Banana Coconut Oatmeal Flax Muffins

I am working on cleaning up my pantry, which means lots of interesting baking adventures! I'm also working on getting back in shape and that means I'm hungry all the time and need more snacks. This recipe was inspired by those two things - a healthy snack with a whole bunch of stuff in it!

Who can argue with deliciously sweet banana mixed with chewy coconut and yummy oats?  Nobody that I'd like to know, that's for sure!

Banana Coconut Oatmeal Flax Muffins (original recipe here)

Ingredients

3 Tbsp flax seed
6 Tbsp water
4 Ripe bananas
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
2 Tsp vanilla
2 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp kosher salt (or table or sea)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup unsweetened shaved coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease one muffin tin (this will make 12 good sized muffins).
2. In your magic bullet, blend ground flax with water. This mixture acts as an egg substitute!
3. Add the flax to your mashed bananas.
4. In another bowl mix your melted coconut oil with brown sugar, then add vanilla and flax And egg mixture.
5. Add your dry ingredients to the wet and mix untrustworthy combined. Don't over mix or you will ruin everything.
6. Scoop into muffin tin then sprinkle with coconut or oats or both. Cinnamon sugar would be delicious too!
7. Bake for 22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean!

Chocolate Fig Cake with Chocolate Glaze

Fig fig fig. What a fun word. Oh what, you don't like it? Fig off then!

If dried figs are new to you, I can tell you that they are sweet and very seedy. They aren't my favorite dried fruit, but I have a Costco-sized bag of them that need to get used, so. I decided they would go fantastic with chocolate, because, well, everything goes with chocolate! I found a recipe here that looked really great, and with a few minor adjustments they turned out lovely.

One warning though, this cake is a million times better the next day. The flavors get a chance to meld together and the cake gets really fudgey.

Chocolate Fig Cake
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
10 dried figs (finely chopped)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans. 
2. Finely chop your figs and pour 1 cup of boiling water over them. Let them sit for 30 minutes. I mashed mine a bit with a fork. You could probably even puree them to make sure they are lump free.
3. Next, sift your dry ingredients together. Then mix in your wet, followed by the figs and water mixture. Pour into your cake pans and pop into oven for about 30 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup margarine

1. Microwave chocolate chips and margarine together and stir until smooth.
2. When your cakes are cooled, top with chocolate glaze. You can stack them or keep as individual cakes.