Baking Up Some Banana Bread

I go to the Farmer's Market nearly every weekend and the produce in California has just been unbelievable - so I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately! 

Last Saturday night we hosted Game Night for our friends - I made a ridiculous lasagna using this recipe (wish I had a pic - maybe I'll remake it so I can blog it!) and a light tasty lemon cake (with rainbow sprinkles, of course)...

When Gerrick was in town, we cooked a big dinner and I crafted this appetizer - crostini with proscuitto, fresh burrata, and the most delicious white peaches, topped with a thick balsamic syrup, sea salt, and fresh ground pepper. Words cannot even express the deliciousness.

R and I love tomatoes - in summer, I like buying heirlooms in every color, slicing them up, and roasting them in the oven with olive oil and some fresh herbs. Basically the prettiest dish ever.

This past weekend, I had some bananas slightly past their prime. My co-worker had brought in banana bread a few weeks ago and gave me her favorite recipe - it's Rachael Ray's - so I ran to the market for ingredients and whipped some up. It was awesome - so moist with chocolate chips in every bite!

Here's the recipe, with my tweaks in bold!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3 bananas, mashed (I just broke up whole bananas with my hands right into the bowl)

1 cup chocolate chips (you could probably get away with 3/4 cup and be fine)

*I also added one large spoonful of nonfat greek yogurt and a teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F . Grease and flour a 8 1/2-inch x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan (or use baking spray - that's what I did.)

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix in the oil, bananas and eggs (this is also where I added the greek yogurt and the vanilla extract). Stir in the chocolate chips (do not overmix!) and pour into the prepared pan. 

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 60-80 minutes. 

4. Cool the loaf in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely, right side up.

If you have some bananas laying around, you should make some! I hope you like it!