Banana Oatmeal Chia Seed Muffins

With no brown rice syrup on hand to make my go to energy bars for the week I opted to use some of the bananas that are slowly starting to take over my freezer. Like the Lemon Chia Seed Muffins, I used the Jean Pare Muffins and More cookbook as a starting point. You could doctor these up with nuts, chocolate chips, or raisins. I decided to keep it basic. Like the lemon chia seed muffins, I found that the batter is kind of elastic for lack of a better term and the muffins turn out almost chewy. I think this is a function of the chia seed getting a gelatinous coating around them when introduced to liquid. In addition to adding chia seeds, the other modifications I made were halving the sugar, substituting apple sauce for canola oil, and adding some cinnamon.

Lemon Chia Seed Muffins

Company's Coming .  My mom had practically the entire cookbook collection from Cookies to Casseroles.  I remember making recipes from those books when I was 10.  My specialty at that time were these no bake peanut butter balls (might have to re-visit those).  In the days before "googling" a recipe was an option, most of my muffin and cookie recipes came from these books.  On a nerdy note, the author, Jean Pare, is from Alberta.  Now, I don't know what channel I was watching while stretching post run in my basement but there was a circa late 80's documentary on about her and the rise of her cookbook empire.  It is actually a pretty interesting story that kept me stretching for a full 30 minutes (otherwise unheard of for me).