Bananas for banana muffins

I thought to title this blog post with an excerpt of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl lyrics, but thought better of it. When most people think of bananas, they think monkeys. I think of my friend from pastry school who could not for the life of her stand bananas. I think it was something to do with their texture, or how they were a bit slimy. She didn't dislike them; she was disgusted by them. However, if they were baked into something, she'd eat them. People are odd, but I can empathize when it comes to texture. One day, I'll tell you all about my odd relationship with beans. Anyway, I digress.

I, on the other hand, love bananas. For me, they're perfect when they reach some harmonious balance of no longer being green, and not yet developing brown freckles. This so called 'window' of banana perfection is oh-so important because I hate that feeling you get in your mouth from eating a raw banana, and I don't like when they're overly mushy and sweet. Once these bananas have gone past their prime, there are two great uses for them: 1) shove them in a bag with under-ripe fruit (ethylene gas is awesome!) 2) shove them in the fridge/freezer until you've amassed enough to bake them into something tasty.

Well, I amassed enough to make some yummy banana muffins. Since I didn't have any nuts on hand, I decided to garnish them with some dried banana chips. They made for a pretty tasty, low-fat breakfast!