Semi- Healthy Banana Oat Muffins [ GF ]

These sweet little banana oat muffins will delight your taste buds and surprise you with some super healthy ingredients. I mean, they do have butter and sugar, so I would definitely stick them in the semi-healthy dessert category, but oh my golly are they a tasty semi-healthy treat!

They are also gluten free, in case you’re into that sort of thing (slash you have a gluten allergy—those are no joke).

Baking = Therapy

Can I tell you how over-the-moon excited I am to be baking again? It has been awhile and I think baking (along with blogging) is my therapy. And let me tell you, working at the new café leaves me in desperate need of some therapy.

Why?

-Welp. If you haven’t heard me whine about it (in my last dozen posts), I am currently living with my dad. Like a teenager. Bear in mind that I am 28 years old.

-I no longer live with my fiance (like I have been the past two years). We have to arrange to hang out with each other which is kind of fun and like dating again, but also kind of annoying because we live a good 20-30 minutes away from each other.

-And my new café job has proven to be about 10 times more stressful as the one in Minnesota.

Café Life

Here is how about 50% of my shifts have ended at the new café.

It’s about 30-60 minutes after my shift was supposed to end. I have spent most of my time running around like a chicken with my head cut off because…

a. we are probably understaffed (no less than 3 employees have quit by way of not showing up in the month I’ve worked there)

b. the staff that is there is brand spanking new (see point a) and has a bazillion questions for me.

I’ve been running on adrenaline, I’m tired and hungry.

Starved is more like it because I haven’t eaten for 8+ hours aside from a smoothie I suck down when no one is looking. I’ve watched employees from other areas of the fitness club come in and leisurely eat two full meals in the time I’ve been there. (because apparently they get breaks.) And had to smile and take their order as my stomach continues to growl and eat itself.

I take off my gloves, keep my head down and grab my stuff while customers stare me down. I say a quick goodbye so that I can bolt out. This bolting out is necessary because the amount of work that needs to be done and the amount of customers. I probably brought my gym bag so I could work out after work, but I’m too hangry to think about anything else.

I fight back tears as I make my way across the ginormous parking lot (where I park uber far away so I can get a spot under the trees) to my boiling hot car. I blast on the air conditioning, rip open whatever snack bar I have stowed in my purse and put on a podcast as the tears begin to flow. (I don’t always cry, as stated before, this is only about 50% of the time. But stress + hunger = Amanda crying. It’s basic, undeniable math. As poor Dave witnessed two days ago when he met me for lunch after my shift.)

This is just how it is for now.

Life gets rough and everyone is dealing with some form of stress.

I totally get that and in no way do I feel like my stress is any worse than yours…but it’s there.

Baking Soothes My Soul

That’s why I need my therapy. I need my something to do, to put energy into, to have FUN with. Baking soothes my freaking soul.

These little banana oat muffins soothe my soul. I may or may not have eaten about 4 of them whilst doing this little photo shoot.

And about this photo shoot. I was seriously doing a happy dance because I finally have my little photo area set up! It does involve setting up and breaking down a table, but still. It’s right next to a ginormous window, I have a sweet step stool I can use (I know, I’ve turned into a photography nerd) and I even painted a couple of backdrops last week. So so fun. You don’t even know!!

I even decided to buckle down and buy adobe light room. (Well..after my 30 day trial ends, I’m doing the $10/month cloud subscription.)

Semi- Healthy Banana Oat Muffins Recipe

Oh, you came for a recipe, not a pitiful rant about hangry Amanda?

Okay, if you insist.

Like I said earlier, these banana oat muffins are sweet, buttery and semi-healthy. They taste like the best, dense, moist banana bread you’ve ever eaten except it’s in the form of a cute little muffin.

Just make them, okay? You will get it.

Then you can do a little happy dance around the kitchen like I did.

 

Disclaimer: These delightful banana oat muffins were made with Love Grown Foods Nuts and Seeds Super Oats which were provided to me as a benefit of being on the Love team. All opinions are mine and the food was provided whether I wrote a recipe or review or not.

[Tweet “I must try these Semi-Healthy Banana Oat Muffins. #drool #imasemihealthnut”]

Tell me…

What’s your therapy?

Have you ever gotten in your car and cried after work? Or when you’re hangry? (<-pretty please don’t tell me I’m the only one!)

recipes, workouts, tips + exclusive content…right to your inbox!

Don’t miss out!

PS I’m all about Pinterest this year, so I would LOVE IT if you could pin one (or two!) of these images!

Pin with me!Follow SemiHealthNut Visit Diary of a Semi-Health Nut’s profile on Pinterest.

Linking up to: Much Ado About Mondays Meatless Mondays (All of the lovely link-ups I participate in here.)

Photo Editing Using Picmonkey and Photography with Nikon D5300 and Tasty Food Photography