Brooke and Big Bird's Banana Bread

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch as our family of 6 eats, or tries to, on $6/day.

My friend, Brooke, brought some banana bread to our house a couple years ago. We devoured it at an alarming rate. The next morning my husband said something like, "You should make banana bread like that. That's how I remember liking it as a kid." I said, "I guess I didn't realize you liked banana bread that much." And he said, "I like it when it's moist like that." Ahem.

Fortunately I don't have too much food pride and I asked Brooke for the recipe. She said she'd gotten it from a friend who'd gotten it from a 1970's Sesame Street magazine. When a recipe comes from the Big Bird himself, I suppose you should expect it to be wholesome, but I was still surprised at how many bananas it used. My no-longer-standby recipe called for only 1 large banana. And I was even more surprised to see that Brooke and Big Bird's recipe was entirely whole wheat. I even asked her if she had used all whole wheat. It was just so smooth and nice. I guess I forgot to notice it was virtuous too.

We often make this into muffins for breakfast. By eating just two, which is easy peasy for this clan, you're getting 1/2 of a banana and lots of whole grains. If I asked my kids to eat a whole wheat muffin and 1/2 a banana on the side, the majority of them would stomp around and complain of the utter trial that is their lives. So for us these muffins are a very good thing.

And if that's not enough good stuff, this is the type of recipe you throw into one bowl and mix with a spoon. I love those. And, one more good thing:  these taste even better the next day.

Below I've given you Brooke's/Big Bird's original recipe as well as a lower sugar, lower cost version of my own. (The original is better, but mine is good too and it fits better in our uber tight budget. Also, I feel even better eating these with less sugar.)

And in case your wondering why we're so heavy on the breakfast-y stuff on this blog, well, dinner was a bust tonight--edible, but not bloggable. And, yes, my life apparently centers around sweet breakfasts that I try to avoid feeling guilty about.

Brooke and Big Bird's Banana Bread
Makes 1 loaf or 12 muffins
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes for muffins; 1 hour for the loaf
Cost: $1.70
(bananas: .40, honey: .75 (a little sketchy on this estimation), butter: .25, flour: .30)

3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 C chocolate chips (optional)

Mash bananas well with a fork. Add other ingredients. Mix together, pour into a greased bread pan, and bake at 350 for one hour. (Alternately pour into 12 muffins cups and bake for 15-20 minutes.)

PRINTABLE RECIPE

The Cheaper Less Sweet Sister (Hmm, good thing this isn't a personals add)
Cost: $.78
(bananas: .40, sugar: .04, oil: .04, whole wheat: .30)

A confession: I used sugar and less of it. It was good and all, but if you've got honey and your budget can swing it, I recommend the honey instead of the sugar. It keeps the muffins super moist and makes for a more complex flavor.

A note: If you don't have quite enough bananas, use a bit of applesauce to fill the void.

3 ripe bananas
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C canola oil
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour

Prepare as above.

PRINTABLE RECIPE