Whenever I pass the banana's at the market, I always grab a bunch. I don't particularly care for banana's but I'll eat them and I figure if they are in the house, I'm more likely to. So I always buy them and pretty much without fail they always end up looking like this:
Eeewwwww. I usually end up tossing them, but these babies have been sitting around for a week, getting all juicy and so I had no other choice. I had to make banana bread. The banana gods were calling. They couldn't be denied. 
Last Christmas my Mom gave me a mini crumb cake pan and I decided that it'd be the perfect size for little mini banana breads. I ain't gonna lie- they were mmmm mmmmm good! I found some mini-chocolate chips last time I was at the market and I think I'm starting to prefer them over the regular sized ones. They are small and get more evenly distributed, anyway- the choco chips are optional (but don't kid yourself you know you want them!) Here's the recipe:
Banana Bread
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of ground cloves
dash of nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas (approx. 4 bananas)
1/2 bag chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 cups) optional
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 9x5 loaf pan (or cupcake pan). In bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashes bananas. Add flour, spices, salt & soda. Stir until just combined. Add choco chips. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let bread cool slightly before turning onto wire rack.
**I baked these for about 30 minutes and they were perfect. If you have a pan like this, I would start checking around 25 minutes. Cooking time for cupcakes would probably be around 18-20 minutes if you use a cupcake pan.
On another note: Does anyone out there belong to Curves? I almost joined last month after a rather traumatizing weigh-in at the Dr's office. LOL!! Then I heard that once a year in early March they wave the joining fee (of $150) if you bring in canned goods...or something like that. Anyway, I only recently found out that it's not a regular gym (which I kind of already knew) but that you rotate machines every few minutes and do this cycle for 30 minutes. I'm torn between joining a regular gym and curves. I've definitely got to join something. I gained 65 lbs with my pregnancy with Henry and although I've gained less than 1/2 that with this pregnancy (so far- I'm not holding my breath!!) I really want to have a plan in place so as soon as those 4 post-partum weeks are over I can get my rear in gear! It took 14 months to get those extra pounds off with Henry and I just don't want to have it take that long this time around. It was miserable! Anyway- I'd love to hear any feedback you have! Thanks!!
p.s. Don't you just love that I'm seeking gym advice in the same post as the banana bread! ha ha ha...
xoxo
