Sweet bananas, almond butter, and melty chocolate make this banana bread over the top tasty!
After 17 months, I finally printed and blew up pictures of my baby. I can’t even imagine what some people thought when they walked into our house and the walls were looooaded with photos of our oldest son. Wow, do you think it’s anymore obvious that she has a favorite? Even my husband gave me grief about it. I know.
In my defense, I knew we were moving, and wanted to wait until I had even more walls and rooms to fill. I know thats not that great of an excuse, but what can I say, I’m a procrastinator. I just finally received our first wedding canvas too. So there’s that.
It took us hours upon hours a few nights ago to go through the thousandsss of photos we have of the kids. We wanted to blow a few up too, but uhh how the heck we narrowed it down, I’ll never know. I love taking pictures, and I try my hardest to put them into the correct folder on the computer when I unload them so that they’re somewhat organized. But then they just sit there. I never go through and get rid of the blurry or crappy ones.
Oh it was fun though. Looking back at everything we’ve done with them, and how fast they’re growing, has inspired us to get moving again to do more with them. Show them and teach them everything that we possibly can. I want my kids to be cultured, not live in a bubble. Ya know?
Plus spend as much time with them as we can before they don’t want to be around us anymore…
But they’re boys, so I have a feeling that as long as I keep cooking, they’ll come around. The way to a mans heart is through his stomach right? 😉 And banana bread is practically a food group in this house. I buy extra bananas and we let them sit until they’re good and brown and sweeet.
I have a classic banana bread that we make quite often, but I’ve never posted it because, well everyone already has they’re own favorite. But sometimes we like to switch it up a bit! Like with this Boozy Banana Bread (uhh, so awesome) and now with this Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.
I tried to keep this one a smidgen healthier…you know, bikini season is here. Well maybe not in some parts of the country, but I spent the entire week last week in one, and umm, its not the prettiest of sights..yet! We’re getting there folks, by lightening this up a bit! But don’t let it deter you, this bread is full of flavor. My husband and kids devoured it within a couple days. Warmed up for a few seconds before eating it and it’s like your own little slice of heaven. Do itttt!
Sweet bananas, almond butter, and melty chocolate make this banana bread over the top tasty!
Ingredients
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1/4 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup almond slivers (optional)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350° Line a 9x3" bread pan with enough parchment paper to hang over the two long sides slightly.
- In a large bowl, using a fork or potato masher, smash the bananas to your desired preference. I tend to leave a few chunks, but not many. (I like it pretty well mashed so it distributes evenly throughout the bread.)
- Stir in the yogurt, apple sauce, and almond butter. Drizzle in the melted butter.
- Mix in the eggs and vanilla bean paste
- Add both sugar and stir to mix.
- Pour in both flours, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Fold together with a rubber spatula until just combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips
- Transfer to the bread pan, scraping out the entire contents of the bowl. Sprinkle with almond slivers if desired.
- Bake for 45-60 minutes. ( I realize that's a huge difference in time, but I tend to start checking mine at the 45 minutes mark, and continue to poke it every five minutes until a butter knife of toothpick come out clean.)
- Remove from the oven. Cool for 5 minutes before lifting the bread out using both sides of the parchment paper. Slice and enjoy!