Hello, hello. Welcome to Muffin Monday. It’s been awhile, but I’m back with an outrageously delicious new recipe ready to power you through the week. But first, how was your weekend?
Tony and I watched the Chicago Air & Water show from our rooftop, cleaned our house (necessary and a little therapeutic), went to a BBQ with some friends, ate donuts and walked at least 12,000 steps each day. Oh and of course, watched a little Game of Thrones. Sunday traditions are my favorite. What are yours?
Now that we’re onto a new week, I want to chat about why YOU need to make these muffins. JUST LOOK AT HOW GLORIOUS THEY ARE.
Coach’s Oats: The difference
I’m so exciting to be partnering with my friends at Coach’s Oats today. Their oatmeal has been a staple in my life since I first discovered with while living in California back in 2012.
Coach’s Oats aren’t just regular oats. They were invented by a real gymnastics coach who wanted an oatmeal that wasn’t soggy or pasty, so he experimented with whole grain oats (aka groats) and started to toast, grind and cook his own oatmeal. Finally they invented a delicious and unique oatmeal unlike any other (it’s even patented).
Coach’s Oats are prepared by toasting the groats to bring out the natural sugars to the surface of the oat, then cracked into small pieces. This patented Cracked n’ Toasted™ process means that Coach’s Oats are never mushy, always naturally delicious and cook in just 3 to 5 minutes on a stove top or in the microwave. You can read more about the difference in their oats right here.
When I first thought of creating a healthy power muffin, I wanted it to have ingredients that would energize you before a workout, or give you a boost during that 3pm slump.
So I created a unique blend of ingredients to create a fluffy muffin packed with whole grains, protein, and satisfying flavors of banana chocolate chip.
Let’s talk about the key ingredients in this recipe:
Bananas: Make sure you use EXTRA ripe bananas in this recipe (you know the bananas with brown spots all over them). Using ripe bananas helps to sweeten the muffins, since there’s no added sugar in this recipe.
Vanilla Greek Yogurt: I used vanilla because it helps add flavor to the muffins. I recommend sticking with this. I love using Greek yogurt for an extra boost of protein!
Coach’s Oats: We chatted about these above, but they’re ridiculously delicious and I love the texture these give the muffins. Coach’s Oats help to add over 12g protein and 8g fiber to this entire recipe.
Flaxseed meal: These are just ground flaxseeds and contain a good amount of fiber, protein and omega 3. They are available at most grocery stores!
Whole wheat pastry flour: This is one of my favorite flours to bake with! It’s not regular whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is milled from soft white wheat. I often use the kind from Bob’s Red Mill.
Chocolate Chips: A few dark chocolate chips never hurt anyone. They really help to sweeten the muffins and keep them kid approved. If you want to use a less sweet chocolate, chop up a 3.5oz dark chocolate bar and use that (often times they have less sugar than chocolate chips).
Walnuts or pecans: I LOVE using nuts in this recipe because you get a good dose of healthy fats for brain power. If you are allergic to nuts, you can simply leave them out of the recipe.
JUST LOOK at these muffins. You need them in your life. Preferably with a healthy dose of your favorite nut butter spread on top. SWOON.
More healthy muffin recipes you’ll love:
Skinny Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Grandma’s Healthy Bran Muffins
Chai-Spiced Healthy Apple Oatmeal Muffins
The Best Healthy Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins (gluten free!)
Flax Almond Meal Banana Muffins with Dark Chocolate (gluten free, paleo!)
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Power Flax Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup nonfat plain vanilla Greek yogurt
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 3 ripe extra bananas, mashed
- 2 tablespoons olive or avocado oil (can also use melted coconut oil or melted butter)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup Coach’s Oats 100% whole grain oatmeal
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup flaxseed meal
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners and spray the inside of the liners with nonstick cooking spray. This is important to do so that the muffins do not stick to the liners. I would recommend using liners, as they can be difficult to get out of the tin since they are larger muffins.
- In a large bowl or blender, mix together the Greek yogurt, almond milk, mashed banana, oil, egg and vanilla until smooth and well combined. Transfer to a large bowl, and stir in Coach’s Oats. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes to soften the oats.
