Sometimes I’ll post recipes that, although I love, I’ll only cook a few times before moving on. This is not one of those recipes. I’ve made these muffins 6 times in the last 3 weeks. I’ve varied the flavourings and flours to different levels of success but I keep coming back to this base. They take next to no time to prepare and use ingredients that are available at my tiny local supermarket. Plus, with the new low prices on bananas they’re super cost effective. Did I mention that there’s no artificial ingredients or protein powders in these? What’s not to love?!

Fluffy Banana Muffins

• 2 ripe bannas
• 250g (1 cup) low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup natvia/xylitol sweetener
• 15g (3 tsp) dark brown/rapadura sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 (30g) egg white (or 1 Tbsp of chia gel for added omega-3s)
• 60g (¼ cup) fat-free natural yoghurt
• 100g wholemeal flour (quinoa flour works best for gluten free)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• a pinch salt
• 45g (½ cup) rolled oats

1. Preheat an oven to 200ºC/390ºF
2.  Mash the bananas until smooth or puree in a food processor. Add the cottage cheese and vanilla and beat until smooth. Stir in the sweetener and sugar, then add the eggs, egg white/chia gel and yoghurt.
3.  Sift the flour and baking powder to remove lumps. Add the flour mixture and remaining ingredients to the cottage cheese mixture. Mix until just combined.
4.  Spoon mixture into muffin trays to ¾ full. Bake for 30–35 minutes, or until risen, golden and set.

Amazing, served hot or at room temperature.

Makes 8 large or 4 jumbo muffins.

In addition to fresher breath wikipedia claims “Green cardamom in South Asia is broadly used to treat infections in teeth and gums, to prevent and treat throat troubles, congestion of the lungs and pulmonary tuberculosis, inflammation of eyelids and also digestive disorders.”