Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

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This Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe is my go-to recipe for muffins. It seems we always have bananas leftover, so this is the perfect recipe to use up those over-ripe bananas. It wouldn’t be banana muffins without some chocolate chips in them (I do this for the kids…yeah right!) so use your favorite chocolate chip. I prefer Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips, but hey, anything chocolate will do.

Frozen bananas work perfectly in this recipe. I throw leftover, over-ripe bananas in the freezer and take them out when I plan to make these banana oatmeal chocolate chip muffins. They are already mushy and whisk in quickly to the batter – no one will know differently. This recipe uses a combination of rolled oatmeal, whole wheat flour, unbleached flour, and ground flax, adding some health benefits. You can add nuts or seeds to this recipe to make it a little heartier and to add some crunch for those texture lovers.

These banana muffins are best eaten straight from the oven. The warm chocolate chips make them a heavenly sweet start to you your morning. I always make a batch and freeze half of the muffins, then pull them out of the freezer as needed, making them the perfect breakfast on the go. I use a large muffin tin, but you can bake them in the regular-sized muffin tins for the perfect sized snack or lunch box treat.

Cooking tips
for Banana oatmeal chocolate chip muffins

• You can substitute the buttermilk for plain greek yogurt or whole milk with 1 tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice. You need the acid in this recipe to allow for the baking soda to activate.
• First, I mix my wet ingredients in my mixer.
• Mix your dry ingredients separately. Using a sifter, like pictured here, will help evenly combine your flour and baking soda, which will take out any clumps and make it easier to incorporate into your wet ingredients.
• Then slowly add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients mixing at low speed, but only until just incorporated. If you over-mix your batter, it will be chewy and rubbery.

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Banana Planatation –
St. Lucia

I never knew how bananas were grown until we vacationed in St. Lucia in January of 2020 (we got that vacation in just in time, lol!).  I can now appreciate the inexpensive cost of bananas after learning that they are quite labor-intensive.

Pictured here is a banana farmer tending to his banana plantation in St. Lucia. Each tree has one large flower bloom that the farmer has to cut from each tree. Removing the flower allows the tree to put its energy into producing bigger bananas, like the ones we see in the store. Then the farmer covers each cluster of bananas with a blue bag to prevent bruising, insect damage, and to help them ripen faster. Once a banana tree bears its fruit and is harvested, the tree then dies and can be cut down. You can see a baby banana tree just starting to grow to the right of the parent tree, which will grow into a mature banana tree and produce fruit in about 10-15 months. 

The next time you’re picking up a bunch of banana’s you’ll know you helped a farmer, albeit, not local, but a farmer just the same.

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