- After 5 minutes, add in the whole wheat pastry flour, flaxseed meal, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and chopped nuts.
- Divide batter evenly between the liners. Bake for 7 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce heat in oven to 350 degrees (do not open the door!) and bake for 13-16 minutes more or until tester comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in pan before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
This recipe is in partnership with Coach’s Oats, a brand I trust. Thanks for supporting AK and the brands that help make this site possible!
97 comments
These muffs look legit.
SO legit.
Can’t find coach’s oats, can I use regular oatmeal?
The texture may change a bit, but you could certainly try! Otherwise grab their oats here 🙂
Should the oatmeal be cooked?
Nope! Just add it as a dry ingredient.
If we don’t eat dairy, can we use coconut yogurt?
Hi Sherri – you bet!
Made these last night – my kiddos and I LOVED them. I made them with steel cut oats and was nervous they would be crunchy, but they weren’t. They’re delicious!
Perfect!!
I have a dairy free kid. Do you think I could substitute SO delicious vanilla yogurt for the vanilla Greek yogurt?
Yes, definitely!
Ohhh my. Breakfast perfection at it’s finest.
So good!!
My daughter has to be dairy free….any ideas on what to sub for the yogurt?
You can use any dairy-free yogurt! Coconut yogurt, soy, etc. I know Silk, Kite Hill, and SO Delicious make some.
Can I substitute apple sauce for banana? If so approx how much apple sauce?
I haven’t tried it but you should be able to use about 1/2 cup applesauce!
You had me at “chocolate chip”! These are mesmerizing!! Every bread-related recipe of yours has worked above and beyond for me, so I cannot wait to try these! 🙂
My mom is allergic to almonds. Could I sub the almond milk for coconut milk or vanilla soy rice milk?
Thanks!
Excited to try these. My son loves morning muffins! And so do I!
Hi Sara! You bet – those different milk options should work just fine. Enjoy!
Can you substitute gf flour in this recipe where it’s a 1-1 ratio?
Hi Sherry! You can try using oat flour and it will be a 1-1 ratio.
These muffins are killer. Yum.
Glad you enjoyed them!
Hi Monique, First of all I would like to congratulate you on your great website. I have been following your recipes for quite sometime now and have cooked many beautiful recipes which my husband and I love. I made these muffins today, and although they are delicious I felt they were a little too dense in texture. I had trouble locating whole wheat pastry flour in Australia, so substituted whole meal self raising flour, hence the density of these muffins. I would like to know if you could advise me of what type of flour I should substitute for the whole wheat pastry flour please? Thanks again
Hi Robyn! Thanks so much for reading along. Oat flour and white whole wheat flour works well in here, too!
Is it bad that I’ve actually grown to love Game of Thrones? I really despise the sexism behind it, but I can’t help but love the female empowerment in many of the characters! Anyhow, these muffins look so delicious! Could I replace the yogurt with a dairy-free yogurt and the egg for a flax egg?
Yes those should work just fine!
I make a lot of these type of breakfast muffins using just Old Fashioned oats. The recipes are on my website. These look real good too!
These ones are great! I hope you get a chance to try them!
Hi! Could you replace the banana with pumpkin? If so, would that alter the sugar content?
Thanks!!
Sarah
Hi Sarah! I haven’t tried it, but I would imagine that the muffins would be less sweet.
Hi! I am eager to try this recipe but I have no idea which cup to use for measuring all the ingredients. what is the size of cup you used to measure the igredient like when you said 1 cup of flour, for example. I am new to baking 🙂
Hi Samantha! Measuring cups are perfect for cooking & baking – if you get standard baking equipment (measuring cups, spoons, etc.) they’ll be labeled with the appropriate measurements.Try a set like this!
I have everything BUT the flaxmeal. What could I use in place of it or ca I leave out? Sound really yummy!
I’ve only made the recipe as-is, but you could try using almond meal!
