So are you sick of banana recipes yet? I know I know... but I buy a lot of bananas each week, some weeks I get through them all... and other weeks... well I'll let the picture say it...


I just learned a fellow reader is actually allergic to bananas!?? No way! Sorry Sarah this recipe is OFF limits to you! I know these images will be tempting but just say no! I don't want to get blamed for getting you back in the ER. :)

I've tried a slew of banana bread recipes and have been pretty happy with my tinkering to make them healthy versions... yet I still feel the need to try and tinker with new recipes... and this one is my new favorite! It does have a little white flour in it (horrors) but I may give it a go with 100% whole wheat next time (I'll let you know how it goes and update a link to it from here).

I truthfully can't remember where I found my starting point recipe... but I changed a bunch anyway (butter, heavy cream...and so on) here is my version...


bOnana bread (yup I know I put an o there... read below to find out why)
recipe by stephchows

Beat the following together in a bowl
1 Tbs ground flax seeds + 3 Tbs water (do this first then add the rest of the stuff)
2 cups bOnanans
1/3 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup white sugar (I used splenda granulated)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk the following in another bowl
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
dash sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Then slowly add the dry mixture to the wet, alternating in the following
1/2 cup skim milk + 2 Tbs nonfat milk solids (powdered milk)


Pour into a 9x9" greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

OK Question for you... what did you think of the recipe format above? Weird? Fun? Easy to follow? Annoying and not easy to follow? This is the style I normally write in as I scribble things down and think it's super easier this way... but maybe it's just me... what do you think?


Now onto the "O"... My fellow Rochestarians may know already why I'm calling this bOnana bread... if they have ever been to the public market that is. The public market is a HUGE year round farmers market, but they also sell random household things and other things that aren't local... like bOnanans. There is this one vendor who sells bananas... but he can't seem to say the word right... so all you hear is this guys screaming out "BOOOOONANANAS, come get your bonanans here, only 30 cents a pound... BOOOONANANAS!!" Neva I know you know who I'm talking about right?? So John and I have started calling all bananas (whether we get them from him or the grocery store) bonanans.... so it's not a misspelling... it's on purpose. Hope you like this bonana bread :D

I made these banana cookies this weekend and it was love at first bite. I'm already planning on making them again one night this week and shaping them into bars! SO FREAKIN GOOD! As per my usual, there is no oil or butter. These things are all about healthy, so moist, decadent, can't stop eating, I really wish I had some with me right now... ok you get the point! I can't believe how sweet these actually tasted considering the only sweet added is the bananas and the coconut, no added sugar here. Bring on the all natural baby!!

Did I mention there are flax seeds in these too? I'm currently having a love affair with flax seeds, I know it doesn't sound glamorous, but they are just so nutty and happy :) Neva can you eat flax seeds or are those an allergy too? Although I just realized these have both almonds and coconut in them :( I really am a bad friend constantly tormenting you with nuts galore! Sorry my dear :(

Go buy bananas now and stick them in a brown bag so they are super brown and happy by the weekend so you can make these!


Banana Oat Cookies or Bars
These are adapted from 101 cookbooks Nikki's cookies.

3 large, ripe bananas (the browner the better!), well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup almond meal (almond slices + food processor for a few pulses)
1/3 cup flax seeds
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & sweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup dried cherries or other dried fruit of your choice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and apple sauce. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, flax seeds, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks and dried fruit. Drop Tablespoon-fulls, onto a Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes.

Makes about 2.5 dozen bite-sized cookies. I'll let you know how many bars once I make these again.

you know you want to chow me ... go buy some bananas!

UPDATE: So I made these in bar form last night! I put them into a 9" stoneware pan and cooked them for about 30 minutes. I cut them into 12 bars and brought them to the office. The results: "delicious" "these are sooo goood" "mmmmm" I like those kind of reactions! Sounds good to me!

A few weeks ago I made some fudgy roasted banana cake with walnuts... And it was seriously tasty, gone in one day kind of tasty. I made the recipe again except this time I made them into muffins. :) I feel like when I make stuff like this in a pan... I tend to chow more of it. If it's in pre-portioned pieces (muffins) I feel bad going back for seconds and thirds. With a cake it's easy to just say... oh just a little inch wide piece... and another inch wide piece... (come on now I know you've done it!) Then next thing you know half the cake is gone and for some reason your belly seems to be a little larger... ;) So this is the version for the portion control lovers out there.


