Today I thought I would share my favorite banana bread recipe with you. Banana bread is something we have a lot around my house. For starters I always seem to have bananas that need using before they hit the compost bin. I don’t know about you, but I just hate wasting food. Sometimes I will freeze them for my favorite smoothie recipes but more often than not they are used to make banana bread. My 4 ½ year old little guy just loves it! I recently realized that I needed to make a better effort to make sure that his diet is healthier and one place I thought I would start is with my banana bread recipe. The truth is that healthy banana bread recipes can be hard to find, and sadly they can often disappoint! Still, I’m always looking for healthy bread recipes.
I think that most of you know that baking with quinoa isn’t something I’ve done much of. It’s not that I don’t bake, because I do. In fact, if I am going to be away from home for more than I week I’ve been known to take my trusty Viking Stand Mixer
This recipe came from one on All Recipes but the original was not healthy at all but it was a prime candidate to become a quinoa flour banana bread recipe. I will be the first to admit that this banana bread recipe is not one that you would find under the category of clean eating but it is a healthier version of the traditional that you can feel good about giving your children. There is no sacrifice in taste at all so only you will know that there is a little extra protein in there to balance out the sugar! Of course, if you don’t have quinoa flour you can substitute white or whole wheat. (or you can buy it here
[print_this]
Recipe: Banana Bread Recipe
Summary: A phenomenal banana bread recipe soon to be the favorite of your husband and little monkeys alike
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 1 cup organic sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- ½ cup quinoa flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup non-fat Greek Yogurt
- ½ cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
- 2 medium bananas, mashed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl combine sugar and butter.
- Blend in eggs, one at a time.
- Add vanilla and mix well.
- In a separate bowl combine flours, baking soda and salt. Add to the mixing bowl and blend completely.
- Add in Greek yogurt, walnuts and bananas and blend until smooth.
- Spray a 9×5 loaf pan and place mixture in pan.
- Bake at 350 for one hour. You know it is done when a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then place on a wire rack to finish cooling. (That is, unless your family is already begging you to cut it.)
[/print_this]
Quick Notes
My family just loved this! My dad – who is always quick to turn his nose up at food he doesn’t like – said it was the best banana bread ever. My 4 ½ year old ate almost 1/3 of the pan the first day! Thoughts for the future – I am going to try using applesauce next and also adding in some ground flax seeds. I know that the EFA’s in ground flax don’t survive baking, but the fiber content is still there. I would have done these things this time, but I didn’t want to change too many things at once to the point I couldn’t tell what went wrong! It’s a great start on a healthy banana bread recipe!
Cooking time (duration):15
Diet type: Vegetarian
Number of servings (yield): 12
Meal type: snack
Culinary tradition: USA (General)
My rating:
Next time, I’m going to make a quinoa banana bread that uses quinoa in addition to quinoa flour.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Great ideas, I'll give them a go next week and see how it turns out
Thanks for the help!
Michael:
Be sure to come back to the site and let us know what you did and how it worked. We are always looking for new ways to make something healthier and better tasting at the same time.
Hi Wendy, I'm new to the Quinoa thing, although my father has been trying to get me to cook with it for years!
In my own banana bread recipe I use 1 cup all-purpose flour, and 1 cup whole wheat flour.
I was thinking to replace some of the all-purpose white flour with the Quinoa seeds.
My question is, having not come across any Quinoa flour where I live, do you think I could just mix in Quinoa seeds, or would they not fully cook?
p.s: I substitute 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey and 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce, as well as 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil in place of 1/2 cup butter for a slightly healthier (albeit slightly less "fluffy") version since I make my banana bread every week.
Cheers!
First, thanks for the substitution! I am going to try that because my youngest eats it like it's going out of style. I don't know how just the seeds would do but why not grind them in a coffee mill and make your own flour. It wouldn't be as fine as regular quinoa flour but it wouldn't mess with the texture as much. Quinoa gets crunchy when it bakes so I don't know how just the seeds would do…
Another option would be to soak the seeds overnight so that they are really soft.
Sent from my iPad
Great recipe.
Halved the sugar and used brown sugar in place of granulated.
Used almonds in place of walnuts
Added butterscotch chips just for fun.
Made muffins and mini loaves.
Kid approved. Gobbled it all up.
Going to keep playing with the flours and see if I can eliminate the white flour.
Still very sweet with the chips. Will try to cut back sugar more.
Thank you.
That all sounds great! Keep me posted if you are able to eliminate the white sugar. Today I'm making a chocolate chip banana bread recipe.
{ 1 trackback }