You all know I have a thing for hiding veggies in baked goods. Usually, my veggie of choice is zucchini, but today I’m mixing things up a bit! This recipe for Spinach Banana Muffins is healthy, delicious and easy! My kids love them because they’re green, (I call them Hulk muffins and my son thinks they’re the coolest things ever) and my husband devours them (because he has no idea what’s inside ????)!
These muffins are gluten-free, refined-sugar free and dairy-free! They taste like a green smoothie but in muffin form!
The best way to make these Spinach Banana Muffins is to use a high-powered blender, like the Vitamix! In the same way that the zucchini is absolutely undetectable in these muffins, using a Vitamix to thoroughly blend the ingredients in these Spinach Banana Muffins leaves you with a final product that has zero traces of spinach, well except for the awesome green color!
Parenting tangent: I used to stress about feeding my kids veggies. I so desperately wanted them to beg me for giant plates of stir-fry and get excited over skewers full of colorful grilled vegetable-goodness. This is why my husband is so wonderful (well, one of the many reasons). He helps me see reality…that even though our kids don’t go gaga over a bowl full of roasted brussels sprouts, the hard work has paid off and they really are great eaters. They just know that lunch and dinner always includes one fruit and one veggie. I ask them “what veggie do you want” (as opposed to, “do you want a vegetable?”) and they get to choose. It’s usually carrots or cucumbers (and always raw), but I am perfectly fine with that.
My goal is to teach my kids at a young age that healthy eating is important. I think they get the drift, and sometimes they even ask for a snack of carrots and hummus just because that’s what they’re craving! There is the occasion, when we’re out or at a friends’ house, when I give them a break from eating veggies, and they totally notice! A real conversation between my kids one night on vacation:
Gabe: “MOM! There is only pizza on my plate! No veggies?!”
Me: You’re right Gabe, you can have only pizza for dinner tonight. But I would be happy to get you some veggies if you’d like!
Gabe: No! I want to only eat pizza! BETHANY! We get to only eat pizza and no veggies!
LOL LOL! I love my kids! And I love that less-than nutritious eating is considered a special treat and not the norm for them! Plus, on days when I know we’re having a “pizza only” type of dinner, I can feed them Spinach Banana Muffins for breakfast! They get a healthy serving of fruits and veggies without even noticing! Zero stress! Total deliciousness! Complete win!
As you know I am all about easy, freezer-friendly meals, especially for breakfast! These muffins bake up exceptionally well and freeze beautifully!
Spinach Banana Muffins: Method
To make these muffins…start by tossing the oats into your clean, dry Vitamix and turn them into oat flour! Transfer the flour to a medium mixing bowl and whisk together the rest of the dry ingredients.
Next, blend up the wet ingredients. An important tip…whenever you blend anything in the Vitamix, always be sure to add the liquid first! In this recipe, start by adding the almond milk followed by the spinach. Blend until smooth and toss in the rest of the wet ingredients. This ensures that the spinach is evenly and thoroughly blended!
Spinach Banana Muffins: Substitutions
These are extremely forgiving muffins and there are many acceptable substitutions (although I always recommend making the recipe exactly as written to achieve the best results)! Even at high altitude (I bake at 4800 ft. above sea level) they rise beautifully and have a wonderful texture! Some notes about substitutions:
Ground Flaxseed: You may substitute equal amounts of almond meal or old-fashioned oats (ground into flour) for the flaxseed.
Coconut Sugar: You may use any granulated sugar of your choice! I do not use sweeteners, but if you wanted to experiment with stevia (or a similar product) I recommend using a variety that is meant to be a 1:1 substitute for granulated sugar.
Almond milk: you may use any non-dairy milk to keep the recipe dairy free. Or you may use regular milk!
Coconut Oil: You may substitute vegan butter (like Earth Balance), regular butter, or ghee!
Eggs: For vegan version substitute the 2 eggs with 2 TBS ground chia seeds and 5 TBS water.
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- ¼ cup ground flaxseed
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ cup coconut sugar (or your favorite granulated sugar)
- ½ cup almond milk
- 2 cups packed spinach leaves
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 2 extra-ripe large bananas
- 2 eggs**
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease or line a muffin tin.
