Banana Nut Muffins with Oatmeal Streusel

Same old story.

I had 3 very ripe bananas sitting on my counter, calling my name. I had to let them fulfill their banana destiny. And I wanted to make muffins. Let the girl eat her muffins :)

This is a marriage and adaptation between two different recipes, a muffin recipe from Simply Recipes and a streusel recipe from Cooking Light. The muffin recipe called for walnuts, which I didn't have. However, I did have a half bag of chopped macadamia nuts. Nice, little, salty chunks of macadamia nut. Perfect. The streusel recipe was created for a different muffin, but works very well on these muffins, if you ask me.

They were the perfect breakfast for a birthday girl. The birthday girl being me. Yes, it's my birthday. And yes, I'm old. I've officially left my twenties behind, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I take that back. I do know how I feel, I'm not happy about it. 29 sounds so much younger than 30. Sigh. The hubby is taking me out for margaritas later to ease the pain.

In the meantime, another muffin may drown my sorrows :)

Ingredients:

Muffins (makes 12)-
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

Streusel-
6 tbsp oats
5 tbsp flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp butter, cold
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with liners. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix mashed bananas with melted butter with a large mixing spoon. Add sugar, egg, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over mixture, stir to mix. Add flour to the bowl, mix until just combined. Fold in macadamia nuts.
3. To make streusel, combine oats through cinnamon into a small bowl. Cut into mixture until it forms a coarse crumb.
4. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 way full, finely sprinkle each muffin with crumb mixture.
5. Bake in the oven 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes and Cooking Light.