Healthy Banana Bread

I am so excited to tell you guys about this banana bread.  


I love to bake.  And I love sweets.  Which is a problem, at times.  So to keep things manageable over here as we quickly enter the holiday season, I've been trying to keep my baking on the healthier side which does not always yield the most exciting results.  


This banana bread has no added sugar - just a quarter cup of honey does the trick.  Bananas are so naturally sweet it's actually kind of crazy to think about adding an entire cup of sugar.  But up until I found this recipe, that's how I've always done it. 


This turned out really tasty and moist.  I think the addition of Greek yogurt was what did the trick.  The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup plain yogurt, but all I had was vanilla bean flavored Greek, so I used that.  The recipe can also be easily adapted; we had 6 overripe bananas, so I made 2 batches of the base recipe and added chocolate chips to one batch to make mini muffins.  These are great snacks or little post dinner treats.

I'd think you could add all sorts of things to this recipe - cinnamon, pumpkin, raisins, oats...just keep the bananas there for their natural sweetness.


I'll sure I'll be back soon with some ridiculously unhealthy dessert to counteract this nutritious creation, but for now, I'm going to pretend that I'm always healthy.  It's all about balance! 


Healthy Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread
Recipe Source: slightly adapted from 100 Days of Real Food
Serves 8


Ingredients:
3 overripe bananas, mashed
2 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 t baking soda
1/t teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vanilla flavored Greek yogurt
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.  In a separate bowl, mix together the bananas, yogurt, honey, eggs, oil, and vanilla until well combined.  Fold into the flour mixture until just combined.  Do not overmix.  Add in the walnuts and whatever other additions you'd like.  Pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan, and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.