One of the little traditions we do on Gracen’s half birthday (ohmahgerd, I have a two and a half year old) is make a fresh batch of muffins (aka ‘cupcakes’) to top with freshly whipped cream and candles later in the evening.  So today we used our usual no sugar added banana muffin recipe, tweaked it just a little bit, and came up with these delicious chocolate coconut creations.  They are super yummy and truly do feel like a cupcake instead of a healthy muffin… Especially if you add the dark chocolate chips I added to the adult half of the batch (with which I doubt they can be remain in the ‘healthy’ category, but hey – I try my best). ☺

Here’s the recipe…

Healthy Banana Chocolate Coconut Muffins

• 4 large ripe bananas
• 1 organic egg
• 1/3 cups of coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups of wholewheat flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut shavings
• dark chocolate chips (optional – we used 1/3 of a cup in half the batter)

Preheat oven to 350° . Prepare a 12 cup muffin pan by brushing it with coconut oil.

Mix the bananas, other wet ingredients, and cocoa until the mixture is mostly smooth and only slightly chunky.  In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (save the coconut and chocolate chips) well. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Slowly stir in the coconut (and chocolate chips if adding them).  Fill greased muffin tin with the mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Let cool.

Enjoy!