Banana Bread

I have been away from the foodie blog world for quite some time. I missed it! I sat down one morning with my morning cup of joe and was floored when I started looking up some of my old stomping grounds. The meals were so detailed...and extravagant. I was so overwhelmed, I walked away from the computer...bummed. I stayed away for quite some time after that really thinking that I had lost touch with the food Internet world. But the more I stayed away, the more I longed for it. So once again I decided to give it a whirl. And eventually I found some of my oldies but goodies...Picky Palate, Prudence Pennywise & Rookie Cookie, to name a few. Then one day on Facebook a friend of ours posted that we had all but abandoned our food blog (not naming names..AMBER!) and it made me sad because what people are searching for in this economy are meals that are cheap, easy to make and basically BASIC! I feel that's what people are looking for these days...simplicity.

I remember when I started this blog, I would go nutso writing down recipe after recipe and heading to the grocery store only to spend hundreds of dollars on meals that were mediocre. I missed the good ole days of Fried Chicken and Peach Cobbler. Well I will still have to semi miss those days as we know that Fried Chicken is bad on the thighs and the heart but if it was so bad for us why is the generation of our grandparents living into the 90s and my generation is dying off? It's because back then, ingredients were grown in their gardens and the environment was much kinder to our foods. What I'm getting at, is times are tight and tough and time is precious. Let's get back to our roots and save ourselves some time and money and we might just be surprised at how much we miss it.

My first recipe in my Back to Basics theme is Banana Bread. I know there are zillions of recipes out there for banana bread and I know some of the originals call for sour milk or vinegar and can take up to almost an hour to bake, but I wanted something easy and on any given day I always have every ingredient for this quick and easy recipe. I made this and was so happy with the results...it was so moist and yummy. Give it a try and it might just become one of your basic recipes!

BANANA BREAD

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large ripe bananas
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)


Heat oven to 350 degrees

Coat two loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray

In large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Make a well in the center. (basically pull the flour up the sides of the bowl so when you pour the banana mixture in, it goes in the middle, much easier to combine that way)

Mash bananas in medium-sized bowl (potato masher works GREAT).

Add eggs, sugar and butter and beat with mixer until fairly smooth.

Pour banana mixture into well in dry ingredients and stir just until blended. (Don't over stir as this will make your bread tough and chewy)

Fold in walnuts, then dive batter evenly between prepared loaf pans. (One of my sons is allergic to some nuts so I don't give him any. Before I add the walnuts, I pour half of the mixture in one loaf pan, decrease the nuts by half, mix in with the remaining batter, and pour the remaining batter in the second loaf pan)

Bake loaves for about 35 minutes or until browned and tops spring back lightly when gently pressed. The sides will pull away from the pan as well.

Cool on a wire wrack.

Serve with butter...YUM!