Now this is not a banana bread recipe that I made up. My sister (a banana bread connoisseur) shared this with me a long time ago and it has just stuck. It has ALOT of bananas. Six to be exact, if you are doing a bundt cake size. But what I often do, is replace some of the bananas with applesauce, carrots, or zucchini. Any of those things are generally interchangeable, unless you have a finicky recipe. So for example, I might do 1 cup bananas (roughly 2 med bananas), 1/2 cup applesauce, and 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots. 

I FEEL like this is better for you... but Im not sure if it actually is better for you... I also do some of the same things I mentioned in my kind of healthier apple cake recipe. Replace 1/2 cup flour with ground flax seed, add walnuts, and use whole wheat flour. We know those things are better for you. Full of Omega 3's, fiber, and vitamins, They are supposed to help with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and more. I always try to replace a portion of flour with flax and whole wheat flour, but I don't usually write it on my recipe because thats not how I make if for guests. All of those things that are so great for you, can give a more nutty flavor and added texture. I have gotten to where I actually like those things but I know some people that don't really prefer it. 

See my eggs?  Im going to look into adding flax to their diet for added omega 3's in our eggs! The flock goes outside everyday so they are already getting all that great stuff thats in the plants and dirt. I also give them the herbs from my garden in the summer, which have MANY natural benefits. 

I have had to buy eggs from the store recently though because of my older girls going on strike and my young girls not laying yet. When I have had to buy from the store, I'm sure to buy free range and NOT cage free. Cage free just means they get 3ft per chicken and are not confined to a tiny cage but the free range means they have 21ft outside.

But back to the recipe. If you want a healthy alternative to butter, coconut oil is a good option. I personally can't do without butter... but if I did want to, I would use coconut oil. 

You can pretend those chocolate chips are blueberries! If you do use blueberries, I like to toss them in flour before stirring them into the batter at the very end. I was making a half recipe here, which would fit in 1 loaf pan (but I couldn't find it), so I put it in this 6x8 dish and it fit perfect. 

I don't know if this is the "correct" way to handle this, but if my food is ever getting too brown in the oven before its cooked through, I put it on a lower rack in the oven or I lower the temp about 25 F degrees.  I actually went out to care for the animals when I was making this and it did get the slightest bit too brown, but this banana bread does get pretty brown anyways. I think its because its not heavy on the flour and is heavy in banana. 

Banana Bread

1 cup - Butter (soft)

2 cups - Granulated sugar

3 cups - Mashed banana (or combination shredded carrots, applesauce, zucchini)

4 eggs beaten

2 1/4 cups - All purpose flour (or 1/2 ground flax seed, 3/4 whole wheat flour, and 1 cup all purpose)

2 tsp - Baking soda

1 tsp - Salt

1 tsp - Nutmeg (or cinnamon or both!)

Options:

1/2 cup - Frozen or fresh blueberries tossed in flour

1 1/2 cups - Semi sweet or dark chocolate chips

1 cup - Walnuts chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until fully incorporated. Stir in banana or whatever you are using.
2. Stir together dry ingredients and add to the banana mix. Do not over mix! 
3. Fold in any options you are adding blueberries or chocolate chips, until they are just evenly dispersed throughout the batter.
4. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans or 1 Bundt pan. Bake for roughly 55 min to 1 hr 15 min. 
5. Let cool in pan for at least 10 min.