FAVORITE EASY BANANA RECIPES

For some reason I’ve been craving banana muffins like crazy lately (and oddly enough I woke up to Lindsay’s Caramelized Banana Oat Muffins in my inbox!  I will definitely need to be making these!) which has gotten me searching through some of my old recipes. 

Every time I do this I’m reminded of some of my favorites that I haven’t visited in a while and decided a banana-dedicated post would not only help me next time my banana craving strikes, but could also give you guys some great healthy/easy recipes you could make this weekend to have on hand for the following week’s breakfasts and snacks (especially if you’re like me and only like bananas when they’re baked into things).

There is really no particular order to these, I would recommend any of them!

#1 – Whole Grain Banana Yogurt Snack Cake

This became an instant favorite for both Chad and I.  It made for easy/portable whole grain breakfasts for him and the perfect afternoon snack for me.  We both preferred it warmed with a slather of extra natural peanut butter (for protein and healthy fats!) on top.

#2 – Easy Banana Bread Waffles

While I absolutely love fully-made-from-scratch waffles, sometimes my schedule just doesn’t permit that so it’s nice to know that there are some good mixes out there that you can customize with some additional ingredients to have a healthy, delicious and most of all easy breakfast.  This was definitely one of my favorite waffle mix creations (the bonus is that they freeze well for up to a week so you can easily make one batch on Sunday and call it a day!). 

I would also recommend these Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Waffles if that better suits you!

#3 – Whole Grain Banana Coffee Cake with Pecan Brown Sugar Streusel Topping

This was definitely more on the decadent side, but as I always say, there’s room for everything in your diet (obviously excluding any allergies or intolerances!).  I’m pretty sure we ate a slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream every night for a week.  It was the perfect treat! 

#4 – Whole Grain Banana Bread

Despite being whole grain this bread is moist and tender.  I packed a slice with peanut butter for an afternoon snack, topped it with yogurt and fresh fruit for breakfast and made french toast out of it as it began to stale towards the end for brunch.  The best thing about it by far is its versatility!  You can get tons of meals out of just this one loaf.

#5 – Black-Bottomed Banana Cake

It’s kind of hard to resist the chocolate/banana flavor combo!  To make this a little more nutritious you could use white whole wheat flour instead of the all-purpose that the recipe calls for.

#6 – Whole Grain Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

These were our faaaavorite muffins for a really long while (and actually thinking of these muffins was exactly what got me craving banana muffins in the first place!).  They’re portable, healthy and so, so, so moist.  Make a batch of them this weekend then you have them for the week!  Some of my favorite ways to eat them: with a dab of peanut butter for a snack and crumbled over some greek yogurt with fruit added in.

#7 – Gluten-Free Banana Bread Pancakes

I’ll be forever grateful for Tina for posting the original recipe that inspired these.  They’re super fluffy (which is crazy considering they’re gluten-free!) and can be made up in minutes!

Hopefully can these inspire some delicious, easy meals for your week to come 🙂

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