for the kind feedback! Feel free to plug in ingredients into a recipe calculator like this one.
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator
Hi – calorie-count.com is also helpful for me when putting in my baking recipes! Thank you, Lina! Truly appreciate all of your wonderful ideas and beautiful photos!
Oh thanks for sharing!
Tracee, I watch for the same info as you, and I’ve found the myfitnesspal site (not the app) to be a great resource for me when calculating nutrition info for homemade items. (App is great too–just doesn’t offer exactly the same features as the web version.) FWIW, the version of these muffins that I made (post 14.3, above) came out to 129 cal, 19g carb (2g fiber, 10g sugar), 4g fat, 5g pro.
I am thinking of adding a little dried peanut butter to the recipe. PB goes great with choc., honey, and bananas. And the dried has not much fat.
This is a great recipe! We needed dairy free so I did not add the yogurt but added 1/4cup palm shortening instead and also left out the flax seeds. They turned out awesome!
Oh yay!
Are old fashioned oats the same as rolled oats? Thanks!
Yes
Well, I really love this cake. It was moist and perfect in every way! One thing, I did not freeze the cake. Only because I was doing so many things besides making the cake. I was canning hot sauce and apple pie filling. I just forgot to freeze it. It was perfectly moist too! So I’m not sure if it needs to be frozen first. I’ll have to make it again and do it right to compare. But it is a top notch recipe for sure!!!
Yum, I was reading the recipe and thinking my husband would put nutella on them
As anyone frozen?
yes, I make mini muffins of these and freeze for my kiddo’s morning snack break at school…
Does anyone know if I can make these with regular yogurt or does it have to be Greek? I have some stoneyfield whole yogurt and I accidentally bought plain instead of vanilla for my toddler. I’m trying to find a way to use it up.
Wonder how this would turn out if I was to use blueberries instead of banana and no chocolate chips have you ever tried it