Chunky Monkey Muffins |Cooking With Amanda

For some reason, I keep bringing my kids with me to the grocery store. I start out with wonderful intentions, hoping that by letting them choose foods, they will embrace eating more vegetables and be interested in joining me in the kitchen. By the end of it we're all tired, bickering, and just trying to get out of the store alive.

Letting the kids choose means we tend to end up with a lot of fruit. That then gets ignored — usually in favor of applesauce pouches. The biggest offenders in the fruit pile are bananas. Because you can't refrigerate them, bananas go bad no matter what your fruit craving is calling for that particular day.

This wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't allergic to bananas, but the only way around it is to toss the bananas into the freezer until the kids are ready for banana bread. Or until I remember we have frozen bananas when trying to clean the freezer.

While my kids like banana bread, the fact you have to slice it makes it less likely for them to eat. Muffins, on the other hand, are completely grab-and-go options. They also happen to be one of our favorite things to eat any time of day, whether it's blueberry streusel muffins at breakfast or strawberry cheesecake muffins after dinner.

The inspiration for these muffins comes from the ice cream of the same name. Now, Chunky Monkey ice cream has walnuts instead of peanut butter, but kids and peanut butter go together like, well… peanut butter, bananas, and chocolate.

I normally don't put any sort of glaze on my muffins, but I couldn't resist putting a peanut butter drizzle on top of these. You can skip it if you like (especially if you're eating these for breakfast) but my kids just love them this way!

Try these Chunky Monkey Muffins the next time you have some forgotten bananas!

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Chunky Monkey Muffins Recipe

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Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 medium bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate morsels
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F and lightly coat a muffin tin with baking spray, or line with paper liners.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, cream together peanut butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs, milk, bananas, and vanilla extract.
Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir until mixed, but do not overmix. It should be slightly lumpy and somewhat thick. Fold in milk chocolate chips.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups, filling them to 3/4 capacity for tall, domed muffins.
Bake for 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center is clean and muffins are golden brown. Let cool slightly.
Melt peanut butter chips in the microwave, using 20-second intervals, until completely melted and stirred smooth.