Banana Bread Bites

 The best part about ripe bananas is making banana bread!  I have found the easiest recipe on a website called Simply Recipes.  I use it all the time and the only thing I changed was adding some cinnamon.  Cinnamon makes everything better.  Well almost everything!  Jessica has a Pampered Chef brownie pan and I used that to make the bread in.  The bread turned out great and it's not exactly bite size but you can hold it one hand and your cup of coffee in the other.  Perfect!

Banana Bread Bites
adapted from Simply Recipes

3 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of flour

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl mash the bananas.  Mix in the melted butter.  Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla.  Mix in the baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Add in the flour.  What is great about this recipe is that you don't need a mixer you mix everything up in one bowel with a whisk or a spoon.

Spray a 4x8 loaf pan or a brownie pan or make muffins.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan or distribute evenly into the brownie pan.  If you are making a loaf bake for an hour to an hour and ten minutes.  Check after 50 minutes by sticking a toothpick in the center to see if it comes out clean.  For the brownie pan bake 20 to 30 minutes.  Mine cooked for 25 and came out perfect.

Lazy Woman's Banana Cake

I think we all know how much I love banana's.  I really wanted banana cake one night but was feeling lazy so I just whipped up a white cake and threw in some mashed banana's.  It turned out really good and it's very moist.  I added some canned buttercream frosting and it was finished.

Lazy Woman's Banana Cake
a Lacey Creation

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1 box of white cake mix
1 1/4 cup of water
1/3 cup oil
3 egg whites
4 mashed ripe banana's

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

In a bowl mix together the cake mix, water, oil, egg whites, and mashed banana's.  Spray a 9X13 pan with cooking spray and pour in the cake mixture.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Once cool frost with icing of choice.  I like the canned buttercream frosting but cream cheese frosting is great too.

Blueberry Banana Bread with Walnuts

 This bread is so yummy!  Banana bread is great and then you add blueberries, genius.  I will be making this bread a lot.

Blueberry Banana Bread w/walnuts
adapted from Mom on Timeout

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4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

 Pre-heat oven to 325

In a bowl cream together the butter and sugar.  I use my Kitchen Aide mixer.  Add the bananas, egg, and vanilla.  Mix in the flour and baking soda slowly until incorporated. With a spatula mix in the blueberries.

You can make 1 large loaf of bread or 4 small loaves of bread.  Spray your pan/pans with cooking spray and pour the mixture in.

For one loaf bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  For the mini loaves bake for 30-40 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.  Enjoy!

Banana Cake made Light

Have I mentioned my love of banana's lately?  I haven't.  Shame on me.  I <3 banana's!  I found this recipe on my Taste of Home app.  Have I mentioned my love of my iPhone?  Love it!  I made this cake several months ago but I have some banana's on my counter just begging to be made into this cake or maybe bread.  I haven't decided yet.







Banana Cake made Light
from Taste of Home

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3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
dash salt

For Frosting:
1 package reduced fat cream cheese
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioner's sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly, about 2 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the bananas, applesauce and vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into butter mixture just until blended.

Transfer to a 9x13 baking pan coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack.

For frosting, in a small bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy.  Add confectioner's sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.  Frost bars.  Refrigerate leftovers.

Blueberry Banana Baked Oatmeal

I love McDonald's Blueberry Banana Oatmeal. It is really yummy and you can get it all day long.  But as you know eating out can get expensive so I figured I could make this at home.  I found a recipe for baked banana oatmeal which I love baked oatmeal so I gave it a whirl.  I thought it was okay.  I like the peach blueberry baked oatmeal I make better so next time I might use that recipe and add banana's.  I was trying to eat healthy so I made up fruit bowls.  Fresh fruit is yummy and having it cut up and ready to grab out of the fridge is handy.

Blueberry Banana Baked Oatmeal
adapted from Kath Eats Real Food

4 jumbo muffins, 9WW points per muffin

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2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1 mashed banana
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 banana, sliced

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

In a bowl combine the dry ingredients.  In a bigger bowl combine the wet ingredients.  Mix together the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.  Mix in the blueberries and walnuts.  Evenly distribute in a jumbo muffin tin.  Top with sliced bananas.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Caution to all Bakers-Banana Bread

This is banana bread. This poor banana bread got a little burnt. But it still tasted great. I titled this post caution to all bakers because I could have avoided burning the bread if I would have checked the temperature on the oven. I thought the oven was running a little hot but didn't think about it. I'm glad I set the timer for half the baking time the recipe called for or this bread would have been completely black. I just had a feeling. When I noticed the burning smell I checked the temp and it had gotten bumped up to 500 degrees. I'm glad I didn't burn the house down. I really wish I hadn't burnt it because it was a going away present for one of my co-workers. Banana bread is her favorite. She got a promotion and is going to work at the Main Library. All the best luck to her.

This recipe is so easy. You don't even need a mixer. Just mix together with a big spoon.

