When my parents-in-law were in town last week, my MIL Bonnie brought up her famous banana bread and pumpkin bread.  My step-son goes apeshit over this bread.  Of course, since he wasn’t here, we had to text him to tell him how amazing and delicious the bread is!

Whenever I make banana bread, it never puffs up and hers is so tall.  I asked her to send me both recipes when she got back home.  Upon first glance, I quickly realized why her breads are stellar – the banana bread calls for three sticks of butter and the pumpkin bread has 1 cup of oil and 3 cups of sugar! 😀

So Bonnie, I did adapt your banana bread just a touch, by using real sugar instead of Splenda, and reducing the butter to two sticks.  And while she used pecans, I used almonds because that’s what I had on hand.  This is still the best banana bread I’ve ever made in my life!

Bonnie’s Banana Bread with Pecans

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 large overripe bananas (almost rotten)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups butter, melted and cooled (I used 1 cup) stics butter 😀
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 generous tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cups pecans, chopped (I used 3/4 cup slivered almonds)

Preheat the oven to 350 and spray Pam in a large bread pan (or 2 smaller pans).

Melt the butter, and let cool.  In a large bowl put the bananas in a bowl and mix until creamy.  Add the sugar and beat a good 3 minutes until you get a light and fluffy banana cream.  Add the melted butter, eggs and vanilla.  Beat well.  Mix in the dry ingredients until all incorporated being careful not to over blend.

Pour batter into pan.  Rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.  Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, until golden brown and a knife in the center comes out clean.  Cool the bread for 10 minutes, remove and let cool on wire rack.

Okay, so first off, whenever I made banana bread I was a wooden spoon girl – by whipping up the banana mixture, I think this is what helps the bread come out so tall.  My MIL also used bananas from her back yard – Tony bought similar bananas at our local grocery store.  I used about 16 of these for this recipe:

I was nervous because the batter came almost to the top, but it worked out fine

I also don’t think I’ve baked mine long enough – this one reached a rich deep brown:

I will never make another banana bread recipe again – thanks Bonnie!  And if you don’t want to take my word for it, this morning I woke up to this note by the coffee maker:

Since I was able to find canned pumpkin, I decided to make my pumpkin pancakes – I know its the season of blueberry pancakes, but I just had a jones for them!  Each pancake is 116 calories, and with the extra schmear of peanut butter between each one – breakfast was probably right around 500 calories.

seriously, my mouth is watering just looking at that picture!
the perfect bite 😀

So since I didn’t swim yesterday morning, Tony kinda looked at me like “really, you are going to use the excuse of sore muscles?!”  So I had to have a kick ass bike ride – and kick my ass it did!  I did the 10 mile Outlaw course – the first five miles were uphill! But I did it, it took me 49 minutes.

Lunch was spaghetti squash using leftover Italian sausage from the other night.  I tossed in some spinach and feta cheese – no matter how I try, spaghetti squash will always kinda look like dog food on a plate, but trust me, this was delicious!

And dinner was fish stick tacos – still using up what I have in the fridge and freezer!

the fixins
my taco x 2 + 2 ounces of chips and salsa

And I did make it to the pool this morning!  The first lap is chilly, but after that it is wonderful – nothing but blue skies!

Do you have a favorite dish of your MIL?

I am off to get ready for work – have a great Thursday! 😀