The Ultimate Good Morning Muffins

- Banana, Walnut, Peanut, Quinoa, Chocolate Chip Muffins with Protein Powder -

Last month my brother, Quinton, gave me the remains of a giantor tub of protein powder and a recipe so I could try making homemade protein bars. I was thrilled, because I do not always have sandwiches or meals to take to school (as they can be a hassle to make sometimes), so I usually take a protein bar or muffins instead, to tie me over until I can have real food at home. But protein bars are SO expensive. It seems that you could practically eat a steak for the price of a few. Of course, they are cheaper than a steak, but come on. They're not a steak, just some sweet junk with some artificial protein junk, which taste pretty good.

Anyway, so it's fantastic to be able to make these artificial protein enhanced snacks for oneself rather than having to buy them. So, I am still planning to make the actual protein bars, but I was making banana nut muffins the other day with some more of my Quinoa flour, and I thought, "why don't I put some protein powder in these?" It was a good idea. I just reduced the flour content by the amount of protein powder I added, and I used quinoa flour, which has a full protein in it as well, so they should be pretty sustaining. One could experiment with using more protein powder (in place of flour), but I have not tried that yet, so I thought I'd better only post what I can vouch for. These were amazing. You cannot taste the protein powder, and the toasted walnuts are to die for. Make sure you toast your walnuts until they are a deep brown colour. Put them on a cookie sheet and toast them for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees and they should be perfect. I just threw in some peanuts, too, because I had them, but the walnuts are the best; make sure you have those.



Enjoy these! They are filled with all sorts of goodness!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup toasted peanuts, coarsely chopped (5-10 min in 350 degree oven)
3/4 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped (10-15 min in 350 degree oven)

1c plain flour
3/4 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup chocolate protein powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup mashed, ripe bananas
1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
- Grease your muffin tin, and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. (This recipe will make appx 18 muffins.)
- In a small bowl, whisk the flours, protein powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil & eggs. Stir int eh bananas, sour cream and vanilla.
- Gradually stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture until just combined.
- Then mix in the chocolate chips, and 1/4 cup of the mixed nuts.
- Divide the batter between the muffin tins, and top with toasted nuts.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.