One of my favorite things to see in my kitchen is when the bananas begin to have little brown specks on them.  This means the bananas are nice and sweet and they open a world of possibilities.  From ice cream to smoothies to banana bread – you want to wait for the bananas in your world to have a few spots, speckles, and streaks.

I was inspired by a friend who recently put a bunch of banana bread pictures up on Pinterest.  A few days after seeing the pins, I started craving banana bread like crazy.  I have been faithfully working out and so I decided to try a protein packed version so I could eat as many as I wanted to without feeling guilty.

Success!!!  These muffins are moist and packed with flavor, without any oil, butter, gluten, or refined sugar.

Protein Banana Bread Muffin Recipe makes 12 regular muffins
4 ripe bananas
1C oat flour
1/2C cooked quinoa I used red
1/2C unsweetened cinnamon applesauce or regular unsweetened applesauce and 1/2t cinnamon
2 egg whites
1 scoop vanilla protein powder mine was a 1/4C
1T honey
1t vanilla extract
3 stevia packets
3/4t baking powder
1/2t baking soda

optional mix ins/toppings: walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips, or shredded coconut

Begin by pre-heating the oven to 350 and mashing the bananas well.  I just mashed them in my mixer.

Add in all ingredients except the oat flour and egg whites.

Once everything is well mixed, add in the flour and taste the batter to see if it is sweetened to your likening.  Remember, the riper the bananas, the sweeter the muffins will be.  Once the sweetness level is good, add in the egg whites and mix for the final time.

I put liners in my muffin tin and lightly sprayed oil over them so the muffins wouldn’t stick to the liners.  This is a sticky muffin recipe.  Fill the muffin liners about 7/8 full.  I topped some with toasted walnuts, pushing them slightly into the batter.

Bake at 350 for about 13 minutes.  This is just slightly undercooked if your oven bakes at a true 350.  The middle is not raw, but very moist, which keeps well for several days in an air tight container and is perfect for a quick reheat throughout the week.

Enjoy!  With this exact recipe, these muffins are about 100 calories each, 1g of fat, and 3.5g of protein (my protein powder has 11.5g of protein per scoop.)

Let me know if you mix it up or try a different topping (I’ve done dark chocolate chips, too and love them!!)