Strawberry Banana and Nut Butter Muffins

Somebody better call the doctor....

Because I've got spring fever!!

Ahem..yeah..

WELL it's almost spring and that means warm weather! Fresh fruits and veggies are abundant and on sale at the grocery store! The flowers are in bloom! The air is fresh! And it's time to do some spring cleaning!
Spring is a time for wearing dresses and floppy hats and picking fresh fruits in the sunshine.
These are just some of my favorite things ever

I highly encourage you to celebrate the Spring Equinox on March 20th.
Years and years ago, people used to mark the change in seasons as a major holiday to celebrate. I feel like people today practically ignore the fact that the  world around them is changing, and instead we get caught up in silly holidays like St. Patrick's Day that really have no meaning. The equinox marks the beginning of a new astrological year and the length of the days and nights are equal...is this not something important to celebrate?!

So everyone should get your friends together and throw a barbeque, or go pick some berries, go for a bike ride, lay and watch the clouds pass by, or just do anything outside! We should take more notice of the Earth and it's changes as well as mother nature's beauty and celebrate something worthwhile.

On that note, I woke up today with a fridge full of berries that I got on sale at the grocery, and wanted to make something in anticipation of springtime!

I found this recipe for strawberry, banana, nut butter muffins and got to work!

Now, just a few notes about these muffins...I altered the original recipe and made a lot of substitutions, which may have either made the recipe better...or worse. So if you want to use the original recipe, click the link bro!

However! For the ground flax seed + water mixture, I did not have ground flax seed on hand so I used wheat germ, but I recommend using the ground flax seed instead

Also, it calls for 1/2 cup pecans which I didn't have on hand, so instead I used almonds chopped very fine, but I would omit them next time, they added strange consistency to the muffins, SO I recommend not using nuts, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

 These berries were so beautiful and bright, I felt bad cutting them up!

 But I did.

 A little springtime muffin

Strawberry, Banana, and Nut Butter Muffins

adapted from: ohsheglows

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup toasted almonds or pecans, chopped finely (optional, not recommended)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1.5 Tablespoon ground chia seed (or flax) + 1/4 cup water (I used wheat germ + water)
1.25 cup almond milk
2 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons nut butter (I used sunflower seed butter. You can use almond butter, peanut butter, etc)
2 Tablespoons honey (or maple syrup)
1 large banana mashed, left a bit chunky
1 cup strawberries, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Grease a muffin tin and set aside.
3. In a small bowl mix the ground chia or ground flax seed (in my case wheat germ...lame) and water and set aside.
4. In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, nuts (if using), baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
5. In a medium sized bowl, mix all wet ingredients: chia/flax + water mixture, almond milk, warmed butter, nut butter, and honey. Mix well.
6. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir.
7. Fold in chopped strawberries, reserving 1/4 cup (I actually chopped up a few more berries to put on top in addition to the 1/4 of the ones I already chopped) to sprinkle on top of muffins.
8. Scoop mixture into muffin tin and sprinkle on remaining strawberries.
9. This recipe made 16 muffins for me and they baked for about 22 minutes at 375F. However many it makes for you, I would recommend rotating them after 10 minutes, and checking for doneness at 20 minutes, then adding any additional time if needed.