Healthy Whole Wheat Banana Chia Muffins

Whole wheat banana chia muffins are light and fluffy without butter, oil, or refined sugars. These healthy muffins feature chia seeds for added nutrition and make a great breakfast or snack! Under 150 calories each.

It only seems fitting that in the aftermath of Halloween we take a second to turn our attention to something healthy.

Are you stuck with (a ton) of extra candy like we are? I knew we'd have a small turnout, but you can't just buy one little pack of Twix, can you? That's a surefire way to guarantee you'll have a crowd lining up down the driveway.

Of course I always buy candy that we like to eat, so in the face of a surplus after the fact I wanted to stock the cabinets with something a little bit healthier. These banana chia muffins totally fit the bill as a part of a healthy breakfast or a smart anytime snack.

And opening the bag and grabbing a muffin is juuust as easy as unwrapping a Reese's.

Making muffins vs. quick breads

One thing I love about muffins is that they're easily converted to a quick bread recipe and vice versa.

These chia seed muffins are a spin off of my naturally sweetened banana bread recipe, with a few twists.

When it comes to muffins vs. quick breads, you'll want to bake muffins at 25°F higher than you would a quick bread recipe. The bake time will be much lower too, so you'll want to adjust that as well.

I bake my banana bread at 325°F in a 9"x5" loaf pan for around an hour, but these muffins I bake at 350°F for around twenty minutes. Much quicker!

Ingredients

In addition to classic muffin ingredients such as leavening, milk, and eggs, these muffins feature a several healthy swaps to make these a better-for-you breakfast recipe. These include using:

• white whole wheat flour (instead of all-purpose)
• Greek yogurt (in place of oil or butter), and 
• maple syrup (instead of refined sugar)

While chocolate chips are a no-brainer when it comes to banana bread, I kept things on the healthier side with stirring in a quarter-cup of chia seeds here.

That's not to say that chocolate chips couldn't be stirred into this recipe if the craving strikes, but may I suggest my chocolate chip banana crumb cake recipe if that's the case instead? 😉

Here's how to make it

I love muffin recipes for their simplicity! The wet and dry ingredients are mixed separately, then mixed together until just combined. Then any add-ins are stirred in.

After that the batter is portioned out evenly in your prepped muffin tin and baked until a tester comes out clean.

My preference for muffins is to simply spray my non-stick muffin tin with cooking spray and forgo using muffin liners. But if you'd prefer to use liners, I find giving them a little spritz with cooking spray helps the liners release cleanly from the muffins.

In the past I would hate when muffins get stuck to the liners when you peel them off, but a quick spray of cooking spray helps resolve that issue.

Recipe notes

• As the recipe is written, the calorie count is estimated to be just under 150 calories per muffin.
• Any milk variety will work, as will subbing in all-purpose flour or the same amount of honey for the maple syrup.
• Using a cookie scoop is a less-mess way to transfer batter into the muffin tin. It also makes it easy to evenly dispense batter into each cup, too.

Healthy Whole Wheat Banana Chia Muffins

Alyssa

Whole wheat banana chia muffins are light and fluffy without butter, oil, or refined sugars. These healthy muffins feature chia seeds for added nutrition and make a great breakfast or snack! Under 150 calories per muffin.

4.34 from 12 votes

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 35 mins

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 149 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 overripe bananas
• ⅔ cup milk, any variety (I used almond)
• 1 5.3-oz container Greek yogurt (about ½ cup)
• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup chia seeds

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside.
• Add flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and ground nutmeg to a bowl and whisk to combine.
• Add bananas, milk, yogurt, maple syrup, and eggs to a separate bowl and mix until light and creamy.
• Add dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet and mix until just combined.
• Stir in chia seeds.
• Divide muffin batter equally between the twelve muffin cups and bake for 18-21 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed and a tester inserted into the tallest part of the muffin comes out clean. Let muffins cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then remove to cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes

5.3 oz of Greek yogurt is roughly equivalent to ½ cup.

Keyword banana chia muffins