Namaste Real – Wellness & Running – Train With Ally

I have been baking up a storm lately and wanted to (finally!) share one of the many recipes I’ve been making with you.

I made the zucchini chocolate banana bread (the base of half of this recipe) earlier this week for my coworkers and they raved about it. You would think that adding zucchini would make the recipe taste weird or worse in some way, but it actually makes it so much better. I know people hate the word *moist* for whatever reason, but the zucchini made this bread the absolute perfect texture. It was also the perfect balance of sweet and chocolate-y, while still being full of nutrients!

You could make this part of the recipe on its own, but I wanted to step it up a notch. So I decided to mix it with something else and turn it into on-the-go friendly muffins! The banana bread portion is my tried and true recipe. So I knew these muffins would be an amazing balance of flavor, moist-ness, and overall deliciousness. And I was right 🙂

As with most of my recipes, these are grain-free, refined sugar free, and full of nutrients! I’ve been eating these as a pre-workout snack to fuel my runs, and the blend of nutrient-dense and easily digestible ingredients make it a great breakfast, or dessert, during training and racing season.

Even if you’re not a runner, you can never go wrong with chocolate banana bread, right?

Zucchini Chocolate Banana Swirl Muffins Recipe

Makes 20-24 muffins

Ingredients

For Banana Swirl:

• 3 bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup coconut butter
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup walnuts (optional)

For Chocolate Zucchini Swirl:

• 1 medium zucchini, shredded or blended
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup heaping almond butter (or nut butter of choice)
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Grate or blend zucchini (I just threw mine in my magic bullet rather than grating it! It took way less time and didn’t affect the recipe)
3. Put zucchini in a fine-mesh strainer and use a paper towel or clean kitchen towel to press down and squeeze as much moisture out as possible. Let sit and dry out further while you prep the rest of the ingredients
4. Mash 3 bananas with a fork in a large/medium bowl
5. Whisk 1 eggs and add to bowl
6. Add the rest of your ingredients banana bread to the bowl
7. Mix ingredients together, using a mixer or whisk, and combine well.
8. Mash 1 banana in another large bowl
9. Whisk the remaining eggs and add to the large bowl
10. Add the rest of the ingredients for zucchini chocolate bread to the bowl, adding the zucchini in last
11. Mix ingredients together, using a mixer or whisk, and combine well.
12. Add banana bread mix to the large bowl of zucchini chocolate and swirl together.*
13. Scoop batter into muffin tins
14. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes (or until cooked through)
15. Enjoy!

 

 

*Alternatively, you could scoop 1/2 batter from each bowl in to the muffin tins separately and then swirl each muffin tin. Or, you could blend all the ingredients together and not worry about the “marbling” effect on the muffins!