Easy and Delicious Banana Bread

This recipe for banana bread is moist and very delicious! It can be made in just one bowl, unlike most banana breads which call for the dry ingredients to be mixed in a separate bowl from the wet! This banana bread recipe contains the added nutrition of whole wheat flour and can be prepared dairy-free.

But enough of this talk; let's get on to the recipe! Yum...!

All photos on this page are © by Janiece, unless otherwise indicated.

Moist and Delicious Homemade Banana Bread! (Or Banana Nut Bread)

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter or margarine/spread

3 very ripe bananas

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup white flour

1/2 cup of walnuts, pecans, or your favorite nut (optional)

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter or margarine in a small pan and allow to cool.
2. While the butter/margarine is melting and cooling, prepare your loaf pan by spraying it with olive oil spray or by applying a small amount of olive oil to a paper towel and rubbing that across the bottom and sides of the dish. If you would like, also line the bottom of your pan with parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the bread or cake come out of the pan easily.
3. Next break or cut the bananas up into small pieces and then mash them with a fork.
4. In a large bowl, combine the bananas, sugar, and egg, mixing them together with a spoon.
5. Add the salt and baking soda, and stir again.
6. Add the cooled butter/margarine, and stir.
7. Finally add both kinds of flour, and the nuts (if using) and mix only until the flour is moistened. Do not overstir!
8. Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until the loaf pulls away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
9. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, and then remove from pan. Enjoy!

The Banana Bread is ready! Eat it while it's warm!

Were you aware that some types of cookware, such as aluminum or cast iron, can end up in your food when you cook with it? If you are anemic, it may be beneficial to have some iron leach into your food. But I can't think of any circumstances in which you'd want aluminum or lead to leach into your food!

I think most people know by know that non-stick Teflon isn't a good thing to cook in. Studies are showing that the perfluorochemical chemicals (PFCs) that can leach out of non-stick cookware are toxic. Being exposed to PFCs prenatally appears to affect childhood immunity. PFCs have also been linked to arthritis and thyroid disease.

Aluminum in our bodies has been linked to Alzheimers. Non-anodized aluminum pans do leach aluminum into our food.

Of course, there are other factors which are linked to these diseases and health concerns as well, but switching the type of cookware you use is one fairly easy change you can make which may improve your health over time. Even if you don't feel you can throw out your current cookware, consider replacing it with healthier choices as your cookware wears out.

According to Dr. Mercola, even stainless steel pots and pans can leach nickle into your food.

You can find a chart on Dr. Mercola's website showing ingredients that can get into your food via your cookware.

Here's another site that talks about unsafe cookware.

In our house, my preference is glass, when possible. We use glass pots and casserole dishes for much of our cooking. For pans, we use cast iron. We also use lead-free stoneware in the oven or toaster oven.

For Banana Bread (or any other loaf bread), I use a glass loaf pan. The bread comes out so very easily! The pan can be left in the sink with water in it, without fear of the pan rusting. To the best of my knowledge it doesn't leach any chemicals into our food. And glass is easy to clean! Even if something does get baked on to it, you don't have to worry about damaging the finish as you try to clean the pan.