Tag Archives: Fruit

March 12, 2012 · 10:31 pm

Strawberry Banana Breakfast Bread

I have a confession – I’m not good with preparing breakfast (and I think I may have admitted that before!)  Yes, I love egg mcmuffins, but you have to be somewhat organized to make these during the week. CH is even worse, usually because he is up way later than me working, and leaves the house many days before I am out of bed.  He needs something he can grab as he heads out the door and eat as he is walking to work. Weekends see a lot more breakfast action, but that is because there is no getting up early, when you’ve gone to bed late.

But this breakfast is a game changer – it’s quick and easy to prepare, it stays fresh and delicious for days and the best part – it’s HEALTHY.  It started out as a healthy recipe from Cate’s World Kitchen (which is a fabulous blog featuring many vegetarian and health-happy recipes), but I tweaked it a little further, and it’s now perfect for our household.

Fresh strawberries, banana, yogurt and applesauce are the main ingredients…all baked together to create a healthy, breakfast bread that keeps you satisfied for hours.  It isn’t overly sweet and you definitely feel healthy indulging in this recipe.  CH often steals the last piece, and always has one-extra piece because it is “so good for him”.

Give it a try and I hope you enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Bread

Yield: 1 loaf (about 12 slices)
Prep Time:  15 minutes
Cook Time:

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup applesauce
  • 1 banana, mashed
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1.5 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 6 TBSP sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 0.5 tsp salt
  • 1.5 cups fresh strawberries, diced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease an 8 x 4″ loaf pan.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the eggs, yogurt, applesauce, mashed banana and vanilla.  Whisk lightly until combined.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Stir to combine.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix gently until well combined, and no traces of flour.

Gently fold-in the strawberries.

Pour the mixture into the greased loaf pan.  Tap the loaf pan on the counter, gently, 4 to 5 times to release the air-bubbles (this is an important step to prevent an un-even bread).

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a tooth-pick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the bread and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy.

(Store in an air-tight container for freshness).

Recipe adapted from Cate’s World Kitchen

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March 2, 2011 · 9:47 am

The Ultimate Banana Bread

So, remember when I said in my first post that I don’t really bake?   And then I said that when I do bake, I bake the same recipes, over and over?  Well, this is one of those recipes.  I’ve been making CH this banana bread probably since we started dating, which is going on 9 years!  CH loves banana bread and I have apparently discovered the “best ever” recipe.  But make no mistake, banana bread HAS to have chocolate chips or CH won’t be happy (but if you don’t like chocolate chips in your recipe, these can be omitted).

CH and I lived apart for a year while he started law school across the country. The days apart were tough on both of us and CH worked hard at school.  While he had a stocked deep-freezer of home-made meals due to a visit from me, he missed fresh baked goods and was bad at eating breakfast.  Thus, I would bake him this banana bread and ship it to him, overnight, via CanadaPost.  Yes, overnight shipping across Canada was expensive….I think for the amount of times I shipped him things via CanadaPost, I could have gone on a holiday to Mexico.  But knowing he was well fed and loved made it worth it, I guess!!

And just to prove how good this is, one last time, CH came home on the day I baked this for my blog post and instantly knew that I had made “his” banana bread by the smell in our small apartment.  However, he had just finished a two hour all-you-can-eat sushi lunch with his friends.  Thus, his sushi induced food coma was further worsened by having “just one piece” (read: 1/3 of the loaf) of banana bread, because it smelled too good!  Gotta love a dedicated taste-tester!

Enjoy!

Banana Bread

Yield:  One large loaf
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1hr and 10 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 10 tablespoons butter (+ 1 for greasing your pan)
  • 3 cups of mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas)*
  • 1/2 cup of sour cream (fat free or whatever you have)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1.5 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup of chocolate chips (optional)
  • 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

* Use brown bananas as they add additional sweetness to your bread.  Browner the better!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside.

In a large bowl and using a hand-held blender (or food processor/blender), puree the bananas, sour cream, eggs and vanilla until smooth.  Set aside.

Using a stand-mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add the butter to the flour mixture and whisk until well blended and fluffy (there should be no large clumps and should appear light and airy).

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture, slowly, until well incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts (if using), and pour into prepared pan.

Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

Adapted from Martha Stewart

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