These Healthy Toddler Banana Oat Muffins are a quick, nutritious, customizable, grab n' go breakfast that's toddler tested and approved!
What do your mornings look like? Mine? The first alarm goes off at 4:30 am... the second at 4:40... third at 4:50... You get the idea. Mornings start early and are hectic around here getting everyone ready for school and work, but even still, one thing that we make an absolute priority: a nutritious breakfast for my toddler. These Healthy Toddler Banana Oat Muffins are our latest time-saving way to make sure M starts her day delicious!
Ingredients Needed
I love make-ahead grab n' go breakfasts and snacks. Especially when they're super easy to make, like our Spinach and Feta Egg Cups, Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bars, and our Peanut Butter Chocolate Energy Bars. And also when all the ingredients are pretty much staples in our kitchen.
Once you have your base of oats, flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, milk, bananas, a touch of butter, maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla extract, then it's up to you! You can bake them in muffins as they are, or add a variety of goodies! In this batch, we decided to make Strawberry Almond Chia, Blueberry Apple Flax Seed, and finally a "Carrot Cake" made of carrots, raisins, and nutmeg.
Mixed with the banana oat base and they're ready to go. Baked for 30 minutes and boom. Healthy Toddler Banana Oat Muffins - 3 fun ways!
M tested and approved! Her first, the Strawberry Almond Chia, she loved so much I had to take the wrapper away from her because she was eating part of the wrapper when she was trying to scrape it clean... ha!
Even better, these little healthy muffins freeze great. So for 3 days this past week, M not only had breakfast done, but each one was different! And once Baby K #2 comes, I'm sure that we'll be sooo happy to have these guys in the freezer to pull out for a quick nutritious breakfast when our mornings become even crazier.
These will also be fun to experiment with flavors with your little one. Let him/her decide what creations to make! Add nuts, chocolate chips, or any other kind of fruit!
I can't wait for the next batch to see what my little M wants to make. Based on her current food favorites, I have a feeling she'll ask for toast, mangos, and rice muffins! 😛
Other Muffin Favorites
Sourdough Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
Healthy Raspberry Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Healthy Toddler Banana Oat Muffins - 3 Ways!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups Old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 large bananas mashed, 1 1/2 cups
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 2 tablespoons salted butter melted
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
Strawberry Almond Chia
- 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
- 1 tbsp sliced almonds
- 1 tsp chia seeds
Blueberry Apple Flax
- 1/4 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/4 cup fresh apples, chopped any variety
- 1 tbsp ground flax seed
"Carrot Cake"
- 1/4 cup fresh carrots, grated
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tin with liners or generously spray with a non-stick cooking spray. *You can also lightly spray the muffin liners as I've heard some have had trouble with them sticking to the liners.
- In a large bowl mix together oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, smash bananas and add milk, butter, eggs, vanilla, and maple syrup. Add slowly to the dry ingredients and mix well.
- In separate bowls, mix together the Strawberry Almond Chia, Blueberry Apple Flax, and "Carrot Cake" fillings. Add some of each mixture to 4 muffin liners, leaving a little bit of each behind to top the muffins. Gently fill each muffin tin to the top with oats and bananas mixture and top with remaining filling. (If you have extra oat and banana mixture, make some 'plain' muffins or toss in whatever else you have!)
- Bake muffins for 20-30 minutes, until slightly browned. Check after 20. Cool and enjoy!
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week or in the freezer for 6 months.
I’ve been making this recipe for a few years since my first son was doign BLW. Now both my boys love them and my husband and I do too.
Definitely don’t make them expecting them to be a delux, unhealthy muffin. They are not super sweet but sweet enough that they feel like a treat 🙂
I’ve used honey when I ran out of maple syrup too which worked wells I always make a huuuge batch of them and freeze half.
They stick so make sure you use some oil on the liners/ tray.
I like to use whatever extras I have (e.g. flax, chia, apple or pear and raspberry or strawberry, or even just some chocolate chips (my favourite)).
Will definitely keep making this for years to come. A delicious, nutritious snack.
