Banana Bread is the perfect thing to make. Think about it. You can have it for breakfast. You can pack it as a snack, or you could even warm it up and add ice cream at the end of the day for dessert. It really is the best thing, you know, minus the calories.
Having an alternative, “healthy” version is just what I needed! I’m someone who needs something sweet after dinner, but I definitely don’t want to pack on the calories. Just changing a few key ingredients can make all the difference when it comes to baking.
I used some almond flour, honey, or maple syrup instead of sugar. Brown sugar works too if you prefer. Choosing to put raisins or nuts instead of chocolate is something that will help too. I’m a huge chocolate fan so that one is hard for me to decide.
Here’s my favorite “Healthy” banana bread recipe. It’s a mix of different recipes I’ve found on Pinterest. I’ve played around with it, each time it turns out a little different. You can play around with the wheat flour/almond flour mix until you get the perfect ratio that allows the banana bread to stick together really well. Almond flour doesn’t always hold it together well.
Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted coconut oil.
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas about 2-3 medium bananas.
1 cup white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour or plain all-purpose flour
3/4 cup almond flour * if you don’t want almond flour just add 3/4 regular flour (like above)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped walnuts, raisins, optional
1/2 tsp cinnamon optional
- Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk dry ingredients. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix wet ingredients for 2 minutes. Stir in the bananas, flour mixture, and chocolate chips, or any other add-ins of choice.
- Pour batter into the greased pan, sprinkle with some more cinnamon, raw sugar, chocolate chips, or banana slices (optional) Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 minutes, slice and enjoy with butter (for breakfast), nothing for lunch and ice cream (for dessert).
If you try it out, I’d love to see it. Tag me @courageouslynavigating
I hope you enjoy it!
Love Crystal
