THAT WAS A MOUTHFUL. But a very tasty mouthful, if I do say so myself. Because honestly, who doesn’t love a good banana bread? I honestly don’t make banana bread enough, and that is just bananas. However, I finally saw the opportunity this weekend as I had two brown bananas perched on my counter, eagerly waiting to be put to use before the sand in their hourglass ran out. I probably just got a little too overly poetic about bananas there, but whatever…
As some people know, I gave up sweets for Lent. I will admit I’ve cheated and had a slice…or two…of white chocolate cheesecake from Last Resort, but other than that I have been very diligent in watching and saying no to unnecessary sweets like chocolate, ice cream and froyo! I’ve realized how often I was reaching for candies or spoonfuls of ice cream without really paying attention to their value (or lack of, in some cases). With this realization, I’ve become much more aware of the types of sweets I’m eating now. Like, do I really want that fun size kitkat? Will I really benefit from it at all? Can I live without it? For a fun size kitkat (or any other mediocre sweet treat), the answer is usually no, I don’t really want it, and yes, I can live without it. I’d rather save those calories and grams of sugar on a treat I know I will savor and truly enjoy, otherwise known as white chocolate cheesecake (or carrot cake) from Last Resort. Seriously, I’ve found that when I order those more meaningful treats, I make sure to enjoy every single bite, drop and crumb, but couldn’t say I was doing the same with other sweets I was consuming.
Anyway, off my pedestal and back to our regularly scheduled program: banana bread. This isn’t breaking my Lenten promise! I truly don’t bake often but I had a feeling I would get the hunch to, so I went ahead and set guidelines at the beginning of Lent that if I did bake during the 40 days, I would only use natural sweeteners (aka honey). So, you can imagine my content when I stumbled upon this banana bread recipe from Ambitious Kitchen. One, I already had every ingredient in my kitchen, and two, it used applesauce and honey as sweeteners. Score!!! I knew exactly how those two brown bananas would be put to use.
I really didn’t deviate from the original recipe, except I did omit the oat topping. Just wasn’t feeling it, ya know? I really, really wish that I had walnuts in my pantry, but I didn’t feel like making a trip to the store for a bag of nuts…I thought that would be a little too nuts. Ha. Finally, I’m not really sure how many bananas equate to “1 cup mashed bananas”, but I used two and it was fine. Honestly, next time I make this I will probably do three, as the banana flavor was a little subdued. It did turn out super moist and dense, and tasted SO good fresh out of the oven when it was warm. Imagining if there were melted chocolate chips in it….yikes. Before I start daydreaming about chocolate, here’s the recipe! Likewise, you can head over to Ambitious Kitchen for the original!
- PAM cooking spray
- 2-3 mashed ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup quick cook oats
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- Preheat oven to 350*F and spray 9" loaf pan with nonstick organic cooking spray. I used an 8" and it worked fine!
- In large bowl combine mashed bananas, applesauce, honey, egg, almond milk and vanilla until well combined.
- In separate bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
- Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until toothpick or knife inserted into center comes out clean. Mine was done after about 50 minutes, but ovens vary, so just watch!
- Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool completely, or until cool enough to touch and devour with a cold glass of milk!
- Feel free to sub in any type of milk in place of almond, that's just what the recipe called for and also what I had on hand!
