Banana Bread

Part of our food goals around here includes an effort to reduce the amount of food we waste. I remember reading an article about the amount of food Americans waste and it was pretty shocking...and especially sad when you think of all the people in the world who are hungry. So, we were convicted about that.

Meal-planning has helped us greatly in this goal. For the most part, we only buy what we need for the meals we plan to make. After shopping this way for over a year, it's hard to imagine shopping without this list! We do buy the occasional snack food (licorice allsorts and Breyer's ice cream), but somehow they manage to disappear before spoiling. I've started going through the kitchen each week and if there is any leftover fruit or vegetable that I don't have plans for, I'll often chop it up and freeze it for a future soup or something. My boys love all things dairy, so milk, dairy and cheese never has a chance to spoil.

So that leaves bananas. We don't buy them every week, but we do buy them often. I've been freezing them so we have a good stash for when the craving for banana bread strikes. It struck last night!

I have several banana bread recipes: with chocolate chips, with chai tea, with walnuts. I found this one last night, and the piqued my interest. And I found a new blog to follow. (My name is Jen...and I'm addicted to food blogs).

Banana bread really can't turn out badly, and this one is no exception. It's super moist and the taste is still pretty mild, so I would increase the spices. And we were drooling, so we took it out a little early. Next time, I'll keep it in for the full 50 minutes. (I think we did 45). Also, I added chopped pecans to the batter and another handful on top.

Banana Bread

by Annie at Chaos in the Kitchen

makes 1 loaf, prep 10 minutes, cook 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter (I use unsalted)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt (increase this to 1 tsp is using unsalted butter)
• pinch cloves
• 1/2 tsp mace or nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup mashed banana (about 2-3 bananas)
• (1/2 cup chopped nuts, pecans or walnuts, optional)

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a loaf pan.
• Cream the butter and sugar.

• Add eggs, flour, salt, and spices, stir to combine.

• Combine baking soda and buttermilk in a measure cup, stir well then add to batter. Beat until well combined.

The sad, neglected bananas that inspired today's adventure.

• Stir in mashed banana and nuts if using.

• Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake approximately 50 minutes or until a tester in the center comes out clean.

This is about the time I realized that I forgot to spray the pan. It only stuck a little bit.