Healthy Banana Bread

I had a rare free Friday afternoon yesterday and found myself standing in my kitchen looking outside at the frigid –5 degree weather (not even joking!) and having the urge to bake. When I don’t have much else to do and it’s too cold to go anywhere, baking is my thing to do.

I looked around to see what ingredients I had on hand, and two large brown bananas stared back at me. I started envisioning all of the quick bread possibilities that I  could make with these overly ripe brown bananas, but classic banana bread kept coming back to me.

There’s a couple banana bread recipes that I have stored in my recipe file box that I’ve collected from various people, but they are all pretty high in sugar and fat. I was hoping to come up with a banana bread that was a little on the healthier side but was just as delicious as the full fat and higher sugar versions.

Well my friends, I think I came up with a winner! Cody even gave his stamp of approval which is not always easy to come by. He usually immediately notices if I “healthify” a recipe, but the only response that came out of his mouth when he tried a piece of this banana bread was, “Mmm this is good!” Woo hoo!

Healthy Banana Bread

Servings: 1 loaf

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time: 50-55 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup low fat milk
• 2 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.
2. Stir together wet ingredients (first seven ingredients).
3. Stir together dry ingredients in separate bowl.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix together well.
5. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Now go get your bake on!