Cocoa-Banana Breakfast Bread

Why should breakfast bars and protein cookies get all the glory? These mini-loaves have all the joyful decadence of a chocolaty banana bread while packing 14 grams of protein and nearly a quarter of a day’s recommended calcium. Plus it’s fiber-rich and high in iron. If all you can muster is this cake for breakfast, you’re not off to a bad start. (Recipe after the jump.)

I’ve been in kind of a funk this past week, so I therapy-baked some mini-loaves of protein-packed cocoa banana bread. I cut half the flour with chocolate whey protein powder and vanilla soy powder, then the remaining flour is half whole wheat and half white (plus a little corn starch to lighten it up). Flax, oats, walnuts, and eggs in there, plus some Dutch process cocoa powder and four squished bananas. Smelling it and warming up in the kitchen is a nice temporary mood balm, and it’s nice to be able to offer Zeph cake for breakfast without worrying he’ll run out of steam an hour later. 🍌 🍫 🍞#bananabread #chocolate #baking #therapy #seasonalaffectivedisorder #protein #cake #carbs #cocoa #bread #foodstagram #instafood #brown #breakfast

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Cocoa-Banana Breakfast Bread

Dry:
1/4 c chocolate whey protein powder (Trader Joe’s)
1/4 c vanilla soy protein powder (also TJ’s)
1/4 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c AP flour
3 T cocoa powder
2 T corn starch
3 T flax meal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/3 c sugar

Wet:
3/4 c mashed banana (I had four mini-bananas and this is what they yielded)
1/4 c oil
3/4 c milk
2 eggs

Chunky stuff:
1/3 c rolled oats
1/3 c chopped walnuts

Mix dry and wet stuff separately; combine them; fold in chunky stuff; bake at 350 for 30 minutes in mini loaf pan (or presumably 50-60 minutes in full loaf).

Nutrition (per mini-loaf): 300 cals, 10g fat, 90mg sodium, 39 g carbs, 3 g fiber, 18g sugar, 14g protein, Vit A 15%, Vit C 16$, Calcium 24%, Iron 28%