Monday, August 3, 2009

Simple Banana Bread Recipe

I know this blog is supposed to be about my life with CFIDS, but I got this banana bread recipe from a friend and only recently had enough energy to try it out...twice! It's a simple recipe and didn't take too much energy for me to make, so I thought I'd pass it along.

My apologies to my metric system friends. I don't know the conversions for these measurements... but I found an online conversion chart here. (Unfortunately, my brain fog is preventing me from doing the conversions for you at the moment.)

First, the original recipe from my friend:

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar (recipe calls for 1 cup, but she prefers using just 1/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
A pinch of salt
1 and 1/2 cups flour

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix butter into mashed bananas in bowl. Mix in sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over mixture and mix in. Add flour last. Pour batter into 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour.

Here's my modified recipe:

4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter-substitute (I used Smart Balance)
1/2 cup sugar (I like it a little sweeter than my friend)
2 egg whites (2 whites = 1 egg)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 and 1/2 cups flour
Handful of crushed walnuts

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix butter into mashed bananas in bowl. Mix in sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over mixture and mix in. Mix in flour. Add walnuts to batter.

I don't have a loaf pan, so I had to get creative. The first time I made the recipe, I used muffin tins. They only needed about 15-20 minutes to bake. The second time I made the recipe, I used a small cake pan. It needed about 30-40 minutes to bake.

Enjoy!

Today's Activities: work. Today's Most Annoying Symptoms: exhaustion, active eczema on left armpit and right ankle, headache, brain fog.

Mood (10 is best): 6
Energy (10 is best): 3
Physical Discomfort (10 is worst): 4

3 comments:

upnorth said...

Thanks, I'll try this out (I just made some the other day). As my energy has improved a little over time, cooking is one of the things I can enjoy...I sit on a stool for a lot of it....

alyson said...

Great! Tell me how it turns out.

Sue Jackson said...

Mmmm! Sounds delicious. We love banana bread. Another simple substitution to make baking recipes healthier is to sub whole wheat flour for half the white flour - doesn't affect the taste or texture noticeably but makes it healthier! I use half and half flour for all my baking. Tomorrow morning's out weekly pancake breakfast!

Hope you're feeling a little better or at least getting some good rest.

Thanks for posting about the UIC study!

Sue