making lately: chocolate banana power muffins

I have loved my years-long series of trying to make/do/wear something inspired by one of my many saved images on a Pinterest board, but since I use Pinterest a bit less these days, I think I'm going to expand it into a general "making" series, wherever that inspiration might come from. This week? The need for an exciting after school snack (doing what we could to make the nervous part of Hendrik join the excited part of him leading in to the first day of school), combined with a recipe on the side of the Kodiak Cakes mix in our pantry.

So here we have the perfect snack for a tired kid who has been using his brain all day - something chocolatey to get a smile on his face, but totally still healthy and with some good protein thanks to the Kodiak Cakes mix to rejuvenate his energies. The recipe is basically banana muffins, subbing the mix for the flour/baking soda portion - and of course doing it with the dark chocolate mix makes it all the more yummy. I'm going to have to make another batch because I keep eating them while he's at school...

Chocolate banana power muffins

Ingredients

2 cups Kodiak Cakes mix (dark chocolate flavor)
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c oil (I used avocado oil)
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and blend until smooth. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full (should make 12 muffins). Bake at 350 for 14-18 minutes (mine took closer to 18 because the amount of batter made the cups a little more than 3/4 full), until an inserted toothpick comes out just slightly moist. Cool, then enjoy!

I think these will keep pretty well in a sealed container for a few days, but I usually just go ahead and stick 1/2 my batches of muffins in the freezer after they're cooled, to keep them fresh. Then I can pull out one at a time and zap it in the microwave for a minute on defrost, and it's perfect on demand.