Chocolate Banana Bread

Hi Everyone!

Well the big day is over.  How was your Valentine’s day?  For me it’s still early yet, Hubby is still at work, but so far I have had a nice day!  At work I treated the office to lunch at an old Italian hang out we used to go to, and I was a bad girl and ordered a veggie pizza, with only very little cheese, but the dough is so bad for you, but you know me and bread I couldn’t stop myself to one piece, I ate 4!  Shame on me!    But check this site out I found today.  It’s calorie count and you enter in the ingredients for a recipe and it gives you the calories and nutritional value.  I found out my pizza is about 648 calories for 4 pieces.  It’s so cool.  Here’s the link address, try it!  Put whatever you want for your ingredients and it fills it all in for you.  I checked the count against another program I use and it’s accurate.  Technology these days is so cool!!  Have fun with it!!!

My latest bread is Chocolate Banana Bread.  This is a very moist bread and the flavors of rich chocolate and banana make a winning combination.  The calories aren’t super low on this one, I started out at 123 calories during my original calculation, but I wanted more chocolate in it, so I added 38 grams of melted dark chocolate oh man was that perfect!!  Made the calories go up to 156 calories a slice, but that’s not bad for chocolate banana bread!  I used Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Pounder Bar and I’ll tell ya it’s so creamy and perfect, best dark chocolate.  You must simply try it Darling!  :)

There are two things I really like to make and change-up and its quick bread and pancakes.  I have so much fun creating them!  I normally make them and wait for reactions to make sure there up to the Peanut Butter and Peppers standard!  Are there things you like to make that you change-up?

The photo I just posted I thought was really cool!  I love the color of the Gerbera Flower and I love the hunky bread!  This bread turned out fat!  If I filled it 3/4′s of the way full in my pans, I probably would have gotten 3 mini loafs out of it, but I am a sucker for a high rise bread, so I jam my loaf pans with batter.  I’m probably not suppose to do that, but who makes the rules?  That’s what I love about cooking, you get to experiment with different things.  That’s what makes cooking and baking fun!!

Chocolate Banana Bread

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter, melted (I used Brumble & Brown)

2 eggs or Substitute

2 or 3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup or so)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

38 grams Dark Chocolate, melted (I used 3 squares of Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Pound Plus)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

In one bowl, combine: Butter, Eggs, Banana. The stir in vanilla extract.

In an another bowl combine sugar, flours,cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the ingredients are blended together.

Fold in melted chocolate

Pour the dough into greased baking pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Small loaves take around 30 minutes, a normal-sized loaf takes around 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven.

After they have cooled for 5 or 10 minutes the loaves can be removed from the pan to cool. Once they are cool they can be individually wrapped and frozen.
Enjoy!

Makes 2 Mini Loafs or 1 large loaf

Servings:  12 slices

Calories per slice:  156,  Fat:  3.6,  Cholesterol:  0,  Sodium:  112,  Potassium:  133,  Carbs:  29,  Fiber:  2.6,  Sugar:  12,  Protein:  6.3

I don’t think there bad stats for a rich chocolaty bread.  Plus dark chocolate is full of antioxidants and is heart happy!!

After looking at my photo’s I am really excited for spring!  Sooner than we know it summer will be here, I can’t wait!  I am so not a winter person.  That’s why we moved from Buffalo to California.  However the winters are kind of cold.  It gets down in the 30′s at night and the high today was 60.  Now I know, it may sound warm to you depending on where you live, but I really hate the cold.  My Husband and I laugh, saying we moved to CA to get warm weather, lets keep heading west and you know whats west of California?  Hawaii!!  I’m all for that!  Ok, I am dreaming, but still, wouldn’t it be fun to live on a tropical island?  Just think, warm, sun, sand, barbecues, coconuts, palm trees, please give me a second to get out of my day-dream!

Well my dogs are starting to get loud and wild, so my Husband must be close to getting home.  Yes, It sounds weird but about 5 minutes before he comes home they start going bonkers, fighting, being bad and loud so I always know when he’s getting near by.  Dogs are funny creatures.  There always so good when it’s just me and them, but when Hubby’s home they turn bad!  They know who the boss is and it’s not him!  lol

Encase you didn’t get any, here are some flowers for you!  Hope you had a great Valentine’s Day and have a splendid rest of the week!!!