Start your day with protein

While starting your day with protein is so important, many of us, including children, do not get enough protein to fuel their day. When living or working with kids, we need to sometimes make accommodations for them in order to get them what their growing bodies need.

I love tweaking recipes to add nutritional value to them. While internet trolls like to go after influencers about “hidden veggies” and the idea of tricking kids into eating veggies, I like to remind people that its our job as parents to feed our children a whole foods diet.

Whether your child is a picky eater or not, adding things like extra veggies or protein to their favorite foods is a win-win. They get the nutrition they need, and you are doing your job as a parent feeding them well, while also not having to argue about eating more eggs or broccoli.

This banana bread hits in all the right places: kid friendly, easy to make, filled with protein, lots of nutrients and minerals and low in sugar too.

You won’t have to force anyone to eat this for breakfast!

• What you will need:

  • Loaf pans, preferably glass or stoneware. Avoid aluminum as it can leach into foods

  • Organic flour- I source mine from Azure Standard (visit them to find a drop location near you) but Walmart stocks a white bread flour too. I prefer to use organic whole wheat pastry flour from Azure because I’ve found that it maintains a great texture while also adding whole grains to the bread

  • Overripe bananas (if you have kids, chances are you have an overabundance of these)

  • Perfect Supplements Plant Protein- this is loaded with pumpkin seeds, inchi and hemp hearts. Its a perfect plant based protein that bakes up perfectly into these loaves

  • Various add ins such as pepitas, walnuts or pecans, chocolate chips or dried fruits

  • Raw cane sugar or an alternative sweetener such as maple syrup, honey or coconut sugar. I have written the recipe with ¼ cup of sugar, but have also made it with less. Remember that bananas will help sweeten this too!

  • Eggs- I use farm fresh and highly recommend them for their greater nutritional value as compared to store bought eggs

  • Some kind of oil- I use butter, avocado oil or coconut oil normally. You could also try tallow, lard or ghee as well

  • A few pantry baking staples such as salt and baking powder

Got it all ready? Grab your bowl and get this mixed up while you’re making dinner and have breakfast ready for the morning!

Protein Packed Banana Bread

1 3/4 cup flour of choice (see notes above)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt
3-4 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup maple syrup, honey or raw cane sugar 
2 eggs
2/3 cup melted butter, avocado oil or coconut oil
1 1/2 scoops Perfect Supplements protein powder

Add-ins: I used raw pepitas, chopped pecans, chocolate chips, plus extra for sprinkling on top. You can also use dried fruits like dates, craisins or raisins, or other nuts or seeds

1. Add bananas, eggs and sweetener to a bowl. Mix with a hand mixer, or mash well with a fork. 
2. Stir in butter or oil, blend again. 
3. Measure flour into bowl, add in baking powder, salt and protein powder, then mix until just incorporated, making sure to use a rubber spatula to stir up the bottom and scrape the sides.
4. Stir in any nuts/seeds/chips/dried fruit. 
5. Pour mixture into a buttered loaf pan and sprinkle with the same toppings you mixed in 
6. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Serve for breakfast as is on the way out the door or make a side of scrambled eggs or a smoothie for extra protein and nutrients to start the day. This recipe can easily be doubled for larger families, or freeze the second loaf for another time!

Interested in more recipes for healthy meals and treats?

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