Giant chocolate banana protein muffins
by Dani Shugart
Hungry? Have a snack that supports your body composition goals and fills you up. Here's a healthy muffin recipe you've just gotta try.
There's a middle ground between snacking on junk and snacking on raw broccoli. And that middle ground is delicious. That's where this muffin recipe comes in.
And I won't stop saying it. You can be lean and jacked without eating like a monk – but by the same token – you can satisfy a sweet tooth without eating like an unsupervised child on Halloween night. That's the deal with dessert that makes you feel full; it won't leave you feeling like you need more to be satiated.
This recipe isn't low calorie because these muffins are enormous. But you may find yourself cutting them in half and sharing with someone else. And if you don't share, awesome! Desserts that satiate are still the ones that keep us lean.
Each muffin has about 20 grams of protein. That may not seem like a lot, but it's quadruple the protein of a Starbucks muffin with 100 fewer calories. Scroll down to see how these muffins compare to the ones you'd find at Panera.
So let's get to the good part: ingredients and directions.
Ingredients
- 3 small bananas
- 1 can pumpkin puree
- 3 scoops chocolate MD Protein ➔ Buy at Biotest
- 1 cup Splenda or sweetener of choice
- 1/3 cup (about 5 tbsps) PB2 peanut-butter powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup walnuts (optional)
- Non-stick spray
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 degrees Celsius)
- Mash the bananas in a mixing bowl.
- Add all the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray.
- Evenly distribute the batter into a muffin tin that holds four large muffins and bake for roughly 35 to 40 minutes.
- Pull the muffins out of the oven and check for doneness by stabbing one with a knife or toothpick. If it comes out clean, it's cooked through. If it comes out with batter attached, it needs a little more time. This recipe doesn't contain eggs or raw meat, so you can enjoy it undercooked. Or just eat the batter totally raw, you animal.
Options
- Go nuts... or don't! I added walnuts in the video, but you can skip them completely or use any type of chopped nut you like. Chocolate chips are also a thing you could add.
- If you only have a standard muffin tin, use it but decrease the cook time by at least 10 minutes.
- You don't have to use Splenda. Monk fruit (Buy at Amazon) sweetener is also a good choice for this recipe.
- Also, feel free to decrease the sugar substitute if you don't like your muffins super sweet. Just taste the batter as you go and use that as your guide.
- Sugar substitutions are not calorie free, so remember that any modifications (or any nut additions, changes in muffin size, etc.) you make will alter the calorie and macro count listed below.
These values are for each jumbo-sized muffin. (The optional walnuts are not included in the nutritional value of the base recipe.)
Nutrition facts per large muffin
- Calories: 258
- Fat: 3 grams
- Carbs: 33 grams
- Protein: 20 grams
Apple-jack protein muffins
by Dani Shugart
Muffins are usually deceiving. They're just less-good cupcakes with tons of calories. NOT THESE. See for yourself.
Muffins don't typically contain much protein, and they're usually so packed with sugar and garbage that you might as well just eat a candy bar.
Google the words "apple cinnamon muffin + calories," and the first store-bought thing that pops up contains 520 calories, 61 grams of carbs, 29 grams of fat, and 6 grams of protein.
With shreds of actual apple popping out and a few scoops of protein, the macros for *theseare 8 grams of protein, 19 grams of carbs, and a single gram of fat. And there's only 110 calories per muffin. Not bad for a dessert, right?
If you want to up the protein, just eat them alongside a plate of scrambled eggs. Or have it as a sweet bite after you've already eaten a protein-packed dinner.
Ingredients
- 3 scoops vanilla MD Protein ➔ Buy at Biotest
- 2 medium apples
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- 1 egg
- 1 cup baking Splenda
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Shred apples using a cheese grater.
- Combine all ingredients into a mixing bowl.
- Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with coconut oil.
- Spoon your batter into the muffin pan evenly.
- Bake for about 25 minutes.
Nutrition facts per muffin
- Calories 103
- Protein 8g
- Carbs 19g
- Fat 1g
