Date and Walnut Banana Muffin Recipe

These big bakery-style Date and Walnut Banana Muffins are breakfast comfort food at its finest. Often when muffins are made at home, they’re a fraction of the size of the ones you get at a bakery, not as filling, and not as moist. These muffins outshine any other homemade muffin.

Two years ago around this time, we went to NYC and visited a bakery with giant muffins, moist and filled with all of the best ingredients. I split a Walnut and Date muffin with my son that morning and made a mental note to make this muffin at home. It was a special moment, with my family, traveling and enjoying the good life together. This time last year, our family went through major trauma. It’s difficult to recall the details but such a relief to be on the other side. Its painful to look back at images or to talk about those dark times but moving forward, it’s also good to remember what God did in our little family’s life. I need a giant muffin and some really good black coffee and I’ll share more…

A year ago, after a few doctors visits with my son and only minor diagnosis, my son’s winter sickness got worse and worse. What some said was ‘just a virus’ or a cold, quickly turned into a bad case of pneumonia. After a doctor friend visited our home, we decided to rush Everett to the ER. And our trauma began.

With my 2 year old in my arms I quickly filled out paperwork then the ER check-in nurses checked his vitals. A gentle woman on staff then said to me in a soft voice, ‘Okay things are about to get a little crazy, and you’re going to hear words like code blue and a lot of people are going to come to the room quickly, but don’t worry, everyone is here to help.’ I immediately broke down in tears, trying to hold it together for my sons sake but without the will power to do so. Luckily, my dear friend Sandy was there to help. We gathered our things, without having to wait in the waiting room, and headed through the emergency room’s emergency doors. And just as she said, doctors, nurses and hospital staff rushed into our room and oxygen, IVs and blood tests were supplied. I was in the midst of my worst nightmare.

Within 30 minutes a doctor told us that Everett did have pneumonia and it was a bad case but he’d seen worse. He’d have to do a chest X-ray and ultrasound to find out if his chest needed to be drained of fluid and we’d be spending up to 10 days in the hospital. This was the beginning of our winter of trauma last year. Yes, only the beginning, to read Everett’s full story you can look at this post here.

When you’re in the midst of any trauma like that the only way to survive is to take it one day at a time, or maybe even minute by minute. We’ve all heard sayings like this before but they only make sense when you’re actually in the trauma. You can’t think about the next day or the big picture but just get through moment by moment. I would hold my sons hand through one blood test before thinking about the next one, or the new IV or the MRI we would have to later get. I asked God for his DAILY bread, daily. He is so good to give us what we need moment by moment and he even tells us to ask for what we need on this day, not tomorrow, not one year from now. So this is how I got through it, this is how I’m one year out and can (with the help of a giant muffin and coffee) look back on those moments.

Two years ago a giant muffin, NYC and a carefree healthy family, one year ago the darkest times of my life, and today a more whole yet completely dependent me and more muffins. I’m thanking God for my daily bread, today, and today in the form of a muffin!