Protein and friendly fat packed, this isn’t just any banana bread! Perfect for a full and focused school morning!
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Is it just me or has this summer completely and utterly flown by?!
About mid-August I start getting antsy for school routines to start back up, and so I’ve been in my kitchen a little bit creating some recipes for you guys that will make those early school mornings run a little smoother.
Groan.
I know it, right?! I have really (really!) been enjoying my slower paced mornings the last couple months! We have still been eating nourishing, real food breakfasts, though I have to admit much later into the morning that we will be able to do come this fall.
While I have 2 elementary school aged kids in the house, I actually created this recipe with my toddler in mind.
We have to be on the road early to get to school on time, and there are plenty of mornings my toddler is just waking up as we are needing to head out the door. A portable, handheld breakfast she can munch on while we drop the big girls off is so nice to have around.
Protein and friendly fat loaded, these banana muffins aren’t just any banana bread.
I had some big ingredient goals with this banana muffin recipe to “make it count” for my toddler’s appetite, as well as satisfying my school aged kids to last for a full morning of concentrating at school.
- Grassfed collagen not only gives the muffins a soft, bread like texture, it adds protein from a grassfed source. (Don’t forget to use your RGN reader discount GENERATION10 at checkout for 10% off!)
- Almond flour is fat and protein loaded and makes baked goods soft and sweet.
- Sorghum flour surprisingly has a nice protein count as well as giving a whole grain softness to the muffins.
- Coconut flour is loaded with digestion friendly fiber as well as protein and fat.
- And adding in coconut oil and pastured eggs for moisture and binding, these banana muffins are power packed for a busy morning at school and play!
Keeping kids focused for the morning is much easier when blood sugar is balanced as well.
In addition to a decent protein and fat content, I didn’t want to have to add anything extra to sweeten the muffins besides the fruit itself. My girls will eat their muffins with raw milk and hard boiled eggs, or with a green smoothie. It makes for a slow burning, long lasting breakfast that will hold them over until their next meal.
Tips & Tricks For Use!
- Store leftovers in a freezer bag in the freezer. I find gluten and grain free items just stay more moist in when you freeze them right away. They will stay soft and moist for a day or so on the counter in an air tight container.
- You can pull frozen muffins out to thaw counter top or pop them back in the oven (or a toaster oven) to thaw. I like to pull a bag of them out of the freezer before I go to bed at night so they are ready when we get up in the morning.
- You can put a frozen muffin in the lunchbox in the morning and it will thaw by lunchtime! I have even put a frozen muffin in a snack container for morning snacktime and they are ready.
- Spread butter or coconut butter on your muffins to bump up the nourishment even more. I serve these with a green smoothie or hard boiled eggs for a breakfast meal. They go well with a bowl of soup for lunch!
Nutrient Dense Protein Banana Breakfast Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 medium sized ripe bananas
- 1/4 cup softened coconut oil
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup grassfed collagen
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 1/2 cup sorghum flour
- 2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a 12 cup muffin tin with silicone muffin liners, or grease them with butter or coconut oil.
- Put the bananas and coconut oil into your food processor or blender and blend to combine.
- Add the eggs and blend for 30 seconds.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and blend to combine. You may have to scrape down the sides a bit. You can taste the batter here and add a splash or 2 of honey or maple syrup if your kids are used to sweeter things. I find the ripe bananas give them enough sweet for my crew.
- Pour the batter into a silicone lined muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Let the muffins cool 5-10 minutes before handling them.
These look wonderful! Just wondering if you think arrowroot or tapioca starch could stand in for the potato starch?
Hi Annie! Yes that should be fine!
Love you didn’t use sugar!
They are perfectly sweet with the ripe bananas!
Me too, so cool!
I have the Great Lakes cold water soluble…I’m assuming that’s the equivalent to what you used?
Yes that should be fine Lauren!
I do like what sorghum lends, what a great GF flour. Thanks for these!
You’re welcome!
Hi. I love this recipe for my daughters mid morning snack at school. If i can’t find sorghum flour at my store, is there a good replacement? And same with almond flour. Thank you!
Would like the answer to this question as well.
I have had a few people say that brown rice flour swaps for the sorghum well. I’m not sure what I would swap for the almond flour – possibly more brown rice flour, though that is drier than almond flour. You may need more moisture.
I don’t have any GF collagen at home and would like to make these today. Can I just skip this ingredient or should I try to sub something else for it?
Hi Beth! You could leave it out I think!
