These muffins are easy-breezy. Easy like Sunday morning. Easy as… Netflix and chill?

Yup. That easy.

Lately we’ve been getting our money’s worth out of our Netflix subscription. For the last week or so my husband and I have been firing up the ol’ Netflix and settling ourselves in for hours of reminiscing about decades we weren’t even alive to witness. The documentary mini-series are simply named The Sixties, The Seventies, and The Eighties and were produced by Tom Hanks (so you know it’s gotta be good). They chronicle some of the most historically significant and culture changing events, people, music, and television from the last 50+ years. We’re hooked.

Ok, so technically I was alive to witness all of the 1980s, but I’m learning things about America’s past that I never fully understood or realized. Things like the U.S. government’s response to the AIDS epidemic, Watergate, and the rise of the women’s rights movement. With all that is happening in our country and the world at the moment, I can’t recommend watching them enough. Entertaining and educational (not to mention some really awesome clothes, hairstyles, and dancing). What could be better?

How about healthy and delicious (and easy) soft and fluffy peanut butter banana muffins? Throw all the ingredients in your blender, blast it, and bake it. Speaking of reminiscing, these muffins immediately reminded me of those Hostess packaged mini banana nut muffins that I used to snack on when I was a kid. Do you all remember those? Instead of being stuffed full of preservatives, bleached white flour, refined sugar, cheap processed oils, artificial flavors, and factory farmed eggs and dairy, my easy muffins are made with simple, wholesome, plant-based ingredients like bananas, peanut butter, buckwheat groats, and maple syrup. Completely vegan and gluten free with no refined sugar or flour. That’s better.

Today’s recipe is a spin-off of one of this muffin recipe on the blog. I always knew I wanted to try re-working them into blender muffins, and I’m so glad I tried it! It’s somehow so much easier. You’ll have these done in under a half hour. Another great thing about this recipe is you can treat it like a blank slate… add mini dairy free chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, dried fruit or spices like nutmeg and cinnamon. Or top your muffins with homemade strawberry jam, or even “frosting” (we made some with cocoa powder, peanut butter, and maple syrup – my daughter was so excited to get “cupcakes” for her snack one day!).

Whip these up these wholesome hearty muffins for a quick grab and go breakfast, for packing in your work lunch, or for snacking on during your next Netflix marathon.

Peanut Butter Banana Blender Muffins

• 1/4 cup plant based milk of choice (I used coconut milk beverage)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 large, very ripe banana, peeled
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup raw buckwheat groats (I use Bob’s Red Mill, which is available at my supermarket)
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• scant 1/4 tsp sea salt
• optional – 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil a mini muffin pan with coconut or avocado oil.

Add all ingredients to your blender in the order listed. Start on low and gradually increase to high, blending until smooth. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each well about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 12 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean) and remove from oven.

After a few minutes, use a butter knife to loosen the muffins out of the tin and set on a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in a air-tight container for up to 3 days or store in the fridge or freezer.

Notes and Variations:

You can sprinkle on some oats before baking, for decoration. In my first trials I used half buckwheat and half oats, which works great too. Eventually I decided I like the simplicity of using all buckwheat groats and the texture and flavor was pretty much identical (and delicious!).

I’m sure you could sub sunflower seed butter or almond butter for the peanut butter, but I haven’t tried it myself. If you do, let us know in the comments!