When life gives you overripe bananas....

Why hello there blog-tooth!

Today I started off my day with 42 minutes on the elliptical in my apartment gym, since I promised to you young lovelies that I would take today off.
In my gym, there are TVs in front of each machine, much like this random lady that I found on the internet is enjoying in the picture below:

So I watched the local news.  

I think the local news always gives a good feel of the area where you live, and there's no better way to get a feel for the area like the local weather forecast....  

The Southern California weather is truly unique in that our weather ranges from 67 + partly sunny to 81 + sunny.  YEAR ROUND.  

Which allows each local news forecast to go something like this:

::Screen pans to Weather Girl::

Latest popular Usher song plays for 30 seconds....Weather Girl pretend dances to it.  

Other anchors laugh.  

Clever banter occurs between Anchors and Weather Girl for about 3 minutes. 

In 20 seconds remaining in segment, Weather Girl explains that it will be 75 and sunny for eternity

Happiness ensues!

Now to explain the title of this post....

When I got home from work, I saw this on my counter top: 

That's right - value priced bananas!  And that only means one thing to me.....

BANANA BREAD :).  

So it's recipe time.  

This is a pretty simple one also from foodnetwork.com with a couple variations.  The great thing about banana bread is that it's very forgiving and simple to make.  No matter what order you assemble things in (to a certain degree), you'll still end up with a delicious loaf.   This recipe has 4 bananas and oil (not butter), so I think it's semi-healthy.  I'm sure you could substitute out some of the oil for apple sauce as well or use whole wheat flour, but I've never tried so do this at your own risk ;).  

You'll need:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar  (can use some brown sugar instead if preferred)
• 4 very ripe bananas  (the ones pictures are almost not ripe enough.  the more ripe the bananas, the more flavorful the bread)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon  (I use Apple Pie Spice which includes Nutmeg and other spices for extra flavor)
• 1 cup Pecans or Walnuts (optional...but delicious)

 Batter:

Mixing and Cooking....

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.  First combine flour, baking soda and powder, salt. Mix together eggs and sugar.  Mash bananas in separate bowl (leave a few small chunks for texture).  Add mashed bananas, vanilla, oil and cinnamon to egg / sugar mixture. Stir in flour mixture, a third at a time - try not to over stir.

This recipe makes 16-20 muffins / 2-3 small loaves / 1 large loaf depending on preference.  Bake at 350 F.  Cooking time varies.  1 hour for a large loaf, 15-20 minutes for muffins, somewhere in between for a small loaf depending on size!  

Here's the final product (mini loaf style)!

G'night!  Hope you enjoyed!