Luv What You Do

After the chaos that has been my life, I decided to take this morning off from working out and enjoy a quiet, slow start to my day before heading off to work.  The weather seemed to support my decision for a warm tea and computer kind of morning!

 

 

Since every meal I had yesterday was eaten on the run, quickly shoveling food into my mouth, I loved the idea of sitting down and enjoying my breakfast (eggs and toast) this morning.  And not feeling rushed before heading out the door.  Yesterday, you may have noticed some nasty looking bananas in the background of my pictures.  I was WAY TOO tired to stage anything.

 

They were leftover from the course this weekend, and so I snatched them up for banana bread.  I decided to make mini loaves for my five coworkers who were in the class with me as a little happy to get us through the week.

 

I have numerous banana bread recipes, but one of them is super easy and comes together in just ONE BOWL.  I’m not exactly sure how it works as many quick bread recipes have multiple steps and many bowls, but this is one of the best recipes out there, I promise!  It is actually a muffin recipe given to me by a friend and I don’t know the original source.

 

I always have the ingredients in the house, so you just need some old bananas, a big bowl and a hand mixer!

 

Starting with the bananas, all of the ingredients (wet and dry) go into the bowl.

 

I only own 4 mini loaf pans, but I wanted to make 5 loaves, so I pulled out my fall pumpkin mold.

 

 

The benefit of mini pans is that it decreases the baking time.  After 30 minuets, I pulled 4 beautiful loaves and one festive pumpkin out of the oven.

 

  

 

It kind of reminds me of that old Sesame Street song…’One of these things is not like the other…one of these things just doesn’t belong!”

 

I wrapped them up for my friends at work figuring that whoever ends up with the pumpkin will definitely get a laugh out of it.  Plus, if they are like me and haven’t had much time to get to the grocery store, they’ll be happy to have a homemade treat!

 

 

 

One Bowl Banana Walnut Bread

 

Ingredients

3-4 medium very ripe bananas

1 1/4 cups (6 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour (I have also supped in whole wheat and spelt in the past which was a huge success)

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup safflower oil

1 large egg

 

Directions

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place rack in center of oven.

-With Metal Blade (a hand mixer works just fine), process bananas until smooth, with a few bumps remaining.  Add the rest of the ingredients and process for 3 seconds.  Scrape the work bowl and process just until mixed, 1-2 seconds more.  If there mixture is still not fully mixed, gently stir with a spatula to combine.  DO NOT OVER MIX!!!

-For Muffins: divide batter amount 10-12 prepared muffin cups and make until brown, about 25 minutes.

-For Bread: pour into a greased loaf pan and bake until brown, about 50 minutes.  Decrease time to 30 minutes for mini loaves.