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)!
