Banana Buttermilk Muffins

Oh my!   Maybe I will become a lover of bananas one of these days.

If these delicious muffins don’t do it, than I don’t think there is any hope for me.

These are a healthier muffin due to the addition of wheat flour and  coconut, and the buttermilk makes these muffins  super soft and moist.  Although the word itself  sounds very unhealthy, buttermilk is actually not all that bad for you from a nutritional point of view.  Believe it or not,  buttermilk is lower in fat than whole milk and high in calcium and vitamin D and other nutrients.  If you have a problem with extra weight you probably don’t want to be using buttermilk in all your recipes but it adds a creamy moistness to baked treats that is very appealing.

I used lowfat buttermilk which has 1/2 the fat as regular buttermilk but still provides the desired moisture to the muffins.   Coconut has a number of health benefits as well but also found to be high in saturated fat like buttermilk.  I recommend using unsweetened shredded coconut over the sweetened as the latter has 2 teaspoons of additional sugar per ounce.  Yikes!   If you don’t like coconut replace it with something else you do like such as  chopped walnuts or raisins or even chocolate chips.