Banana Bread

We had a miserable time making banana bread when were first married. We tried fancy recipes but it is hard to get excited about a recipe with 37 ingredients, so finally Kevin broke down and called his mom. She gave him a very simple recipe: tons of butter, two tons of sugar, 4 tons of flour, 2 eggs, and 3 bananas. Now I know why Monica was always so adamant about NOT buttering banana bread.

A month ago I saw a recipe on one of my favorite blogs: A Greener Tea. (Click on the name to go to the site.) You have to check out the recipe on her blog just to see the note her darling kids left for her. What sweet angels. This whole blog is about embracing your age. It is for women 35 and older, but I figure, what the heck, I can't wait until I'm 40 so I qualify in spirit if not yet in age.

This recipe has a bunch of strange ingredients: flax seed, wheat germ, and wheat bran. Hali says that we can't digest flax seed, so don't bother putting it in stuff. Too bad, Hali. Sadly, I only had to improvise on one ingredient. I had no wheat bran, but, on an even more sad note, I did have bran flakes, so I ground those up and used them instead.

It is a sign of a defeated woman to have bran flakes in her food storage. Especially when it is in the section that actually gets used.

Kevin saw some flax in the bottom of the bread loaf pan, and asked if flax was in the banana bread. That is a deal breaker for him. I told him there was some ground flax but the muffins didn't have any whole pieces on the bottom, and you couldn't even taste them. It wasn't good enough - now he won't even try them. Good! Now there's more for me. I'll let you tomorrow if there is too much fiber.....

Isn't this weird? The muffin on the left was the first batch, and I mixed the dry ingredients, then the wet, then folded them together. The one on the right came together by throwing everything into a bowl and mixing it up. The one on the right has noticeably less texture. And I didn't use a blur effect in PhotoShop. I did use some of The Pioneer Woman's PhotoShop actions, but only "Boost" to brighten the image a bit. Both mixing methods taste the same.

** Special Note ** If you are new to the Pioneer Woman, do not look at her Chicken, Bacon and Cheese Sandwich while at work, or you will be accused of looking at food porn. This is especially true if you are salivating over her food right before lunch.

Banana Bread with goofy ingredients
3 bananas, mashed
½ C yogurt
1 t baking soda
1 egg
1 t vanilla
2 T oil
1/2 C dark brown sugar
1 ½ C whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
¼ C ground flax seed
¼ C wheat germ
¼ C wheat bran

Mix everything together and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until golden brown.