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Banana Nut and Seed Power Muffins  

It all started when my daughter Ida was born.  On my due date, a friend brought me a batch of lactation muffins.  She had had a baby a few months earlier and reported that these muffins helped her through midnight nursings.   When I started nursing, I realized that midnight snacks were essential!  But, the muffins also served me well for emergency breakfasts and for afternoon tea dates with visitors.  And… they are DELICIOUS!  Banana based, sweetened with honey and loaded with chocolate chips and walnuts.  My husband Casey made me batch after batch – he is definitely the baker of the family.

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It is the presence of nutritional yeast and flax seeds that seems to mark the identity of “lactation” anything (my cousin brought me lactation cookies after the birth…basically your average cookie with flax seeds and nutritional yeast).  By the third batch of muffins I was over the chocolate chips (I really have a disappointing sweet tooth).  We also ditched the nutritional yeast, added sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and chia seeds and adapted the recipe to accommodate soaking the oats and nuts beforehand.  Soaking nuts and seeds neutralizes phytic acid and makes the nutrients in nuts, seeds and grains more bioavailable.  I don’t soak the flax seeds because they retain so much water it would affect the texture too much.

Thanks go out to my friends Amanda and Dave for that first delicious batch, my husband Casey for being such a loyal and talented provider of midnight snacks, and whoever first wrote the recipe that I adapted this from!

Makes 10 muffins

Ingredients
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon chia seeds
3 – 4 ripe bananas
¼-1/3 cup honey, or to taste
1 egg
½ cup melted coconut oil
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons flax seeds, ground (grind in a clean coffee or spice grinder)
½ cup chocolate chips, optional

Soak the oats, walnuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and chia seeds in enough water to cover by 3 – 4 inches for 6 – 8 hours, or overnight.  Strain and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mash the bananas and combine with the honey, egg, melted coconut oil and the soaked and strained oats, nuts and seeds.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and ground flax seeds and mix until well combined.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Add chocolate chips at the end, if desired.

Spoon into greased muffin tins.  For a good-sized muffin, fill each tin to the top (makes 10).  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

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