Whole Grain Cinnamon Streusel Banana Muffins

For the first post of this year, I've decided to share with you one of my favorite healthy muffin recipes:  Cinnamon streusel banana muffins.  It sounds really tricky and indulgent, but honestly, these muffins are pretty simple to whip up and are nourishing too.  Not your typical healthy muffin, I'll tell you that.
So for the banana muffins, I just use my original whole wheat banana muffin recipe; simple, sweet, and to the point.  Not dry at all.  By the way, the link to the muffins is below.  They've been adapted from allrecipes.com and the recipe was published by Lisa Kreft They're pretty much the same as the recipe I'll share with you today, except that for these streusel muffins I omit the dark chocolate chips.  I know.  I just said to leave out dark chocolate chips.  You can take me to jail if you want.  You could leave the chocolate chips in the batter though if you want, but personally, I'm not a fan of the cinnamon-chocolate combo.  (Sorry?)

I digress...  Anyways the real star of the show is the cinnamon streusel.  Honestly, I don't know where my mom found this streusel recipe, so if you can prove to me that it's yours, I'll give you proper credit for it.  I could go on and on about this streusel.  It's super simple to mix up and all it is is basic ingredients that you probably have at home.  If you don't have walnuts, pecans or almonds would probably also be delish.  However, I highly suggest that you use a pastry blender to whip up this streusel.  I've heard about running two knives together in opposite directions, but I don't think that works as well as the pastry blender.  Also, just for your reference, here's a pic of what the streusel should look like:

BTW, this streusel can be made a couple days in advance and kept stored in the fridge until ready to use.  When you eat this streusel, you will feel like you are sitting on a cloud in sugar n' spice heaven.  Truly.  Ok that was awkward....

Bottom line:  Make these amazing muffins today.  It will be an easy New Year's resolution to swallow.  I guarantee it.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

For the muffins...

• 11/2 cups whole wheat flour, sifted
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• 1 TBS. yogurt
• 1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups
3. In a large bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt
4. In a medium bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, melted butter, and yogurt.
5. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.
6. Fold in the chopped walnuts.
7. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups, then prep the streusel and sprinkle it evenly over the tops of the muffins.
8. Bake the muffins in preheated oven 18-20 min or until toothpick inserted int eh center of a muffin comes out clean.

Cinnamon Streusel

For the streusel...

• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 TBS. brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 TBS. cold butter

1. Combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and walnuts in a bowl.
2. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until crumbly.