Healthy Hottie Banana Bread.

Hello lovelies. Today I will be sharing a brief updates on my progress as well as one of my favorite baking confections of late (you know those cold, snowy winter days that put you in the mood to do nothing more than bake warm yuminess....) Banana Bread, done the healthy hottie way.

First is first,after spending quite some time trying to record a video with updates for this week and trying to upload it to this post - I gave up. Me and videos and youtube are not getting along right now....ha! As a result here goes a summary of updates in a very concise format. Last week, this is what I accomplished:

• I met my calorie and water intake goals, despite being sick for 3 days.
• Because or the aforementioned sickness, I was only able to work-out 3 days out of the intended 6 days. .However, I Zumba'd to my heart's content the rest of the week.
• As much as I tried, getting to bed by 11p.m.still proved to be very difficult for me -  hoping I do better with this goal for this week.
• On Sunday, my "weigh-in" day - I was happy to report that despite the sickness, I was down 1.5lbs! I also like using clothing and a measuring tape as a progress indicator instead of the scale alone (which can identify water weight but not inches) and when I tried on my "goal pants" this morning - there was definitely an improvement from last week:)

On to the recipe...
 Here is the recipe I use for my Banana Bread. I take a traditional recipe and modify a few ingredients to make it lower calorie, lower in fat and more rich in whole grains. (on those items I have replaced with a healthier option or reduced I will italicize.)

Cast of Characters: 

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/4 cup melted butter (original recipe calls for 1/3)
1/2 cup of organic cane brown sugar and 1/2 cup of raw organic agave  (original recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar.)
1 cup of roughly -chopped walnuts.
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of stone ground organic whole-wheat flour (original recipe calls for all purpose-white.)


Method
 Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). In food processor or large bowl combine:  butter,  mashed bananas, sugar, agave, egg, and vanilla. In separate, larger bowl, combine the flour,baking soda and salt. Then pour the wet ingredients from the food processor into the dry ingredients and mix well with a spoon. Lastly,  add the chopped walnuts.  Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Wet Ingredients. Mixed and ready to be combined.

Dry Ingredients. Remember to always sift your flour.

Mix both ingredients together  by hand with a spatula. You will need to mix very thoroughly to make sure all ingredients are incorporated correctly. As a final step,add the walnuts.

Pour into greased loaf-pan. I typically use the  PAM spray-baking butter that is zero calories.

Baked and ready to eat:) I typically serve a slice along a cup of home-made Healthy Hottie Chocolate.

Recipe for the HH hot chocolate is easy peasy.  Simply break up about half a dark cocoa chocolate bar (I buy Greenback organic chocolate with 70% cocoa) into about 2 cups of non-fat milk steaming in a pot. Stir until the chocolate melts and then add about 2 tablespoons of raw agave or raw cane sugar and enjoy!!!!

Next post will be all about green juices....doesn't it sound divine?;)