Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Bread

I have such a treat for you all today!  My sweet friend Carly from the blog CreateLive has an incredible recipe to share, and it's one that literally has me drooling all over my keyboard!  My apologies for the graphic illustration...but you get my point.  I simply adore Carly's blog because not only does she share delicious recipes, but she has all sorts of fun {and easy} DIY projects, fabulous ideas for your home decor as well as little snippets of her life.  So you should definitely head on over to check it out, but before you do, continue salivating over this chocolate banana bread!

Let's be honest, we've all let produce go to waste. Some things are unsalvageable (hello, most vegetables). But other things, just like a good wine, only get better with time.

Enter bananas. I have to admit, it takes the pressure off knowing that I don't have to finish my bananas before they turn brown. I first experimented with low cal frozen banana ice cream. It's a delicious treat, and extremely creamy. But as it gets colder, I've decided to make something warm instead.

Banana bread is wonderful. There's really not much better than taking a bite of a steaming hot piece of banana bread, straight from the oven, with a tasty slab of butter melting on top. Nothing. Better.

...except maybe if you made it healthier. Say, by using whole wheat flour... adding in some protein powder... and some greek yogurt to keep it moist without dumping too much added fat into the mix.

Ah, and I should mention that the protein powder is chocolate protein powder. So now we're not just working with banana bread, it's healthy protein chocolate banana bread. I know, chocolate was the only word you remember from that sentence. Go ahead and take a bite!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Bread

(with added protein)

Ingredients:

...for the bread

• 1 1/2 scoops chocolate protein powder
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tbsp vanilla greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup oats
• Optional: 1/3 cup chocolate chips (if you want it really chocolatey - I skipped this step)

...for the topping

• 1/3 cup oats
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• drizzling of honey
• sprinkling of cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix dry bread ingredients in a medium size bowl.
3. Add bananas, egg whites, and greek yogurt, and mix well.
4. Spray a bread pan with nonstick spray, then pour mixed ingredients into the pan.
5. In the same bowl (which should now be mostly empty), mix topping ingredients with clean hands. Be sure to sprinkle enough honey into the mix so that the topping begins to stick/clump together. 
6. Sprinkle topping over the bread mix.
7. Put in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean (the topping will still be gooey, but the bread should be solid and clean). 

For more delicious recipes and other fun ideas, please head over to CreateLive and tell Miss Carly hello!  I know you'll just love her as much as I do!  And hey you never know, you may learn a thing or two and even make a sweet friend in the process.

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