For some reason, I’m finding myself craving home baked goods lately. And I mean craving – jonesing, even. Dinner’s done and I see the browning bananas on the counter and I think to myself: I could whip those into muffins in no time. I tell myself I don’t like to throw away good food, but sometimes I think I buy the bananas just to let them get brown. That way I can tell myself I don’t like to throw away good food and bake something with them instead.

Tonight, it was muffins. And I always try to be healthy with my baking, since I end up eating most of it. So I went looking for something healthy and found this recipe for guilt-free, gluten-free banana oatmeal muffins.

Oatmeal is one of those super foods that has numerous health benefits, not the least of which is lowering cholesterol levels. I know I should get more in my diet and I do occasionally eat a bowl. I just can’t seem to make myself eat it everyday.

The recipe is gluten-free (not that I set out looking for that, in particular) and calls for oat flour. Since I didn’t have any oat flour on hand, I used whole wheat. But oat flour is easy to make. Just put your old-fashioned rolled oats into the food processor and ground them until they have a flour-like texture. It takes about a cup and a half of oats to make one cup of oat flour.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Yield: 12
Bake: 400ºF for 20 minutes

1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup yogurt, plain low fat (or fruit yogurt)
1/2 cup milk, low fat
1/2 cup brown sugar (or Splenda)
1/3 cup oil, sunflower or vegetable oil
2 bananas, large, ripe, mashed
1 egg, large, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cup oat flour (or whole wheat)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Directions:
1. In a bowl mix together rolled oats, yogurt and milk. Let soak for 10 minutes.
2. Mix oat flour, salt, spices, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
3. Add brown sugar, mashed banana, egg and oil to rolled oats mixture. Mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients to the rolled oats mixture. Mix well. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.