Hi Monique, I use your recipes ALL the time and they are all so delicious! Recently I’ve decided to go vegan though and I’m not sure what to substitute for the egg. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Mara! In most of my baking recipes you can use a flax egg 🙂 Check out my vegan egg substitutes here!
Great recipe! I used 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, 1/2 oat flour, and 1/4 of almond flour. I also used 3/4 cup of extra Thick Oats instead of ¾ cup Coach’s Oats 100% whole grain oatmeal and I added a 1/4 cup of oat fiber. I also used unsweetened greek yogurt and I did not need to add any sugar to the recipe..
The muffins were very moist and sweetend only with bananas.
I’m glad those swaps worked out for you! Enjoy!
Delicious! They were perfect with natural peanut butter. Excited to add it to my breakfast muffin rotation!
Amazing! So glad you enjoyed 🙂
I would love to receive new posts!
I’ll get you signed up for our emails, Marcella!
Just made a second batch of these and they are amazing! Since they already have oats and flax I added brewer’s yeast to make them “lactation muffins,” and they have made a noticeable difference in my milk supply. Definitely a great recipe for nursing mamas to make and freeze for busy days! Thank you!
Amazing! What a great idea to add brewer’s yeast. So happy to hear that they’re helping with milk supply – perfect for nursing mamas!
I did the same as this woman! Instead of 1/2 cup flax, I did 1/4 flax and 1/4 brew yeast and found it to be perfect! You make all of your recipes easily adjustable, thank you!
Amazing! Glad that worked out well 🙂
I’m making these for the third time now. They are phenomenal! I took them on a camping trip and they were the perfect snack to take on the go, or as breakfast for a lazy morning. I use 4 bananas and leave them a little bit chunky. The nuggets of banana in the finished muffins really come through, and the chocolate chips make them feel decadent.
So happy to hear that! These are great on-the-go (and sound like the perfect camping snack). Glad you found this recipe!
I only have white all purpose flour. Do you think that would be ok to use? I want to make these now but don’t want to run out to the store.
Yes, but just don’t forget the oats!
Perfect wholesome muffin for breakfast or a snack.
I just made these muffins (only additions to your recipe: pecans, currants, and a few tablespoons of brown sugar) and they are absolutely delicious! Moist but still fluffy. I’ve tried a number of recipes for healthy muffins that all turned out like doorstops, so I’m thrilled with them. Thank you, will be bookmarking to make again!
Love those additions – yum! Glad you enjoyed!
These are exactly what I was looking for!!! Low sugar with protein & fiber! Perfect, thank you! When needing a week to eat a batch, should they be refrigerated after or left out room temp?
So glad you found these! Such a great breakfast/snack. Feel free to leave these sealed at room temp for a couple of days and then transfer them to the fridge or freezer 🙂
Wonderful recipe!! Will definitely make them again. Love the flax included too.
Absolutely! Glad you loved these!
These are absolutely delicious! Especially with higher fat Greek yogurt. They’re also massive, which is just how I like my muffins!
Absolutely! Love jumbo muffins 🙂 glad you enjoyed!
I just made these today! I substituted the flour for almond flour and I didn’t have the specific type of oats you did so I used regular oatmeal. It came out great but needed a few more minutes in the oven. I gave it about 5 more minutes! Thanks for posting I love your page!
I’m glad that worked out well! Such a great breakfast or snack 🙂
yummy muffins! I used whole wheat regular flour and I didn’t have vanilla yogurt so I just used plain with 2 tbs of maple syrup and a little more vanilla extract and they were perfect! Thanks for sharing, will be making again.
I’m glad that worked out well! Such a great snack or breakfast 🙂
I have used this as a base recipe the last 3x I’ve made banana bread and it came out great!! I have used plain yogurt, old fashioned oats, and reg whole wheat flour each time with success. First tried about 1/4 cup brown sugar, next time about a tsp maple sugar and a few tbsp sugar in the raw, this time extra banana, about a tsp maple sugar and 1/4 carbonated water instead of egg, and coconut milk instead of almond milk (needed a little more baking time.) All came out delish!
