Banana Walnut Muffins

I love bananas.  My snack pretty much every day is a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter.  When I feel the urge to bake, I usually have ripe bananas on the counter.  Banana breads, cakes, muffins, cookies, or, well, basically anything banana - you name it, I probably love it.  And want to make it.  May have already made it, in fact.

There's only one problem: Jon is allergic to bananas.
I can't eat them anywhere near him or he'll get nauseous.  And the super-ripe ones I use for baking make him feel even worse.

Long story short, these muffins were not for him.  This is my go-to muffin recipe and I made them when I wasn't going to see him for a few days.  And I was blissfully happy whenever I was eating one of these moist, sweet, sporadically crunchy, moderately healthy treats.  Particularly if it was topped with mascarpone cheese and a little bit of honey...heaven.  If you're not a walnut fan, substitute anything you want - pecans, blueberries, peanut butter or chocolate chips, shredded coconut...or add in any of the above to make these muffins even more stellar than they already are!

Banana Walnut Muffins
Source: barely adapted from For the Love of Cooking
Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 egg whites
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (I used nonfat)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large, very ripe bananas
1/2 cup of walnuts, crushed a bit

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350˚F and make sure a rack is centered.  Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside. 
In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and sugars and whisk them together.  In a large bowl, mash the bananas until they are smooth, then add the egg whites, vegetable  oil, yogurt, and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.  Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients without overmixing - the batter should still have a few lumps in it.  Fold in the walnuts with a rubber spatula.
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Transfer pan to a cooling rack until cool enough to handle.  Serve muffins slightly warm with toppings of choice - though they don't need toppings to be delicious!  Enjoy!