My first morning on our Tahoe family vacation last week, my eyelids groggily peeled open as my alarm sang out its annoying tune right next to my ear shortly after the sun peeked out over the trees. I padded downstairs to find my parents huddled around their laptop on the smaller sofa, whispering to each other to avoid waking me. I curled up sleepily on the larger couch and eventually asked, “What hike are we going to do today?”
As a little kid, I grew up visiting campgrounds in both Yosemite and Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay once a summer. We’d string up the poles to pitch our tent, swim in the nearby icy cold lakes and streams, and toast marshmallows over a crackling fire for s’mores every night.
But the highlights during the day were always the wide assortment of dusty mountain trails we climbed through and hiked. Although the rest of our family stopped camping each summer sometime while I was in high school, my dad continued with his buddies, and because they now backpack twice a year, he knows most of the day-trip trails and always comes 200% prepared.
While I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, he and Mom decided on the Five Lakes Trail. It left out of Alpine Meadows, fairly close to the ski lifts, so after a brief breakfast and short drive over, we slathered on sunscreen, slid on sunglasses, and started the 1000-foot climb up the hot dusty rocks.
We spotted the first lake barely an hour after locking the car, despite multiple shady water breaks. With the mosquitoes out in full force, we spritzed on plenty of bug spray before continuing, pushing our way through barely marked “trails” in the underbrush to pass by the second lake.
We stopped for a few minutes at the third, awed by the breathtaking view, then snapped a few pictures at the fourth before finally resting at the fifth lake. Dad pulled out bags of peanuts and honey mustard pretzels to snack on while Mom recalled last summer, when she and Dad hiked the same trail but got hopelessly lost somewhere after the first lake (which is why Dad bought a new GPS this year!).
Eventually, we rallied and started back down the steep mountainside, reaching the bottom less than three hours after we began, with our shoes and the backs of our legs covered in a thick layer of dirt. We drove home to shower, and Mom offered to pop over to the grocery store for deli meat to throw together our own healthy sandwiches at the cabin.
She returned with multiple bags, and we unpacked whole grain bread, pickles, pepperoncinis, spinach, and Dijon mustard, along with the sliced ham and turkey. Out of the last bag, Mom pulled out a huge carton of fresh strawberries, mentioning, “They looked too good!” So we all grabbed six or eight of the oversized berries to eat alongside our sandwiches.
As the freshest, sweetest, and juiciest I’ve tasted yet this summer, I snuck just as many to snack on while I drove home a few hours later!
When I eased off the freeway, I stopped by the grocery store before heading back to my house. I needed to pick up my own strawberries—I was still hungry for more after how perfect those tasted! After powering through over half of the carton, I decided to bake something with the rest…
…so I created these Healthy Strawberry Banana Muffins! Practically bursting with the sweet taste of summer, these skinny breakfast treats are moist and flavorful—nothing like the normal bland cardboard taste you’d expect from whole wheat baked goods. Plus they come together in mere minutes, so you can easily have a healthy breakfast on the table by the time everyone else in the house rolls out of bed!
HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY STRAWBERRY BANANA MUFFINS
Let’s go over how to make the best healthy strawberry banana muffins! Like many of my other muffin recipes, this one is really straightforward and made with only wholesome, clean eating ingredients. That’s right: they contain NO butter, refined flour or refined sugar!
With only a tablespoon of coconut oil, most of the fluffy and super moist texture in these strawberry banana muffins comes from mashed banana and Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is my favorite ingredient in healthier baking; it adds all of the moisture of oil while keeping these strawberry banana muffins low fat and and low calorie. Plus it sneaks in a little extra protein boost too!
Tip: Do NOT use purely yellow bananas. Try to choose the ripest, spottiest banana you can find. The darker the skin, the more natural sweetness in the fruit. The ones that are almost entirely brown or black are perfect. They have a stronger and sweeter banana flavor, and they make your muffins more tender too!
I only added 2 tablespoons of honey to this muffin batter. Between the mashed banana and juicy diced strawberries, there was already plenty of natural sweetness!
As soon as the timer buzzed, I nearly burned my fingertips breaking into one hot out of the oven. Moist and tender, with the bright taste of summer, it took lots of willpower not to devour three more!
If you and your loved ones manage to leave a few on the cooling racks, pop them in a zip-topped bag and store them in the fridge. They taste just as satisfying chilled, but you can also stick them in the microwave for a few seconds to warm them back up. Or try what my mom always does: slice one in half, lay a small pat of butter on each side, and put the halves in the toaster oven until the butter melts and seeps into the cracks.
Pure sweet and buttery bliss!
So take advantage of summer’s sweet berries and bake these Healthy Strawberry Banana Muffins! They’re the perfect lazy weekend breakfast or healthy mid-morning office snack. Yes, skip those bakery muffins in the break room—you won’t miss the fat or calories in these healthier ones!
And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 🙂 ) I’d love to see your healthy strawberry banana muffins!
Healthy Strawberry Banana Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (150g) whole wheat flour or gluten-free flour* (measured like this)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp (14g) coconut oil or unsalted butter (melted and cooled slightly)
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (130g) mashed banana (about 1 medium — see Notes!)
