Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Oat Muffins

These banana chocolate chip oat muffins are super moist, packed with banana flavor, and filled with rich, melty dark chocolate. These muffins are also gluten free, refined sugar free and packed with heart healthy oats. The perfect guilt-free breakfast indulgence.

My best girlfriends from law school are here visiting this weekend! These are the girls that helped me survive the three most challenging years of my life (law school is no joke!) and made it into the best years of my life.

Last night, we reminisced on all of our adventures from law school: Studying abroad in Ireland, Thursday karaoke nights, weekly dinner get togethers (where baked sweet potato fries and ice cream were always on the menu), and weekends at the wineries in good ole Southern IL.  We made some pretty great memories.

This weekend is the first time all of the girls have been able to visit me in Chicago since we graduated three years ago. We have a lot on the agenda: shopping on Michigan Ave,  dinner and cocktails, and the PINK concert.

But first, Brunch!

I wanted to do something special for the girls during their visit to Chicago. What better way to show your love then through food?

Before we go explore the city today, I planned a fun, Danilicious brunch. On the menu, is mimosas (duh!), avocado toast (again, duh!), and my hearty, healthy banana chocolate chip oat muffins.

I feel every brunch needs something sweet and something savory. It’s all about balance.

These muffins are the perfect sweet treat to include on the brunch table. They feel rich and indulgent because are so super moist and packed with dark chocolate. But these muffins are actually healthy.

These bad boys are made with wholesome, healthy ingredients, like oats, greek yogurt, honey and coconut sugar.

Plus, since they are packed with oats, they will keep us full all day long. So we will have lots of energy for shopping! Yaas!

Let’s get to baking.

These muffins are so easy to make. That’s why they are perfect for brunch (especially if you have a few other things to make). You can make these ahead of time so you have more time for chilling with your friends and sipping on the bubbles.

You could also whip up a batch on Sunday and eat them all week long.

The first step is adding all of the dry ingredients, except the coconut sugar and chocolate chips, to a mixing bowl. I added cinnamon because I think it pairs so well with the bananas and chocolate. I also added a little bit of nutmeg, which gives the muffins a fresh bakery taste.

In a separate bowl, mix all of the wet ingredients and coconut sugar together. I used greek yogurt and a tiny bit of grassfed butter to make sure they were extra moist. You could sub coconut oil for the butter and they will still be terrific!

I also used honey and coconut sugar, so the muffins contain no refined sugar.

The overripe bananas also help to keep the muffins sweet and moist.

Now, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Next, gently fold in the chocolate chips.

Your muffin batter is complete. It’s as easy as that. I love a good easy recipe!

Scoop the batter into 12 greased muffin pans and baked them for about 20-25 muffins.

I liked to take the muffins out at 20 minutes and top with a couple of chocolate chips, then finish baking them. It gives the muffins a pretty finishing touch to make them a show stopper at your brunch table.

Muffins are the perfect individualized brunch treat. Everyone gets their own and there is no cutting or extra mess involved.

Plus, you can easily customize them for friends. My one friend gave up chocolate for Lent (she is a strong cookie!) so I made a few without. You could also add nuts or dried fruit to certain ones if you know a friends prefers that flavor combo.

I’m literally writing this post as my girls friends are still sleeping. I’m so excited to set the brunch table and serve these delicious muffins. One of my girlfriends has been dying to try them since she saw my sneak peek on Instagram. I’m pretty sure they are about to be obsessed!

To really make them a showstopper, I plan to microwave them for 15-20 seconds to get that melty chocolate moment and slather on some salty almond butter. Heaven!

Ok, I got to go get my brunch on. Have a wonderful weekend. And get to baking these muffins!

You May Also Like:

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Waffles Earl Grey Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins