Pistachio-Banana Bread Protein Muffins

Hey Friends!

I feel like I should start calling protein muffins pro-ffins just so my recipe names would be shorter… Or maybe I should just stop to think of cooler names…I think that may need some help though.. #MyCreativityIsMIA

Who else has been MIA…

ME!

Sorry I have been slackin with my postin lately…

I love writing so I miss it (and you guys!) when ‘other’ life stuff takes over.

Work has had me a lil bit busy.

Anyways, who wants a new snackie recipe?

Those Pistachios!

I created these after seeing Crystal’s  Chocolate Chip Banana Protein Bread and gettin an itchin for some high protein banana bread of my own. Now you may ask me…Pistachios in banana bread? That’s weird! But is it really…? Due to it being St. Patty’s Day weekend when I made these, I wanted a least a touch of green in these lil guys. Oh and pistachios are just nomz. Amirite or amirite?

Just trust mmmkay? 😀

Also trust me when I say that these are suuuuper moist from all that nanner. The flavour is really brought out by refrigeration as well, so keep these lil babies in the fridge! **NOTE you should do that anyways as they have no preservatives in them to keep them fresh when left out*** I have to say that this is probably the most banana I have ever put in a recipe due to my sugar-phobness and it was okay. Three total grams is higher than my usual goodies, at 0-1g, but I’m trying to step away from watching every gram and the extra carbs were needed for this recipe. Anyways, with 6g of protein and 3g of fiber, that sugar will be absorbed much slower than it would have been if you just ate a piece of banana.

Okay enough rambling, here ya go!

Pistachio-Banana Bread Protein Muffins (Gluten-Free)

Makes 12 Muffins

Macros: Calories: 109 Carbohydrates: 15g Protein: 6g Fat: 4g Sugar: 3g Fiber: 3g

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten free oats (ground into a flour)
• 1 scoop Vanilla Whey (I used my Schinoussa Probiotic New Zealand Whey in French Vanilla Silk)
• 2 tbsp coconut flour
• 2 tbsp flax meal
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 25g shelled, no salt pistachios

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed ripe banana (nuke for a 30s to a minute with a tsp of water and a lid to help mash if needed)
• 1/2 cup butternut squash puree
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 large organic egg
• 1/4 cup egg whites
• 1 tbsp raw coconut butter (I used Artisana)
• 1 tsp banana extract (or vanilla)

Directions: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to get all of the lumps out. In another bowl, mash your banana. Add your egg and mix until the egg is broken up and combined with the banana. Add the rest of your wet ingredients and stir well. Fold your wet into your dry and pour your mixture into 12 sprayed or lightly oiled muffin tins. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until the tops are brown and firm to the touch (with a slight bounce). Let cool and enjoy!

Dry ingredients with pistachios folded in.

Wet ingredients.

All together.

Before the oven.

After the oven.

…and apparently I failed to take a picture of a full one before it ended up in my mouth. Oppps. You will just have to make them to see for yourself. 😉

-Chelsea

Chunky Monkey Protein Muffins…or Pronuts

Hey Friends,

I love the chunky monkey combo. Nuts, banana and chocolate. What’s not to love?

I made this combo into a very successful peanut butter spread and now I have finally turned it into a muffin to enjoy every days for my afternoon snackage.

Weekend food preppin..

Aren’t those chunks of banana wonderful? I think so 😉

This week I even made them into pronuts just because I felt like having a donut shaped snack again…

The only difference is that the baking time is reduced to about 13-14 minutes.

I hope you like’em 🙂

Chunky Monkey Protein Muffins

Gluten-free (can also be made lactose free if using a lactose-free whey)

Makes 6

Per Muffin: 141 Calories 16g Carbs 5g Fat 10g Protein 2g Sugar (from fruit/vegetables only) 4g Fiber

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten free oats (ground into a flour)
• 1 scoop Diesel Chocolate Peanut Butter Whey (or I have used Vanilla Probiotic Whey. Chocolate would work well here too)
• 2 tbsp coconut flour
• 2 tbsp flax meal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp Stevia Balance in Chocolate Royale (can sub with unsweetened cacao/cocoa powder + Stevia)
• 20g of chopped walnuts
• 1/4 ounce of raw cacao nibs

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup liquid egg whites
• 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup butternut squash puree (surprised to see this? Promise you won’t taste it and it makes for the most moist (sorry..) baked goods!)
• 1/2 tsp banana extract
• 2-3 tbsp water if the batter is too dry

Additional Add-In:

• 50g diced banana

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all the dry and whisk to get out any lumps of coconut flour. In another bowl, combine all of the wet and whisk until smooth. Fold wet into dry and add more water if needed. Fold the banana chunks into your batter than pour into 6 sprayed muffin or donut tins. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until the top is firm but still has some bounce. ***Always remember that whey will dry out your baked goods if you over bake. It’s best to take them out a lil bit earlier an let them stay in the tin to set.***

Like I said earlier…

They make good donuts too. 😀

-Chelsea

Brownie Stuffed Plantain Muffins

Hey Friends,

***So I’m re-posting this recipe so that I can take part in CandyFit’s #RecipeFriday as I have wanted to do that for a while and this week I actually had a good lil recipe to share with the blog world. Is that cheating? 😛 Anyways I hope you enjoy them, they are quite yummy. Thanks to Kierston for the link up partay and don’t forget to head over to her blog and check out all the other cool recipes!***

So I had promised you the recipe for these lil babies last night in my WIAW post…

So now is the time I will give it to ya! I wanted to wait and not add it to my post last night because 1. I was running super late and my boyfriend was wanting me to come join him for our nightly Entourage watching and 2. because I wanted to try one out for myself, rather than relying solely on my boyfriends thumbs up, before giving you the recipe! So I had one last night and they were really yummy! Yes, a success with my first plantain experience! 😀 Subtly sweet from the plantains, chocolately from the brownie pieces and a nice lil crunch from the random nuts and cacao nibs that were added into the batter. A lil bit of everythang in there. Just look at those brownie chunks! So good.

Serves 12

Wet Ingredients 1

1 tsp coconut oil

150g ripe plantain

Wet Ingredients 2

1 large egg

1 large white white (3 tbsp liquid egg whites)

1/4 cup apple sauce

1/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened Dream Blends- coconut and almond blend)

1 tbsp natural crunchy peanut butter (or favourite nut butter)

2 tbsp peanut flour + 2-3 tbsp water to reconstitute

2 tsp coconut oil (liquid)

Dry Ingredients

1 scoop Cellucor peanut butter marshmallow whey (or other PB or vanilla flavoured whey)

1/2 cup oats

2 tbsp coconut flour

2 Stevia packets (or more if you have a bigger sweet tooth)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

Add-Ins

1 Quest Brownie bar, cut into chunks (feel free to replace with chocolate chips, carob chips, etc)

1/2 ounce of raw cacao nibs

Directions:

1. Slice up your plantain and sautee in the 1 tsp of coconut oil on medium/medium high heat. When they have caramelized on both sides and start sticking to the pan, add some water (few tbsp at the most) to the pan (be careful as it will spit a little bit), swirl it around and pop a lid on it. What you are doing here is first caramelizing (through sauteing them) the plantains to release more sweetness and then steaming them to heat them through more so you can mash it all up into a puree. When the majority of the water has been soaked up, begin to mash up the plantains and continue to add water and pop the lid back on until all of the plantains have been mashed up. Take off the heat and set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
3. Pulse half of your oats into a flour (1/4 cup of oats).
4. Add your oat flour to a large bowl and then add the rest of the dry ingredients to the bowl and combine.
5. Crack the egg into a separate bowl and whisk until it’s all broken up. Add the rest of the wet ingredients (with the exception of the coconut oil as it will solidify again as the ingredients are cold) and combine until the peanut butter is broken up and distributed.
6. Add the plantain mixture to the wet ingredients and mix well, mashing any larger lumps.
7. Add the 2 tsp of coconut oil and quickly mix. **If your coconut oil starts to solidify again, you can microwave the mixture in 30 second intervals (you don’t want to cook the eggs) and stir until it is more liquidy again**
   

   Here’s what your wet mixture will look like

8. Fold the wet into the dry ingredients. **If your mixture is too dry, add a lil more water** it will depend on your whey
9. Chop up your brownie Questbar (if using) into chunks and fold those and the cacao nibs into the batter.
10. Pour your batter into 6 large (or 12 smaller) sprayed muffin molds and bake covered (aluminum foil tented) in the oven until the muffins have set in the middle and when a toothpick inserted into the centre it comes out clean. Mine, which I baked into 6 larger muffins, took about 25 minutes to bake.
11. Remove from the oven and let cool before flipping them out of the muffin tins.
12. Enjoy!

Nutritionals (per 1/12 of the recipe, or 1/2 a large muffin)

Calories: 102.9, Fat: 4.2g, Carbs: 11.8, Protein: 6.8g, Fiber: 3.7, Sugar: 2.7g (all from the plantain)

Eaten hot or cold (cold brings out more sweetness, but I like my goodies warm), topped with nut butter or plain, these are really good so I hope you enjoy them as much as we did over here! I get super excited (nerd much) when a new experiment works out well. 😀 Remember, feel free to add in anything your lil heart desires but the Questbar chunks really make these more decadent 😉

Keep nommin’

-Chelsea