Banana Nut Bread

So this morning baby Pax only got half a banana because the other half was overripe and mushed in my hand before I could get it to him. I asked my mom what to do with all these bananas and she said, "I don't know, make pudding. Make bread. Eat them." You can see where I get my intelligence from - "eat them"... smarty.

So as usual I scoured the Internet in search of a banana pudding recipe (which I really wanted) but on my budget, I had to make something that I already had all the ingredients. On to banana bread. There weren't any exact recipes I could use, so I did my own little combo and in about 30 more minutes we will see how it turned out *fingers crossed.*

I enlisted the help of my oldest, 3 year-old CJ because he has insisted on making pot roast and cake for over a week now. Banana Bread is as close as he's getting. I have no idea why he is obsessed with cooking pot roast, he doesn't even eat it that often.

So here is the recipe I concocted and I will post an "after" pic...

Banana Nut Bread

1/3 c melted butter

3 mushed ripe bananas

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

dash of cinnamon

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup pecan halves or pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add the melted butter.

Combine egg and extracts and lightly beat, then add to bowl.

Allow your child to continue stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon while you sugars, spices, flour and nuts (in that order). Pour everything into a buttered loaf pan (I used glass) and bake for one hour.

Remove and cool . Eat.

I will share a few things I found to be helpful: I used real butter - hence the golden brown color and the extreme ease of removing from the pan. Most recipes I found say to cool then remove, but I have this constant baking fear that my creations are going to stick to the pans, so I try to get mine out as quickly as possible. I am trying as hard as I can right now not to slice this loaf, and I recommend letting yours cool as much as you can resist too..... *insert grumbling stomach and children*