Good-For-You Banana Bread

I came home from the grocery store with 5 pounds of bananas today... I know, what on earth was I thinking? Well, I'll tell you. "Oh look at those beautiful bruised bananas! There are so many of them! They are all by themselves bagged up and only a third of the cost of regular bananas. -Ha! Those crazy grocery guys, they are doing me a favor. Now I get to buy bananas at a fraction of the cost and I don't even have to wait for them to go black. Think of all the smoothies, banana breads, and brownies I can make with these babies!" From there, you can guess what happened.

I was also trying to use up that massive jar of apple sauce in my fridge still, so I knew I needed to find a recipe that used a massive amount of both apple sauce and bananas. And of course, I wanted as little oil or butter as possible and I needed it to be mostly whole wheat. Oh, and it needed to taste good too. I swear I'm not picky... 0=). Anyway, if you are wondering if I found a moist, not-too-sweet recipe that still bakes tall enough to come over the edges of the pan (banana bread is not banana bread unless it rises above the top of the pan), the answer can be found below. Happy baking!

Low-Fat Banana Bread
Adapted from this recipe

Yield: 1 8x4 loaf (easy to double though for 2 loaves)

2 tablespoons butter

⅓ cup white sugar * if using sweetened applesauce, omit the white sugar

⅓ cup brown sugar

4 overly ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

¼ cup yogurt plain

¼ cup unsweetened applesauce * if sweetened, omit white sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup cacao nibs * optional

½ cup roughly chopped walnuts * optional

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Grease an 8x4 loaf pan (or muffin pan, if you want muffins).

Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

Add the bananas, yogurt, applesauce, egg, and vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl mix, together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well, then fold in desired mix-ins (such as 1 small apple (peeled, cored and diced), ½ cup chopped walnuts, or ½ cup chocolate chips).

Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (if baking muffins, bake for 20-30 minutes).

Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling completely on a wire rack.