Kitchen Story: My Secretly Healthy Banana Bread

Whatever to do with those overripe bananas the monkey couldn't finish?? (Sorry...inside family joke...my mom buys bananas 3-4 bunches at a time since we all love them and they're so good for you and cashiers tend to inquire if she has monkeys at home...weird. But I have always wanted a pet monkey...)

Anyway, back to the question...MAKE BANANA BREAD!! Over my undergrad years I have experimented and perfected my own banana bread recipe. I love it since it's super moist and super healthy without tasting healthy. I don't use any butter or oil and I cut out more than half the sugar most other recipes use!

Another reason to love this is that it freezes well so you can make multiple loaves at once and use these as an alternative when you're supposed to bring a baked good to a party and just ran out of time to make anything! No worries, I know this feeling well! And this pre-planning saves my butt whenever the busyness eats away at my time before a lunch or dinner party. Apparently it's safe to freeze them 6 months max (though I've never kept them for longer than 3 months).

Freezing tips:

-Wrap the loaf tightly in plastic wrap

-Place the wrapped loaf in a ziploc freezer bag

-Stick in freezer for up to 6 months

Defrosting tips:

-Take the loaf out a few hours beforehand and set it at room temp.

-Or if you want to defrost it the night before you can place it in the fridge.

-Warm it up for 5-10 minutes in the oven at 325 degrees F and serve.

My Secretly Healthy Banana Bread Recipe

2 eggs (beaten)
1/3 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 (ish) cup mashed bananas (I typically use a bit more, but it also depends on how many overripe bananas you're using up)
1/3 cup white sugar (I typically use less since the ripe bananas already add so much sweetness on their own)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 (1.75) cups All-Purpose (AP) flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray loaf pan with non-stick spray.

In a small bowl, break banana into pieces and mash. I use a fork to mash when I don't have a potato masher handy (plus a fork is easier to clean).

In a medium sized bowl use a mixer to mix the eggs, yogurt, apple sauce, and bananas together. In another medium bowl mix the sugars, flour, baking powder, and salt together. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients while mixing until everything is incorporated into a batter.

Add the optional mix-ins (*see below). Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

{As you can see...I had a brain fart and forgot to add the chocolate chips before pouring the batter into the pan, BUT thank goodness I remembered and I just mixed them in after the batter was poured into the pan. Problem solved!}

Add the optional topping (**see below).

Bake for 60-75 mins or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

*Optional mix-ins:

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (fold into the batter)

AND/OR

About 1 tsp cinnamon (mix in the batter with the mixer)

**Optional topping:

Crunchy cinnamon sugar topping: 1 tsp Cinnamon+2 Tbsp white sugar+2 Tbsp brown sugar (mix together and sprinkle on top of batter before baking)

Enjoy your banana-y, cinnamon-y smelling house while you eat the whole loaf by yourself without too much guilt!! :)

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