So glad they all worked! Perfect snack or breakfast 🙂
So easy, and even more delicious!! The perfect breakfast or quick snack, and I love sneaking in those great omega-3s with the flax. We didn’t have vanilla yogurt, so I mixed a couple tsp of honey and a touch of vanilla extract into the yogurt to sweeten. They’re perfect! Thank you!
Absolutely! Such a great breakfast or snack 🙂
I’ve loved every single one of Monique’s muffin recipes, but this is the one I make over and over and over again because they’re DELICIOUS. They also freeze really well, which is nice for a quick breakfast or snack.
So happy to hear that!
my FAVOURITE muffin recipe!
I’ve shared the recipe (and the muffins) with many friends and it’s always a hit. Thank you!
Delicious!!! The banana and chocolate chips add just the right amount of sweetness. I didn’t have whole wheat flour so used regular flour and they turned out great. Love all your recipes!
These are seriously The Best muffin our family has ever had. My 7 year old calls them “our famous muffins” when he requests that I bring them on co-op days. I absolutely adore that they’re healthy AND taste like I’m “cheating”.
Omg LOVE THAT! I’m so happy you guys both love these!
I make these muffins every few weeks and store them in the freezer. They are so tasty and sweet, but also a nourishing snack or breakfast.
Do you think I could use more milk instead of Greek yogurt? I don’t have yogurt on hand and trying to use what I have.
Unfortunately I think that would be too thin/liquidy, sorry!
Hi! I am surprised how incredibly delicious these turned out! I used oat bran instead of the oatmeal, but will look for Coach’s oatmeal next time I’m at the store! Do you know the approximate calorie count for one muffin?
I’m so glad! The nutrition facts are at the bottom of the recipe — just scroll down!
I have been making these muffins a couple of times a month for, like, six months now! My partner and I love them, they’re healthy with enough chocolate and the perfect protein-packed way to start the morning. Thank you for this recipe!
Great recipe that isn’t too sweet on its own. I used Oikos Triple Zero Vanilla Greek yogurt. I also used half whole wheat/half AP flour because I didn’t have the wheat pastry flour. I added two cups of shredded and squeezed out zucchini and a TBSP of chia seeds to absorb some of the extra water. I added about 1/2 TBSP honey. Didn’t use any nuts. Made mini muffins and did 4 minutes at 400, 12 at 350. It turned out great!
I’m so glad they turned out great with those modifications! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
I would like to make these for my kids to get some omega 3 into them. Can I grind regular old fashioned oats into oat flour and then add to them in place of Coach’s oats?
Been making these for a few years now and they are truly one of the BEST HEALTHY MUFFINS EVER!!! Not sure why I can’t add the fifth star on the rating but they are TEN STARS in our family!!
What can be used to sub the yogurt for those of us who ran out?? Thx!!! Love all your recipes!!
YUM! I am SO glad you are loving these muffins, Susie. Unfortunately, I am not sure there is a good sub for the yogurt that you could use without altering the texture and end result of the muffins!
The recipe is 3 mashed bananas. Are the bananas medium or large. Is it the same as 1 cup of mashed bananas.
Medium bananas will work best for this recipe! Enjoy!
These were great! Kids loved them. I used Pamlea’s, All Purpose GF flour as a 1:1 and Oat Milk instead of Almond. I used Bobs Red Mill GF rolled Oats. I also did not use muffin pan liners because I did not have them, but instead buttered the muffin pan. I filled the muffin tins very full and they baked just fine:)
Perfect! Glad those swaps worked out well!
Great muffins for on the go, although I only had white flour a bit heavier but passed the hubby test 😀 😋
I’m glad they still worked out well!
Made these following recipe exactly, except for greek yogurt- only had plain on hand so added 1 tsp. vanilla extract and they were perfectly sweet! Not overly sweet that made you think you were having cake for breakfast, but just the right amount of sweetness and flavor. Rave reviews from my family!
Perfect! So happy they were a hit!
Great! I did add a quarter cup of sugar because my bananas were not super ripe (and used plain yogurt) and used half whole wheat, half all purpose flour. Perfect, not too sweet, healthy morning muffin!
The best breakfast!