Banana bread counts as fruit...right?

Every week when I go to the market, I have the best intentions.  "I am going to buy lots of fruit and vegetable so the family can eat healthy."  Yeah...about that.  Every week I have an over ripened bunch of bananas to do something with.  This week, banana bread came up in the rotation.  You know, now that I think about it....I think there may be a conspiracy.  If we don't eat the bananas, she'll make something sweet with the.  Hmmmmm..I believe I'm being had here.  They are luck they're cute.

Anyway, I had soooo many bananas yesterday, I had enough to do 2 loaves of banana bread.  I baked these up while the troops were away, so I was able to freeze one loaf for later in the week. Are any of you as excited as I am for school to start again?  If for nothing else, to ease up on my food bill.

Wow...I'm a little scattered today.  Sorry about that.  I found this recipe on line quite some time ago. It is enough to make 1 loaf of the bread. I doubled the recipe and it turned out just fine.  It is really tasty.  It's moist with lots of banana flavor, but not too sweet.  I would imagine you could give it a quick toast and put butter on it.  Yummmmm ...

Preheat oven to 350 F

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking SODA
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2-1/3 cups mashed bananas

Lightly grease loaf pan (I line with parchment)

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.  In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and the brown sugar.  Add eggs and bananas until well blended.  Add banana mixture to the flour bowl and mix until just moistened.  Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.


Bake for 60-65 minutes.  When done, a toothpick inserted in the center will come back clean.  Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing.  Then, place on a cooling rack until completely cool. ..if you can wait that long.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

My grandson loves bananas.  He also loves the Minions from Despicable Me, who subsequently....love bananas.  He and my granddaughter came to visit me this past weekend, so I needed to have bananas on hand.  He ate his fair share, but I was left with a few on my counter.  Today, I decided it was either time for them to jump into the trash or jump into my mixing bowl.

They chose wisely and jumped into my mixing bowl.  I'm not a huge banana flavor fan, but I have to say the results of this little adventure might change my mind.  I was shopping through my recipes and found this one, which includes chocolate chips.  How could I go wrong?

Here's the ingredient list:

1-1/2 cup granulate sugar
3/4 cup butter (room temperature)
2 eggs
1-1/2 tablespoons milk
3 ripened bananas
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking SODA
chocolate chips (to your desire)

Here are the instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl (I always use my Kitchen-Aid, but any mixer will do).  Add eggs and mix until blended.  Add the bananas (I just broke them into small pieces...did not mash) and then add milk.  Mix until completely blended (1-2 minutes).  Add flour and baking soda, mix until incorporated.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick spray (I used Baker's Joy) and divide batter between the 2 pans.

Bake for 45 minutes.  It will look done, but trust me.  Bake the whole 45 minutes.  Insert a knife into the middle.  It should come back clean.  Let cool on rack for 30-45 minutes and ENJOY!

I am always interested in hearing feedback on my posts.  If you bake this, please let me know how it turns out!  This is not my original recipe, but we all make small modifications to suit ourselves.