Thanks!
Elyssa! This just made my day! Thank you so much for sharing and I'm so happy that your family has enjoyed this recipe over the years as much as mine has. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a lovely review!
I almost didn’t make these because I saw a few negative reviews! Not sure what happened (if the recipe was changed etc) but they were awesome! I actually loved the carrot cake the best! Would definitely make again for my toddler (and me!) 😆
HI Tiffany! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed them as much as we do!
I made these exactly like the recipe, unfortunately as I was about to have my kids add in the extra ingredients (Apple, Chocolate chips, nuts, etc) I realized the batter was WAY too thin. I added in 3-4 tablespoons of white flour which seemed to help a lot. After my kids made their additions, we poured them into the Paper muffin cups. We cooked them for about 25 mins but they were impossible to peel away from the muffin cup. About 1/3 of the muffin was stuck to the paper muffin cup, a huge disappointment. I’m assuming this is due to the lack of oil in the recipe? Not sure. The taste was okay, kind of plain to be honest, if we hadn’t added in our “extras” my kids definitely wouldn’t eat these. I probably will not make these again.
Sorry to hear that, Holly. This recipe is a thinner batter and yes, I do suggest in the recipe to spray the muffin liners, if using because they can stick. And these muffins are for sure meant only to be made with the added fruit/nuts/seeds. If you'd like a more traditional muffin you can try our Blueberry Muffins. Still healthy, but fewer oats, more flavor, and a thicker batter. https://www.servedfromscratch.com/healthy-blueberry-muffins/
I guess I should have read these comments first before making this recipe. Most reviewers rated this 5 stars without actually making them! The recipe sounded great in theory, but I followed the recipe exactly and added chopped Gala apples since that was what I had on hand. I'm not sure if 2 tsp of baking soda is too much or the 1/3 maple syrup is too little, but the muffins were definitely not sweet enough and have a bit of a bitter aftertaste. I'm not a baker myself, and mostly follow online recipes based on reviews, so I can't pinpoint what is wrong... but the recipe definitely needs some adjustments.
Hi Tabitha,
I'm so sorry you didn't think the muffins were sweet enough. They're definitely not super sweet as they get the sweetness just from the bananas and the maple syrup. Also you're right, the baking soda is supposed to just be 1 1/2 tsp. not 2.
I think the issue is that you used baking soda instead of baking powder. That will definitely leave a bitter taste. Baking powder is a different product, containing baking soda and other ingredients. I have made this mistake before!! 🙂
Do these hold together well using ground flax as an egg substitute?
Hi Ana! I haven't tried this yet, but I think it should!
Just made these and they smell delicious! Can’t wait for my son and I to try them tomorrow morning!! I’m reading over the recipe variations and noticed under the carrot cake variation, nutmeg was not listed as an ingredient but further up in the article you refer to it. Is it possible to know how much you use? Thanks so much!
Enjoy!! I hope he loves them as much as my girls do! Ooos! Thanks for pointing that out- just a pinch!
What a simple and delicious recipe for my godson who is 2! He made the batter with me and enjoyed mixing together all the ingredients. Since we were keeping it extra simple, we only added in raisins. They came out of the oven and he gobbled one up right before his bedtime (he made his mom think I hadn't fed him all day!). Thanks so much for a great recipe!
How fun!! What a lucky little boy to have a godmother to bake with him! So glad he enjoyed it!!
Loved these muffins they came out perfect
I used sugar (xylitol) instead of maple syrup
Trying to stick to a plant base diet and I think these fit the bill?
Nice sub and so glad you enjoyed them! And they definitely do!
These certainly taste healthy, if you know what I mean. I substituted butter for coconut oil the 2nd time I made them and added chocolate chips to the plain banana portion and they tasted much sweeter. Also added rhubarb to apple as didn't have blueberries and they were by far my favourite of the 4.
Are you able to freeze these? Wanted to do a batch and freeze for rushing mornings!
Absolutely! I always freeze and then either let defrost in fridge over night or pop in the microwave in the am. They're perfect for busy mornings! 🙂