- 2 tbsp (30mL) honey
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- ¾ cup (105g) whole strawberries, diced (about 10-11 medium — see Notes!)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F, and lightly coat 8 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil or butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the mashed banana, honey, and yogurt, mixing thoroughly until no large lumps of yogurt remain. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in the strawberries.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups. Baked at 325°F for 22-24 minutes, or until barely firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Notes
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
I made these muffins yesterday during a major snowstorm….we ended up with just over two feet of snow. I had just gotten a delivery from my local CSA with frozen strawberries and wanted to make something yummy with them. This was the perfect recipe! My children and I loved them and I will without a doubt make them again and try your other recipes. Thank you for all of your hard work!
I’m so glad you and your children loved these muffins Ellen! That means SO much to me that you plan on making them again and want to try more of my recipes. I’m truly honored! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what else you try! And stay warm!!
Good morning! I have all my ingredients set aside, however, I have a question about the flour. Is white whole wheat fine with this recipe? I have 100% stone ground whole wheat–can this also be used?
Thank you.
Hello. I didn’t realize the time zone. I decided on the white whole wheat. Took them out of the oven and the aroma wonderful! Letting them cool off now. Thought to myself, if they taste as good as they look and smell, I will sprinkle a wee bit of sparkling sugar on them before baking. Thank you for sharing this fine recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these muffins Vida! Different time zones can be a bit difficult at times… 😉 But I’m so glad you figured out that both regular whole wheat flour and white whole wheat flour both work! I love your idea of sprinkling their tops with sparkling sugar. That must have been such an amazing extra little touch — I need to remember that! 🙂
I was not happy with this recipe. Idk how there are so many good reviews. They came out tasting very bland and the consistency of the batter is like dough.
It means a lot that you tried my recipe, Patty! That sounds disappointing and not like how these muffins are supposed to turn out, so I’d love to work with you to figure out what happened. In order to do so, I have some questions for you! 🙂
Did you make any substitutions or modifications to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section?
Did you use a kitchen scale or measuring cups/spoons to measure all of the ingredients — especially the flour, mashed banana, and honey?
If you used the latter, can you describe how you used them to measure the flour?
Did you use whole wheat flour or the gluten-free blend that I provided in the Notes section?
How ripe were your bananas? Were they mostly black, or were they mainly yellow?
And just to double check… You measured the mashed banana and didn’t just use “1 medium banana,” correct? (It’s happened before, so I just like to confirm!)
Did you use fresh or frozen strawberries?
Can you describe the texture of your fully baked muffins? Were they soft, moist, crumbly, etc?
I know I just asked a LOT of questions, but I’ll have a much better idea of the culprit (and how to fix it!) once I know your answers to all of them!
Hi! I’m just wondering if I can make this recipe into a loaf of bread, because I don’t have enough bananas to make the strawberry banana loaf. If I can, can I get the times for baking and baking pan size? Thank you!
We really appreciate your interest in making one of our recipes, Naomi! This muffin recipe won’t give you enough batter for a decent sized loaf, so we wouldn’t recommend that. If you really want a loaf instead of muffins, you can use the recipe for the Strawberry Banana Bread that you mentioned! You can adapt it by using ½ cup of mashed banana and ½ cup of Greek yogurt – just keep in mind that the banana flavor will be a noticeably fainter and muted with that modification. The baking times and temperature will remain the same though!
We’d love to hear what you think if you decide to make either these muffins or the loaf! 🙂
Can you use applesauce instead of egg?
My cousin is allergic to eggs dairy and corn and oats and gluten free
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Mary! You’re so thoughtful to make homemade muffins for your cousin that suit their dietary needs. They’re really lucky to have you!
I haven’t tried substituting applesauce for the egg in this particular recipe, so I’m not personally sure how that would turn out. However, I have used Ener-G, and it works beautifully! I also have a family member who’s allergic to eggs, and Ener-G is my favorite egg replacer. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s a shelf-stable powder that keeps for ages. It works perfectly as an egg replacer in nearly all of my recipes! For my recipes, you’ll need 1 ½ teaspoons Ener-G + 2 tablespoons warm water for each egg white, and you’ll need an additional ½ tablespoon of butter or coconut oil {or stick-style vegan butter, if you’re vegan!} for each egg yolk.
If your cousin is also allergic to dairy, then I’d recommend substituting dairy-free yogurt for the Greek yogurt (such as soy-based yogurt or almond-based yogurt). It’ll yield the best texture! If there aren’t any dairy-free yogurts that your cousin can tolerate, then you can replace the Greek yogurt with additional mashed banana, but your muffins will turn out denser.
My gluten-free option in the Notes section of the recipe doesn’t include corn or oats, so I think your cousin should be able to consume that blend!
I’d love to hear what you and your cousin think of these muffins! 🙂
I like the fact that you used weight measurements in your recipe! It takes the guess work out of measuring as some measuring tools differ in measurements. I have strawberries growing in my backyard and will be trying this recipe soon!
Homegrown strawberries sound incredible, Maria! I wish I had your green thumb. I love measuring by weight as well; it makes baking easier and minimizes the number of dishes, which feels like a win-win situation to me!
I’m excited to hear what you think of these muffins, so I hope your strawberries ripen quickly! 😉