Banana Muffins with Lemon Icing

My family goes through bananas like crazy, so it's not often that I have many bananas that will just hang around to get ripe. But every once in a while we do, and I am a little sick of banana bread. We only have one recipe of Banana Bread we make and it gets a little old (although they all love it), I was just ready for something new. I knew when I saw this recipe linked up to THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Linky Party that this was a recipe I was going to try for sure; Banana Muffins with Lemon Icing. And I just noticed that it is a Weight Watcher recipe, even better. I made these last week and froze them to take to Florida, (of course, I ate two before I did that, and they were scrumptious).

My twin daughters are competitive dancers and we will be leaving today to compete at the WORLDS DANCE Competition in Orlando, Florida. (We'd love for you to say a little pray for us, for save travels and for all the dancers to be positive and to do their personal BEST)! We are all very excited. There are over 28 countries represented there and this is an awesome opportunity for all of them to compete and meet other dancers from all over the world. It's equally exciting to watch them communicate and trade t-shirts with girls from Japan, Finland, China and so many other countries. They all share the common ground of dancing even though they do not speak each others language. It's amazing. 

This is their costume from last year, and their team took 2nd place at the Worlds Dance Competition. (I am sure I will be sharing new pictures next week from this year's competition).

We are always so grateful for these opportunities for our kids and I too am so proud of my daughters. They have been dancing their hearts out for 9 years and each and every year they worker harder then the year before. it's amazing watching them grow. GOOD LUCK Ashlyn, Kayley and the entire Pace Elite Dance team. (If you are interested you can LIKE USAF/IASF on facebook and watch routines live all weekend, my daughters company she dances for is PACE ELITE)

See note below on freezing (for all the holes in my muffin)!

I made a dozen of these Banana Muffins (froze them) and will pack them and take with us to Florida. I also made Magic Sweet Potato Muffins. When we are at this competition it is hard work. We wake up at 4am and get to the competition and they practice...practice...practice... until it's their time to compete... then compete like no other. Then we stay all day til about 10 or 11 pm (wait for the finals announcements for the following day), only to wake up and do it all over again the next day! And I have to say the girls are so amazing, they never complain. They just go... go...go... and LOVE every minute of it! This is why it's important to have lots of food and healthy snacks for them to eat all day long. They pack breakfast, lunch and dinner so that they are well feed and do not eat junk all day long.

Now, onto the Banana Muffins recipe.

Banana Muffins with Lemon Icing

originally found on Addicted to Recipes

1/2 cup sugar
5 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup milk
4 bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; cream with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until thoroughly mixed.

In another large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add half of flour mixture to butter mixture; beat well with mixer. Add milk and remaining flour mixture; beat until batter is combined and then fold in mashed bananas.

Spoon batter into muffin liners about 3/4 full. Bake until muffins start to brown and a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Allow muffins to cool in pan for about 2 minutes; remove to a wire rack and cool completely before icing.

Lemon Icing1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest to taste
1 tsp vanilla extract

Meanwhile, combine icing ingredients in a medium bowl; beat with an electric mixer until creamy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Ice cooled muffins; cover and refrigerate any uneaten muffins.

(Freezing Note: Since I was freezing these muffins and did not want the icing to be a problem. I used a skewer and poked several holes in the top of the muffin before adding the icing. This allowed the icing to set down into the muffin instead of laying on top.)