An Attempt at Being Healthy...

So, sometimes my dad is right. I know that's weird ae? He's actually a pretty smart guy, even though I try not to tell him too often. :) So we've both read this book, "The Smarter Science of Slim" by Jonathan Bailor. I know it seems a little strange, having a blog all about baking and then trying to eat healthy... But I guess my secret is that I don't eat much myself. I like to try what I bake, but only as a treat. I'd highly recommend reading his book to anyone who wants to just be more healthy, it doesn't have to all be about losing weight (although I have lost 9 kilos... Score!). So dad and I have really gotten into protein powder, healthier flours and natural sweetners. I know some of this stuff can be expensive, but if you buy it in bulk it gets a lot cheaper, plus having parents still buy your food is always a bonus... I have a protein shake for breakfast pretty much every morning, and it's great. I make mine with low fat greek yoghurt, trim milk, a banana, protein powder and some ice to keep it chilled. Most of the time it's quick and easy and so it works for me, but sometimes, the alarm just doesn't go off or I get the mid-morning munchies... I think you get my drift, I was kind of wanting something to snack on that I wouldn't feel bad about. So dad suggested putting protein powder into pancakes instead of flour, but I thought that would taste kind of weird... But. Then I started thinking... What about high-protein banana muffins? Bananas are great, dad and I are trying some stevia at the moment (awesome natural sweetner) and the protein powder makes them a great protein boost! So I think they turned out really well, they taste really yum and they're really moist, which they weren't so much the first time I tried them... So, these muffins are pretty darn SANE (you have to read the book to understand) and you don't have to feel really bad about eating them!

Banana Protein Powder Muffins

Ingredients:
4 or 5 frozen or overripe bananas (we freeze our bananas when they go bad because you can just defrost them and then use them in cooking and they keep in the freezer for ages. It's also a much better taste with frozen or overripe than ones that you might actually eat.)
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup stevia or other natural sweetner (you can use sugar, but then use 1/2 cup and they're not as guilt-free)
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
1/2t salt
3/4 cup stoneground flour (you can use normal, but stoneground is more like wholemeal, but finer and better tasting!)
3/4 cup protein powder (I use Aussie Bodies 100% Whey WPC/WPI Protein because it tastes the best and has the highest amount of protein whilst having less than 10g of sugar per 100g. Anymore than that and you may as well just have Frosties for breakfast!)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 175C and either grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line with muffin liners. My mum got these really cool reusable muffin liners that are non-stick and washable. I would totally invest in some if you're planning to make muffins more than once in your life because it means you don't go through tons of cupcake liners and there's less washing up afterwards! Defrost the bananas in the microwave and then mash them together. Add the stevia, the egg and the melted butter and mix together until combine. Add the baking soda, baking powder, salt, flour and protein powder and mix all together until just combined. Using a tablespoon, drop the mixture into the prepared tin, filling the cups about three-quarters full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of one comes out clean. There you have it, healthy muffins!