School-Safe Protein Banana Muffins
⏱ 35 min💪 9g protein per muffin🔥 ~210 cal🍽 12 muffins
Banana muffins are the safest bet in a lunchbox, and this version reaches 9g of protein each without tasting like a supplement. Oat flour, Greek yogurt, eggs, and a scoop of sunflower seed butter carry it. No almond flour, no nut butter, nothing that raises a flag at a nut-free school. They freeze well, which is the only realistic way to keep lunch packing sustainable through a school year.
Ingredients
- 3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 3/4 cups oat flour
- 2 scoops (60g) vanilla whey protein powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup creamy sunflower seed butter
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- Mash the bananas in a large bowl, then whisk in the eggs, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, sunflower seed butter, and vanilla until smooth.
- Add the oat flour, protein powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and stir just until no dry streaks remain, since overmixing gives you tough muffins.
- Fold in the chocolate chips, divide the batter between the 12 cups, and scatter a few extra chips on top.
- Bake for 20 to 23 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs but no wet batter.
- Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then move the muffins to a rack to finish cooling completely.
- Store in the fridge for 5 days, or freeze individually wrapped for 3 months and let one thaw in a lunchbox overnight.
Tips
- Use bananas that are more black than yellow. Underripe bananas give a bland muffin and there is not enough added sugar here to cover for them.
- Sunflower seed butter can react with baking soda and turn the crumb green a day later. It is harmless, but if it bothers your kid, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the batter and the color stays put.
- Bake half the batch in a mini muffin tin for 11 minutes. Minis fit a bento tray better and younger kids actually finish them.
FAQ
- Can I use regular flour instead of oat flour?
- Yes, use 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour since it is denser than oat flour. The muffins will no longer be gluten-free.
- Do these need to be refrigerated?
- Move the batch to the fridge after day two because of the yogurt and eggs. A single muffin packed in the morning is fine until lunch.
- Can I skip the protein powder?
- Replace it with 1/2 cup more oat flour and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. Protein drops to about 5g per muffin, mostly from the eggs and yogurt.
- Are these safe for a nut-free classroom?
- Yes, nothing in the recipe comes from a nut. Check your chocolate chip brand for a shared-facility warning, since that is the one ingredient here that commonly carries one.