- Put 2 cups of old-fashioned oats in your blender ([Vitamix|http://vitamixtrack.com/click.track?CID=292558&AFID=417333&ADID=1450715&SID=&NonEncodedURL=
- ]) and blend until the oats achieve the texture of flour. Transfer to a medium mixing bowl.
- Add the rest of the dry ingredients to the oat flour (ground flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar). Set aside.
- Add almond milk to the blender followed by 2 cups of spinach. Blend together until completely smooth and homogenous.
- Add bananas and coconut oil and blend until smooth.
- Add vanilla and eggs and blend until just combined
- Pour wet ingredients to dry mixture and stir to combine (making sure there are no lumps)!
- Fill each well in your muffin tin with ¼ cup of batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and the top springs back when touched.
Notes
**for vegan version substitute 2 eggs with 2 TBS ground chia seeds and 5 TBS water.
These Spinach Banana Muffins are another healthy-eating staple in my house. Sometimes I get crazy and add chocolate chips (or cinnamon chips)! Serve them slathered with a healthy amount of almond butter and you have yourself the perfect breakfast!
What is your favorite healthy breakfast? What’s your favorite sneaky veggie recipe?
If you make something from JoyFoodSunshine I would love to see your creations! #joyfoodsunshine
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What a delicious way to get some extra greens in! 🙂
Thank you Ilka! Anything to eat more veggies! 🙂
such a great way to get kiddos to eat veggies! your so slick 😉 pinned!
Mommas gonna do what a mommas gotta do.
Hi laura
Can I use all Almond flour instead of oat flour and flaxseed?
These are so green! I would 100% freak my family out if I made these. They just can’t jump on the healthy food train quite yet (I’m working on them!)
On the other hand, I love sneaking veges into things 😛
Thank you Megan! LOL! There’s still hope for them…my hubby was all meat and potatoes (and cheese whiz) when we met. While he still loves those things he enjoys healthier fare too! 😉 HE even suggested we try eating vegan for two weeks a few years ago! LOL!
These are awesome! They look fabulous and I love all of the wonderful ingredients you packed in here!
Sonali- The Foodie Physician recently posted…Dining with the Doc: Strawberry Jalapeño Salsa
Thank you Sonali! Hiding veggies in things is so fun! 🙂
Love this! I’m always looking for ways to sneak in more veggies!
Thank you Carly! I agree! I see it as a super fun challenge to try to put veggies in as many different foods as possible…without them being detectable! 😉
Now this is a nifty little way to get those greens in! You are clever, mama!
Kristy from Southern In Law recently posted…Recipe: The Best Vegan Brownies (Gluten Free!)
LOL Kristy! Thank you! 😉 #veggieninja
I really love this, and how you’ve learned to be so flexible. I think I’m learning to be more flexible too about making things that people really will love to eat. Incorporating spinach into muffins is a really good idea. I need to try it! 🙂
Emily, it wasn’t (and sometimes still isn’t) easy! I’m SO grateful I have a husband who (quite honestly) couldn’t care less about food! Really sometimes I marvel at him because he pretty much never has an opinion about what we eat! I love choosing my meals and look forward to every one, while he just sees eating as the next thing on his to-do list! Plus he reminds me over and over that food is NOT a battle we’re willing to fight with our kids! There will be many other things more important that we will hold our ground on, but just let them eat a carrot and move on! LOL! He balances me out extremely well! 😉 And even though food is a total afterthought for him, he always expresses sincere gratitude for the meals I make! God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave me Ritch! 😉
Just made these muffins! Delicious!
YAY! Maria I’m so SO glad you like them! 🙂 <3
Did you use a wet and a dry blade to make these? All I have is the wet blade that came with the mixer. Thanks!
Hey Nadine! I use the wet blade that came with the mixer to make these muffins! 🙂 So you’re good to go!
I’ve never thought about adding spinach to my muffins – such an awesome way to sneak more greens into my diet!
Ellie | Hungry by Nature recently posted…Tzatziki Sauce with Lemon and Garlic
Sneaky sneaky veggies are always a good idea! 🙂 <3
What a great way to give these muffins a boost! Looks delicious!
