Recipe: Healthy Banana Bread

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be that wife. That wife who greets her husband when he gets home from work, that wife with freshly baked cakes and muffins for guests or when her husband deserves a treat, that wife who packs her husband's lunch and kisses him goodbye every morning, that wife with a clean and delicious smelling home, that wife who cooks dinner ever night that gets a thumbs up and a big mmmm. 

Silly? Stereotypical? Sexist? Quite possibly for some, but in my head that's just how it was meant to be. Was my Mum that way? Not at all - and that's probably why I wanted to do things differently.

You see, unlike me, SIL Mama isn't a baker - at all - but the one thing she could bake was a recipe given to us by a friend - simply called Fay's Banana Cake. But there was one problem with Fay's Banana Cake - it had a tendency to be too oily and definitely wasn't banana bread material. Being a banana bread fan - I started playing around with the recipe - and giving it a Kristy twist, I changed it to remove the two block of butter (500g) the original recipe used. 

What I came up with was a recipe that I, and the entire SIL Family, adore. In fact, these pictures don't actually show the entire loaf as the second I sliced it, I had hands grabbing at the board for pieces of banana bread! 

I must add, this banana bread does look quite a bit browner than usual as Miss Kristy decided to get distracted fixing something and left her banana bread in the oven until she spotted her oven mitt out of the corner of her eye, wondered why it was there and ran yelling "SHOOOTTTT! The banana bread!" - luckily it was still moist and delicious and disappeared before my eyes.

Healthy Banana Bread makes 8-12 slices 

gluten free option, wholewheat option, low fat, lower sugar, clean eating friendly

3 large bananas, mashed (about 1 1/3C mashed)

1/3 cup egg whites or 2 eggs

2 tbsp softened butter/reduced fat dairy spread/non-dairy spread

1.5-3 tbsp honey (depending on how sweet you like things)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour/buckwheat flour/gf oat flour 

1/2 cup plain flour/gluten free plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt 

optional mix ins: spices, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Preheat your oven to 180°C/355°F

Grease and line a loaf tin or small cake ban

Mash your bananas and mix in the eggs, honey, butter and vanilla.

Mix together your flours, baking powder/soda and salt and pour into wet ingredients.

Mix until just combined and pour into your baking tin.

Bake for ~40-50 minutes, keeping an eye on your loaf to ensure it doesn't brown too much. If your banana bread is browning too much, but not cooked in the middle, cover it with foil.

Bake until a skewer inserted removes clean and cool slightly before turning out of the tin.

But tell me, what is your family's favourite recipe? 

It might be sweet, it might be savoury - it might have been handed down from Mother to Daughter throughout the years or maybe it's a brand new one you've created!

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