HEALTHY BANANA BREAD | high-protein recipe, easy & moist!

Hello my friends, it's Dani and today I'm sharing a healthy banana bread recipe. Now this is a blood sugar balancing, high protein recipe that's easy to make and absolutely delicious. And unlike traditional banana breads, each slice of this bread packs in 13 grams of protein thanks to some very simple protein rich ingredient swaps. So first things first, I have my oven preheating to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and I'm going to prepare a loaf pan by lining it with some parchment paper. Now I have found the easiest way to get the parchment paper to fit in the loaf pan with ease is to sit the loaf pan on top of the parchment paper and then just cut out the corners of the paper in alignment with the pan. So just like this. And then you're just going to repeat that for all four corners. And then I put a thin coating of coconut oil, this could also be butter or even cooking spray straight directly on the loaf pan and then place the parchment paper on top. That little bit of extra fat really just helps to keep the parchment paper in place. So this is what it's going to look like when it's all set and ready to go. Then in a nice big bowl, I'm going to combine all of the dry ingredients first, starting with one cup of oat flour. Now remember you can buy oat flour at the grocery store or you can make it yourself. All you have to do is throw some rolled oats into a blender and then just blend it up until it's broken down and you have a nice light fluffy flour like I have here. Now oat flour is great because it's naturally higher in both protein and fiber than a traditional wheat flour and it's naturally gluten free. But if you have a gluten sensitivity or an intolerance, make sure to buy a brand that is certified gluten free just to avoid any risk of cross-contamination. Next I'll add three quarters of a cup of superfine almond flour, which adds another 20 plus grams of protein to the recipe, and then a half a cup of protein powder. Now you can use any type of protein powder that you prefer or that you have on hand. Whether it's a plant-based protein powder or a whey-based protein powder, they're both going to work and I will be sure to link a few of my favorite options down in the description box below. And then for a little extra sweetness, I have a third of a cup of coconut sugar. Now if you wanted to really pull back on the sugars here, you could choose a brown sugar or monk fruit. That could definitely work, but personally I think the end texture of the bread is better with the coconut sugar. And then last but not least, I have a teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda and a half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon just for that warm, cozy flavor. Then using a fork, I'll just gently whisk this all together, get those ingredients well combined, and then we are on to the wet ingredients starting with our bananas. Now, you're going to need one cup or 265 grams of mashed ripe bananas. And as you can see, my bananas are crazy brown. A lot of people would think they're not good at this point, but they actually are. And remember, the browner the banana, the sweeter the banana. So I love letting them get super brown like this because it just adds extra sweetness to the bread. Now to the bananas, I'm going to add a half a cup of plain Greek yogurt. I'm using a low-fat 2% Greek yogurt. You could use a non-fat, a full-fat. They would all work. And if you wanted to, you could even do a vanilla yogurt here. Totally up to you. And then I have one whole egg and a quarter cup, which is 60 grams or two egg whites. And then finally, one teaspoon of vanilla extract. Now keep in mind that whole eggs are perfectly healthy and incredibly nutritious. The only reason that I am opting to use some egg whites here is because for this recipe, protein is the name of the game, right? And the protein from an egg is found in the egg whites. But if preferred, you could skip the egg whites and do two whole eggs. Or if you wanted to really amp up the protein, you could skip the whole egg and do a half a cup of egg whites or four egg whites. Okay, I've got my wet ingredients well combined, and I'm just going to pour them into the dry ingredients. So I'm adding them into the bigger bowl here. And then again, I'm just going to stir until I've got all the ingredients mixed together. You don't want to over mix here because then the bread can get very heavy and dense. So you just want to mix until you can see that you've got a nice batter and all of those ingredients have come together. Then I'm going to pour this into my prepared loaf pan, and I'm going to top it with a third of a cup of chocolate chips. I have a little variety of chocolate chips here because that was in my chocolate chip bin. But keep in mind, you could also do nuts. You could do a walnut or a pecan. But in our house, the vote is always for chocolate. So that's going to go right over the top. Then you're going to pop this in the oven, and you're going to let it cook anywhere between 35 and 45 minutes. But I will tell you at about the 25 minute mark, I like to open the oven and just lay a piece of foil over the top of the banana bread. This is just going to help prevent it from getting too brown over the top. Now you're going to know your banana bread is just about ready when the kitchen gets super fragrant and it smells like fresh baked banana bread that you just want to take a bite of. So then you want to get that banana bread out of the oven and let it cool. You've got to let it come down a little bit before you cut into it. But once it's cool enough to handle, you can just pop it right out of the pan, thanks to that parchment paper lining. Take the parchment paper off, slice, and enjoy. This is such a light, moist, and flavorful banana bread. It is so delicious. Honestly, it's just as good, if not better, than a traditional banana bread. And we get the added benefits of 13 grams of protein per slice. Now, if you enjoy easy, healthy recipes just like this, make sure to grab your copy of the Clean and Delicious Cookbook. You can get it right on Amazon, and it has over 100 whole food ingredient recipes, just like the one I've shared with you here today. As always, thank you so much for watching. I'm Dannie Spees, and I'll see you back here next time with some more clean and deliciousness. Cheers!