Healthy! Peanut Butter Banana Bread

As if there weren’t already enough banana bread recipes swirling around the Internet… I thought I’d add one more to the mix. 🙂

You know how it is though, summer comes, the humidity skyrockets, and bananas seem to ripen in the amount of time it takes you to drive home from the grocery store.  Right?  One of my go-to uses for ripe bananas is freezing them for smoothie bowls (so good) but every now and then I default to banana bread (or scones!).

This particular batch of banana bread is quite nutritious.  In addition to the ripe bananas, a small amount of greek yogurt keeps the bread nice and moist.  Using greek yogurt (instead of oil) also allows for healthier fats to sneak into the bread.  Same goes for the peanut butter — plus, you can’t ever go wrong with peanut butter, right? 😉

I sweetened the bread with date paste (instructions on how to make the paste are here).  Using dates in the banana bread is a great way to use natural ingredients as a sweetener, but if you don’t have any dates, you can simply substitute sugar instead.  It’s still a pretty healthy banana bread, dates or no dates. 🙂

[print_this]Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Banana bread made with greek yogurt, peanut butter and dates for a nutritious breakfast or snack.  If you don’t have dates, simply substitute sugar for the dates (see note in recipe). 

Makes 1 loaf

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 45-55 minutes

• 2 large overripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 1/4 cup plain low fat (or nonfat) greek yogurt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup date paste*
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (or 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour)
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a loaf pan (9 to 10 inch) with nonstick cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, stir the bananas, peanut butter, yogurt, eggs, and date paste until smooth.

In a separate mixing bowl, stir the remaining ingredients.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients; mix until just combined (do not over mix).

Spread the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake 45 to 55 minutes (time will vary depending on pan size), until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.  Allow the bread to cool before slicing.

*Link above includes instructions on how to make date paste.  However, if you are in a hurry, you can replace the date paste with 2/3 cup brown sugar.[/print_this]