Fudgy roasted banana cake with walnuts and chocolate chips
created by stephchows

4 roasted bananas (see below for how to)
1/4 cup splenda blend for baking (or 1/2 cup white sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips (i used semi-sweet chips)
1/2 cup walnuts (optional for those of you with nut alergies... yes Neva that's you :) )

ROAST whole bananas (yellow with a few black spots, they don't have to be totally overripe) by placing on a cookie sheet, roast in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes (until they are black), cool until you are able to handle them without burning yourself.

WHISK flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

PEEL bananas and place into a large bowl along with any liquid that pours out with them, stir in sugar, beat in egg.

ADD dry ingredients a little at a time to wet.

POUR into greased muffin pan (makes 12) and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

It was John's birthday on Saturday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! So this past weekend was full of baking :) Since I already gave him his presents (Disturbed concert the previous weekend *insert head banging here*, and part of a wide screen TV (the other part was for Christmas lol)) I wanted to give him SOMETHING on his birthday...so I told him I'd bake him as much and whatever he wanted. We started thinking up what to bake friday night. Here's our list

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Poose Cookies (which I updated by taking 1/2 cup flour out and subbing in 1/2 cup chocolate protein powder... they were DELICIOUS!)
Pumpkin Muffins
Roasted Banana Muffins (but something a little different then the usual)
Skinny Boston Cream Pie (postponed till next weekend)

Can you tell I love to bake?? We also made a ton of good chow, went out to Sinbads for dinner on his birthday (which we totally realized was also the 3 year anniversary of the first time we went out for lunch together haha. Just friends at that point, a big group of us from the gym went to celebrate his birthday, who would have ever guessed we'd be where we are now! EEEEE! :D ). And of course we had to take a trip to Leaf and Bean for a mint mocha latte light for John and a chocolate raspberry coffee for me, yum!

We really are such party animals, I'm an old lady at the ripe age of 27 lol. So here's the new interpretation of my Roasted Banana Muffins! I deleted a few things, added some cocoa, some walnuts, and baked it in a ceramic pie plate.


Fudgy roasted banana cake with walnuts and chocolate chips
created by stephchows

4 roasted bananas (see below for how to)
1/4 cup splenda blend for baking (or 1/2 cup white sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup Hershey's Cocoa
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips (i used semi-sweet chips)
1/2 cup walnuts (optional for those of you with nut alergies... yes Neva that's you :) )

ROAST whole bananas (yellow with a few black spots, they don't have to be totally overripe) by placing on a cookie sheet, roast in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes (until they are black), cool until you are able to handle them without burning yourself.

WHISK flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

PEEL bananas and place into a large bowl along with any liquid that pours out with them, stir in sugar, beat in egg.

ADD dry ingredients a little at a time to wet.

POUR into greased ceramic pie plate and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.


CHOW!!!! And hide this cake... it's possible it was totally demolished over the course of one day. Good thing we work out a lot :D haha!

I don't know about you, but I've heard from a bunch of different places about roasting bananas before using them in baked goods... I always thought this sounded good but it wasn't until this weekend I realized just how much I was missing out!! I stuck the bananas on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes... they came out black and gross looking but once you peeled back the skin the insides were a nice vibrant yellow and so super soft. They smelled AMAZING and I couldn't wait for them to cool to start adding things in. (Make sure you let them cool a little though, otherwise you'll have scrambled cooked egg in your muffins... ewwwww)

The weekend was full of all types of baking, pancakes (recipe to come later this week), pumpkin cinnamon buns, poose cookies, and then finally roasted banana muffins. I'm not sure where I exactly came up with the recipe, I basically made it up as I went and (amazingly) wrote measurements down as I went along. Add a little bit of this a little bit of that... They came out of the oven steaming, so inviting, just asking to be devoured... oh, and they were.


John even proclaimed they were the best thing I had come up with to date! Pretty impressive statement if you ask me :) So they have his stamp of approval :) We sat and happily munched on these throughout the course of the night, and John told me this morning that amazingly some of them actually survived the night! And amazing feat if you ask me :) You see the recipe only made 12... next time I will be doubling this for certain.

Roasted Banana Muffins
created by me
makes 12

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old fashion oats (take them and pulverize in a food processor)
2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 small to medium roasted bananas (how to: below)
2 Tbs splenda blend (or just use more honey to taste and leave this out)
1.5- 2 Tbs Honey
1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk

ROAST whole bananas by placing on a cookie sheet, roast in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes (until they are black), cool until you are able to handle them without burning yourself.

WHISK flour, pulverized oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

PEEL bananas and place into a large bowl, stir in sugar & honey, beat in egg.

ADD dry ingredients a little at a time to wet, alternating adding in skim milk a little at a time, ending with milk.

POUR into greased muffin tins and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Try not to chow them all in one sitting... it's hard not to though :)