Recipe Details
Community Pick Lunch Box Muffins
Photo by Probably This
| Total Ready Time | Yield |
|------------------|-------|
| 50 minutes | 18 muffins |
Ingredients
1 cup shredded zucchini (with or without skin)
3–5 ripe bananas
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
½ cup melted butter
½ teaspoon salt (optional)
Step-by-Step Instructions
Mash bananas into the shredded zucchini until the combined mixture measures 2 ½ cups total. It’s fine to leave a few small banana lumps—no need to over-smash.
Stir in the brown sugar and egg until evenly combined.
Mix in the melted butter.
In a separate bowl, whisk all dry ingredients together.
Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, and stir only until everything is just incorporated (over-mixing leads to dense muffins).
Fill buttered, floured muffin cups ¾ full with batter.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20–30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Let muffins rest in the pan for 2 minutes.
Transfer muffins to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
Reader Reviews
Don’t cut fat out of your kids’ diets—they need it for brain development! You can cut added sugar instead, which they don’t need much of. This base recipe is fine, but I developed a similar version years ago that adds vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger for warm, delicate flavor that makes these really yummy. It’s super easy to add these extra seasonings for more depth of taste.
These turned out very good! I used 1 ½ cups zucchini and only 2 bananas, and cut the butter down to ¼ cup. They came out super moist with just the right amount of sweetness. I just used non-stick cooking spray on my muffin tin, and they released really well. Next time I’ll try swapping pumpkin for the banana! This recipe made 12 large muffins for me.
These are perfect muffins for breakfast or packing into school lunches. I only added 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed, and my kids gobbled them up. I love how hearty they are, and that they’re packed with fiber. Next time I might swap applesauce for half the butter to make them even healthier. Thanks for a great recipe!
These were really great! I used whole wheat pastry flour and coconut oil instead of butter. They turned out perfect, and I feel good about serving this healthy breakfast treat to my kids. Thanks for sharing!
I found another version of this recipe called zucchini banana muffins, but picked this one because the instructions for balancing banana and zucchini quantities are much clearer. I only had 2 bananas (1 cup mashed) and 1 ½ cups shredded zucchini, so I used that ratio. I swapped 2 tablespoons canola oil and ½ cup applesauce for butter, added 1 teaspoon cinnamon and ½ cup chocolate chips because my son loves banana chocolate chip muffins. I made larger muffins and got 12 total, and all but one were gone in less than 5 hours—That’s how good they are! The texture is perfectly moist, the flavor is excellent, and I love the heartiness oatmeal adds to baked goods. I used old-fashioned rolled oats instead of quick-cooking and it worked perfectly. I will definitely make this again.
View 29 additional reader reviews
Popular Custom Tweaks
Make them as mini muffins: The recipe works great for small portions! Swap applesauce for butter and throw in chocolate chips for a kid-favorite snack. Half my batch used paper liners, but they turned out even better without them.
Lower-sugar, grain-free swap: Replace brown sugar with Swerve and all-purpose flour with almond flour, then add cinnamon, raisins, chia seeds, and/or flax seed for an extra nutrient-dense, yummy muffin.
Boost fiber: Add 2 tablespoons ground flax seed for extra heartiness and fiber that kids won’t even notice.
View 2 more reader-submitted tweaks
Recipe Submitted By
PrincessCalynn, Burnaby, BC
I know all too well the struggle every mom faces: making nutritious meals and snacks that the whole family, including you, will actually enjoy. So many "low-fat" recipes end up bland and boring, so I make it my goal to cut fat without cutting flavor. The best reward is when my family takes a bite and asks, "This is low fat?!?! Wow, can we have it again tomorrow?" I bake every week, but I rarely nail a low-fat cookie that actually tastes great, so sometimes I stick to a tested recipe like this one to share!