Hi. I love your blog. It has been a life saver. I have a quick question. Do you think I could replace the GF collagen with bone broth collagen? Trying to figure out what the difference is and if there are any additional benefits to bone broth collagen vs GF collagen. Thanks!
Hi Christine! Thank you for your kind words!
The collagen is the same but the form is different. Collagen in bone broth is in liquid for so it won’t work for these muffins. The collagen I linked there in the post is just the collagen and it is in powder form which works better in this kind of recipe. They both have benefits! Bone broth is still a great staple to have around though as it is loaded with extra minerals extracted from the bones that our bodies need. I hope that helps!
Thank you so much! I ordered the collagen you linked in the post and am ready to make these tomorrow. I always make chicken bone broth and failed miserably making beef bone broth. Will try to find bone marrow soon and give it another try!
Hi. I love this recipe. We avoid coconut product due to an allergy. I’m assuming I could sub in vegan butter, but thoughts on a coconut flour replacement?
Hi Heather! I’ve never used vegan butter so I’m not sure how that would sub for the coconut oil, but avocado oil, butter, or olive oil would all work instead of the coconut oil. And then for the coconut flour you could sub any of the other flours – you will just want to add a little bit more than the amount listed because coconut flour is super absorbent. It is a pretty forgiving recipe so see how the batter feels with any of the flour as a sub and then add more if it feels too wet. I hope that helps!
Hi. Have you tried banana flour yet? I got some off of Thrive. I wonder if it could replace potato starch.
Hi Heather! I have not heard of banana flour so I’m not sure of how that would work!
We have egg and nut allergies here so I am wondering if you think flax eggs would work? And if I could sub out the almond flour for something else?
Thanks!
Hi Barbara! I think flax eggs will be fine for binding however they won’t rise as nicely since the eggs make them rise – you could try adding a TB of apple cider vinegar to get them to rise (shouldn’t be able to taste it after baked). Otherwise they really should still taste ok with the flax egg. You could try subbing oat flour or a rice flour for the almond flour, but I haven’t made the recipe with both an egg swap and the almond flour swap, so I’m not sure how they will be after baked!
I’d love to try adding some collagen to my muffins. We don’t necessarily need to follow a gluten-free diet in our home, although I do typically bake with einkorn or sprouted spelt. Do you think I could add collagen to the typical recipe I follow?
That should be fine Annie! Let us know if you try it out! I am just not as familiar with working with wheat but am a big fan of using properly prepared Einkorn if you can tolerate it! I know there must be some readers that use it too so it would be helpful to know if it works!
Hi! My son isn’t a fan of banana. Is there anything I could use as a substitution? Thanks!
Hi Meghan! I have been meaning to try applesauce – I think it would work! Say about a cup?
Do you think I could sub the banana for applesauce? My kids eat bananas too fast for me to use them for muffins or any baking. I keep trying to makes these and I can’t! lol
Hi Jenalee! Yes I do think applesauce should work!
Hi! I made these muffins this morning and the batter turned out really thick. It definitely could not be poured into the muffin cups. The muffins turned out very dense and not like other muffins I have made before with almond and coconut flours. Not sure what I did wrong. Is the batter supposed to be so thick like that?
Thanks!
Hi Kate! I’ve never had that problem with the batter and I make these at least monthly – did you swap any of the ingredients?
I didn’t swap any ingredients so I’m not sure what was wrong
Hi Kate! Hmmm ok. I have to always ask that question because most of the time that is definitely the case!
My next thought would be that because different brands of coconut flour can be different consistencies, I wonder what brand of coconut flour you used? It is just so absorbent so if the amount is off because the flour is more fine or less finely ground, then it will effect the batter. The collagen brand may also have an effect, as I have not used other brands of collagen and am not sure if they behave differently with baking. I hope that helps a little!
Made these this morning and used frozen/thawed over ripe bananas and doubled the recipe… the batter was so thick after I added the coconut and almond flours that I skipped the other ones! My blender was barely mixing. Maybe because bananas were cold and it kind of solidified the coconut oil? Anyway, they turned out fine lol.
I’m glad you enjoyed them Tonja!
Do you think the 1/2 cup potato starch and the 1/2 cup sorghum flour could be replaced with 1 cup of the namaste GF flour blend? (Those are the only 2 ingredients I don’t have). Thanks in advance! I’ve loved every recipe that I’ve tried here. Thanks for doing what you do 🙂
I think that would work Meghan! Keep us posted how it turns out!
Worked out great! Thanks, Renee!