Chocolate Banana Brunch Bread

This bread isn’t easily categorized. On one hand, it contains bananas and low-fat yogurt, so you might think it’s healthy enough to eat as a guilt-free breakfast. On the other hand, it’s full of chocolatey goodness and could easily pass for a dessert. So, my solution? Think of it as brunch bread -- a good way to start your day that feels like a special treat. It’s great with your morning coffee but is also quite enjoyable when paired with a mimosa or two.

Chocolate Banana Brunch Bread 
1 cup white whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 cup very ripe, mashed banana (2 large bananas worked for me)
½ cup low-fat plain yogurt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
¾ cup light brown sugar
Cooking spray or butter, to grease loaf pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease one 9-by-5 loaf pan. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in large bowl and stir or whisk to blend. In another bowl, combine bananas, yogurt, vanilla extract, egg and brown sugar, stirring until blended. Add dry ingredients to the bowl with banana mixture, stirring until everything’s nice and gooey. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for 55-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 10-15 minutes. Slice and serve.

Adapted from A Couple Cooks, who adapted Smitten Kitchen’s recipe 

Summer of Smoothies: The Classic

Strawberries and bananas go together like peanut butter and jelly. These classic flavors taste great together when mixed up with some yogurt and milk.

The Classic
1 ripe banana
2 cups strawberries
¾ cup plain lowfat yogurt
½ cup nonfat milk

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth.

Summer of Smoothies: Blueberry Banana Bonanza

I love fresh blueberries, but would rather snack on them whole than throw them in a blender. Frozen blueberries whirl up nicely in this smoothie.

Blueberry Banana Bonanza
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 bananas
½ cup apple juice
½ plain low-fat yogurt

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth.

Strawberries sing in this refreshing smoothie

The strawberry is one of my favorite fruits. So much flavor in such a small package! This second Summer of Smoothies concoction is quite refreshing and not overly sweet. It made for a great cool down after a sweltering run the other morning. This recipe made enough to fill two pint classes plus a little extra.


Strawberry Mango Tango
1 pound strawberries, washed and hulled
1 mango, diced
½ cup plain yogurt
½ orange juice
1 tablespoon honey
16 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth.

Got bananas in your freezer? Make some muffins

I’ve got a freezer full of frozen bananas, and they’re not getting any prettier.
There’s nothing wrong with freezing overly ripe bananas, as they’re great to have on hand for banana bread. I’ve got at least half a dozen black, gnarly bananas on ice right now, and because I’m sick of hearing “Oh my God, when are you going to do something with these nasty things?!?!” each time the special man friend opens the freezer, I decided to take action.

I absolutely love banana bread, and have been trying to make it healthier by scaling back, or cutting out, the oil and/or butter many recipes suggest. I’ve also played around with baking muffins instead of a loaf because it cuts the bake time and the muffins are more portable and make for a great eat-at-my-desk breakfast.
The following recipe is my favorite to date.

Banana Pecan Muffins
Adapted from SELF

4 overly ripe bananas
2 cups flour
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup skim milk
½ cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup chopped pecans
Paper muffin cups

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and pecans and stir or whisk to blend. In another bowl, combine bananas, milk, yogurt, egg and vanilla. Pour batter into bowl with dry ingredients and fold together until combined.
Place muffin cups in muffin tins and fill each cup to just below the top. Bake for roughly 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of muffin comes clean. Remove from oven and cool completely.