Banana Bread (Recipe reflects the doubling I did)
from Simply Recipes

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6 or 8 ripe bananas, smashed
2/3 cup melted butter
2 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
2 egg, beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
3 cups of all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350°. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into 5 small buttered loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Banana Pudding

Every month at the library we hold a book discussion. My boss and I split them so I do six and year and she does six a year. The four I have done so far this year have not been winners. This last book I picked was so unliked I was actually surprised. I liked it. But maybe my standards are lower. I'm not sure. All I know is that the dislike for this book was so overwhelming and here I thought I was picking an inspirational harmless book. I'll know better next time. On a positive note the dessert I made was well received. Usually the treats I make are well received. It's just the books I pick out that aren't. I'm making them pick out the books to be discussed for next year. If they don't like them It won't be my fault. I have had banana pudding many times but never like this. This was homemade and so good. Really it was very easy to make. The pudding just took some time to cook and thicken up. Other than that it was super easy. You should check out the blog I snagged this recipe from and the idea of putting it cute little mason jars. This woman's blog is awesome, A Cozy Kitchen.

I doubled the recipe and was able to assemble six pint size mason jars plus a mediumish size bowl. This is very sweet so pint size servings might be too much. I had plates set out for those who didn't want a whole mason jar so they could scoop out what they wanted. The 1/2 pint mason jars would probably be better.


Banana Pudding
from A Cozy Kitchen

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Doubled Version

6 cups whole milk
6 egg yolks
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour plus 2 tsp flour
2 pinches salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 box of Nilla wafers
6 bananas
1 large container heavy cream
1/2 lb powder sugar

Add milk and egg yolks to a medium saucepan and whisk. Add sugar, flour, and salt and whisk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 20 minutes or until thickened. If it’s not getting as thick as you’d like after 20 minutes, feel free to add another teaspoon of flour. Mine didn't get think enough after 20 minutes so I added another 2 tablespoons of flour and let it cook for another half hour. Remove from heat; stir in the vanilla.

For the whipped cream: Pour the heavy cream into a mixing bowl (I used my Kitchenaide mixer) and beat until foamy. Gradually add powder sugar to mixture, beating until soft peaks form. I used 1/2 pound of powder sugar. I let my Kitchenaide keep beating it until it became a whipped cream.

You can arrange in a big bowl or small mason jars. For either, arrange vanilla wafers in bottom of a small serving dish (or mason jar). Slice 1/2 banana and layer over wafers. Spoon custard over bananas. Spoon whipped cream over custard. Repeat until custard is gone and you have a few solid layers. I didn't use all the whipped cream I made.

Serve immediately or cover and chill for eight hours.

My first baked good order!

A few weeks ago a woman I work with said she wanted me to make her ice cream cone cake pops and a small smash cake for her grandson's first birthday. And she was like I'm going to pay you. I was like all right then. My only problem is not knowing what to charge. I just told her to give me what she thought was fair. Yeah, I'm not the best business woman. Any way she wanted banana cake and since it was her grandson's first birthday I cut the cake to look like the number one. I have to say that banana cake pops are awesome. I had some left over that I dipped in milk chocolate, white chocolate, and peanut butter chips. Awesome!!! if you like banana.

Using an empty coke box I made an ice cream stand. It wasn't as sturdy as I would have liked it to be but it got the job done.

Banana Cake
Gina Neely's cupcake recipe from Food Network

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2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
3 teaspoons vanilla
4 large eggs
4 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup walnuts, optional (I didn't use nuts)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl combine the dry ingredients, set aside. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Add the sour cream and vanilla. Slowly beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Add the bananas and nuts. Don't over mix.

If making a cake grease a 9X13 pan. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

If making cupcakes evenly distribute the batter into 24 cupcake liners. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Frost with cream cheese icing or icing of choice.

Banana Sour Cream Cake

Okay so you are probably wondering what is that white thing. This white thing is a banana sour cream cake. I tried a slice but didn't get a picture of it. I love banana's and any dessert that features banana's. Banana bread, banana nut muffins, banana cake, pie, I think you get my point. But I think banana cake is my favorite. This cake only has five ingredients if you don't count the frosting. Next time I will up how many banana's I use. The recipe calls for 1 cup and two banana's made one cup but I think it needs three banana's. I'll also put the walnuts it calls for around the sides of the cake next time because I think that would make this cake over the top.

Banana Sour Cream Cake
adapted from Food & Family's Winter 2008 magazine

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1 pkg. yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup oil
2 cans cream cheese frosting or *1 recipe homemade cream cheese frosting
1 cup walnuts finely chopped

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Beat cake mix, eggs, bananas, sour cream, and oil with mixer on low until moistened, scraping the bottom of the bowl often. Pour batter into greased and floured 9X13 pan. Bake 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake completely in pan. Remove cake from pan. Carefully cut cake crosswise in half using serrated knife. Place one cake half, top-side down, on plate. Spread top with frosting. Top with remaining cake half, top side up. Frost top and sides. Press nuts onto sides.

Homemade Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter with mixer on medium until blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition.