All morning long, I couldn't get the thought of bananas off my mind. Am I going bananas? That would not be entirely out of the question.

When I finally took a break for lunch, I discovered what was driving me bananas. I had a few brown spot bananas behind me in the fruit bowl. Normally I would have made my banana bread (a version straight from the Moosewood Cookbook I've had for about 20 years now!) but being on Weight Watchers, I really prefer to try to keep my snacks to 5 points and under.

Flipping through my newest Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook, I found a recipe for Jumbo Bran Muffins, and decided to work with it to make a better muffin. So here is my modified recipe:

Preheat the oven to 375˙F and spray a 6-cup muffin tin with non-stick spray.

Topping:
2 tablespoons nutri-blend flour (all purpose whole-wheat flour)
1 tablespoon Splenda brown sugar blend
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and diced
2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped

Muffin Batter:
1-1/4 cups nutri-blend flour (all purpose whole-wheat flour)
1-1/2 cups wheat bran
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, grated
1 large egg
2 tablespoons egg white
2 tablespoons Splenda brown sugar blend
1 tablespoon espresso
2 brown spot bananas, mushed
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2/3 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

For the topping, blend together all the ingredients until its looks kind of like the topping for a crisp. In essence, it is a topping for a crisp, but we're not using it that way!

For the batter, mix together the flour, wheat bran, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs and egg white together with the brown sugar on a high speed for a minute or less. Turn the speed down to low, and add in each of the liquid ingredients one by one, the espresso, the bananas, almond extract, and buttermilk.

Pour the flour mixture into the liquid mixture, keeping the mixer at low speed. Once mostly blended, add in the raisins and chopped nuts. Beat until just blended.

Use a 1/3 cup to scoop out portions of batter and pour into the prepared muffin tin, divide any remaining batter equally among the cups. Top each muffin with equal amount of the prepared sugar, butter and nut topping.

Bake for about 25 minutes, cool for 5 minutes and remove from the pan. Enjoy while warm with a little jam or, if you are one of the lucky people who don't need to watch their weight, throw a little butter on it for me!