It’s Back-to-School time and back to beating lunch box boredom. So many of us are *trying* to eat healthier, but it’s nearly impossible to avoid those pre-packaged snacks hyped up on sugar and preservatives. And if you still have to pack for snack time, you need to creatively find even more portable yet healthy foods to tempt often picky eaters.

My kiddo has now braces, so I am even more limited in my snack selections — no gooey fruit snacks, fruit roll-ups, granola bars, raisins, or nuts. What else can you pack in a kid’s lunch box?

They are like little cupcakes, minus the excess sugar and frosting. You can bake a big batch and freeze them. You can even  pack them individual snack bags before you stick them in the freezer, then just grab a bag in the morning and they will thaw buy lunch/snack time. A little effort and you can have a month’s worth of healthy and delish snacks.

And these are delish.  I made the mistake of pulling them from the oven while I had a housefull of 8-year-old boys. I had to fight them off with a wooden spoon.  They all loved these two-bite delights— and their parents did too.

These muffins are perfect for snacks — low in fat, high in protien. And they are easy. Seriously. Minus the time it took for me to throw a bag of frozen peas on my burn (I can’t get near an oven without at least one burn) I whipped these up in a jiffy. And they were totally worth the 2-inch burn.

Both these recipes are nearly identical, the main difference being peanut butter vs. Nutella. I assumed the Nutella version would make me swoon more, but the peanut butter muffins hit me with more flavor. The decision was split amongst my taste testers. They are both awesome.

Banana Peanut Butter Mini Snack Muffins

(Inspired by a Cooking Light bread recipe)

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes per batch
Makes 4 dozen bite-sized muffins

1  1/2 cups mashed ripe banana {about 3 large}
1/3 cup peanut butter {creamy or crunchy – whatever you like}
1/3 cup applesauce {or Greek yogurt for extra protein}
3 tbsp. melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour {you can use all white flour}
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of clove

**non-stick cooking spray

• Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl, add first five ingredients — all the wet stuff. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth {and all the banana chunks are gone}.  Add the sugars and blend more.
• In a seperate bowl, combine all remaining ingredients {the dry stuff}. Stir gently. Add dry mix to the wet mix and beat with mixer until just combined.
• Spray mini muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. ** Fill each cup about 3/4 full. {I use a trigger cookie scoop.  One scoop fills each cup perfectly with no dribbles. Totally worth $7 bucks.}
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Pop out of pan and cool on wire rack.

** You can also add mini chocolate chips or crushed peanuts for some extra oomph.

*I recommend not using pretty cupcake liners, especially if you are using these for a kids’ snack. Peeling them takes too much time when you just want to devour them.

Nutella Banana Mini Snack Muffins

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes per batch
Makes 4 dozen bite-sized muffins

1  1/2 cups mashed ripe banana {about 3 large}
1/3 cup Nutella
1/3 cup applesauce {or Greek yogurt for extra protein}
3 tbsp. melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour {you can use all white flour}
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. baking cocoa

**non-stick cooking spray

• Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl, add first five ingredients — all the wet stuff. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth {and all the banana chunks are gone}.  Add the sugars and blend more.
• In a seperate bowl, combine all remaining ingredients {the dry stuff}. Stir gently. Add dry mix to the wet mix and beat with mixer until just combined.
• Spray mini muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. ** Fill each cup about 3/4 full. {I use a trigger cookie scoop.  One scoop fills each cup perfectly with no dribbles. Totally worth $7 bucks.}
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Pop out of pan and cool on wire rack.

** You can also add mini chocolate chips for some extra oomph.

*I recommend not using pretty cupcake liners, especially if you are using these for a kids’ snack. Peeling them takes too much time.

Once the muffins cooled, I packed them first into snack bags and them into a gallon-sized freezer bag.  Now each school morning I can just grab a pre-packed bag from the freezer and pop it straight into the lunch bag. It’s perfectly thawed by lunch time.

Happy mom, happy kid.