I’m always looking for ways to sneak veggies into foods my kids love! 🙂 <3
Mmmm, I love this idea! So unique and fun with the color, and from knowing you can’t taste it in smoothies, I know it’s probably similar here too! I’ll have to try sometime!
Hey Sarah! You’re totally right! There’s not even a hint of spinach taste in these muffins! 🙂
These look great. Can you use honey instead of granulated sugar?
Hey Ali! I haven’t tried it but I think that it would totally work. You might need to decrease the other wet ingredients (like almond milk) but they should turn out great! They are very forgiving muffins! 🙂
Thanks. The honey worked out fine. I used a little less than 1/2 cup and still used 1/2 almond milk. Do they freeze well?
Hey Ali! I’m SO glad the honey worked well for you!! YAY! Yes! I always freeze them!! I just pop them into the microwave for about 30 seconds/muffin to reheat!
What a great muffin, we will love this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday today. Have a great day and come back soon!
Miz Helen
The Hulk Muffins are in the oven right now and smell so amazingly delicious!!
I think they also will taste amazing, due to I nibbled the batter before which was great 😉
Thanks for such a healthy and easy recipe!
Sorry for any spelling mistakes…and best regards from Berlin, Germany 🙂
Soooo…, tried and approved!
They didn’t just smell amazing, they also taste anazing. Just a bit to sweet for me 🙂
Next time I’ll try them without sugar, due to the bananas might be sweet enough!
Hey Anni!! I’m so glad you like them! You absolutely can decrease the sugar (or omit entirely)! My kids are sweet monsters so they love the added sweetness! But if your bananas are ripe enough then they impart so much sweetness on their own! Have an amazing day!
Yay Anni!! I’m so glad you’re giving them a go! Isn’t it amazing the power in a name?! If I called them spinach muffins my son wouldn’t touch them with a 3 foot pole! But Hulk muffins…now that’s another story! 😉
Baking these now, already used the hulk technique while my kids helped me bake them . They can’t wait to see how incredible these will make them hehee
Hi! These sound amazing…thank you! Unfortunately I am allergic to oats – do you have any suggestions for any substitutions that might work? Should I try gluten free flour?
Hey Emmy! Gluten-free flour could definitely work, although I haven’t tried it! If you do give it a whirl let me know how it turns out!
Love these muffins! Second time making them today. The first time I followed the directions and then froze the leftovers. Today I added blueberries and used honey instead of coconut sugar because I was out. Fingers crossed that they turn out! Thanks for the recipe!
These were great! My son has an egg allergy so I did the chia egg from the note in the recipe. Instead of sugar I used 5 dates and instead of the coconut oil I used plain yogurt. Mine only made 12 muffins with just a little leftover batter which I made a couple mini pancakes with. They were yum!
I’m SO glad you enjoyed them Reena! And I love all your substitutions that made them perfect for you and your family! YUM!
I just baked these muffins, and I am so excited about them. They are delicious, and were a complete breeze to make with a nutribullet. Thank you for this awesome recipe, I am super thrilled I found your blog through Pinterest! <3 <3
PS: I substituted ground chia for the flaxseed, and I was out of coconut oil, so canola still did the trick.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them and your substitutions worked well!! YAY!
How come mine didnt rise like yours. ? I used food processor could that have made a difference? Can i use ninja blender instead of vitamix?
Hey Natalie! Using a food processor would definitely make the batter a touch heavier because the spinach wouldn’t be completely liquified, which could cause the muffins not to rise as much. Also something as simple as expired or close to it baking soda or baking powder could cause that problem as well! Did you make any substitutions?
H Natalie I just used my ninja to make these and they turned out great!:)
Hi laura 🙂 Wondering if I can substitute all the oat flour w Almond flour? Thanks
Hey Sarvy! I would not recommend substituting all the oat flour with almond flour, as oat flour is lighter and more closely resembles regular flour than almond flour does. What are your specific dietary needs? If you avoid oats you could potentially try using 1 1/2 cups almond flour and 1/2 cup tapioca flour in place of the oat flour, however I have not tried this and therefore cannot guarantee it will work super well. You could use an all-purpose gluten-free flour in place of the oat flour.
I gave these to my sister, who usually hates alternative desserts, and she asked me to make them again! About ready to pop’em out of the oven!