Protein Banana Bread

So my family seems to have a love/hate relationship with bananas.  Some weeks I have to replenish them once or twice during the week; others, the ones I buy on my big Saturday shopping trip are still sitting in the fruit bowl at the end of the week and our kitchen is beginning to smell very banana-y.  This week has been one of the latter weeks, and I needed to get rid of some bananas.  My very favorite banana bread recipe is a Cooking Light recipe that has chocolate chips in it; this time, I was looking for a recipe that was cleaner and guilt-free.  And I came upon this one for Protein Banana Bread! I was a little nervous about the husband and kids liking it, but it earned a unanimous thumbs-up, especially from my husband who asked me to make it more often!

This is super easy and I had almost all of the ingredients on hand.  Those I didn't I was able to make easy substitutions for (I've noted the substitutions below).  Let me know what you think!

• 1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour (I used oat flour, just because I like it better)
• 1/2 cup Stevia or other sweetener of your choice (I used 1/4 c. Stevia and 1/4 c. organic brown sugar, to make it more husband-friendly!)
• 3 scoops vanilla whey protein powder (I was low on vanilla, so I used 1 scoop vanilla and 2 scoops chocolate)
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon (I never measure cinnamon--in my opinion you can never have too much!)
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup mashed banana (2 large or 3 small bananas)
• 1/4 cup water (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
• snack size of unsweetened applesauce (I used 1/4 cup canned pumpkin)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together.  Pour into a 8"/4" loaf pan coated with cooking spray.  Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick can be stabbed into the middle and pulled out clean.

Enjoy!!