Pineapple Banana Muffins

Week 362. Winter 2023. I am 40 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like soup and bread and this is my life. This is the life I built.

I went for a run this morning — the Saturday routine, the greenbelt, the river, the particular meditation of feet on a path and lungs filling and the body doing what it was told it couldn't do. The running group meets rain or shine.

Mason is 12 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 10 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made cinnamon rolls this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

The cinnamon rolls were already behind me by the time I sat down to write this, but I kept thinking about what it means to have a kitchen that smells like something good — about all the mornings I baked just to feel like myself again. These Pineapple Banana Muffins have become part of that same ritual: simple enough that my hands can move through the steps without thinking, sweet enough that Mason and Lily appear in the kitchen like magic. That’s all I ever need a recipe to do.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 22 min | Total Time: 37 min | Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 ripe bananas, mashed (about 3/4 cup)
1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple, well drained
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 375°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray generously with nonstick cooking spray.
Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until evenly combined.
Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, drained crushed pineapple, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold gently with a spatula until just combined — a few streaks of flour are fine. Do not overmix or the muffins will be dense.
Fill the tin. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake. Bake for 20–22 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool. Let muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pineapple Banana Muffins — The Food That Connects Every Version of Me