Banana Bread

I make banana bread without nuts here at my house because my kids don't like the nuts in their dessert.  This time, I decided to add the nuts into each individual loaf, leaving a few without nuts. Wow, the taste is so much better with the nuts.  I forgot how much I missed that.

Day 3 of my Healthy 2017 and I am doing sit ups.  Did 25!  Yeah, go me!  I also did a cardio workout on You Tube from Pop Sugar.

BANANA BREAD
This recipe is from Epicurious and seriously the most banana per flour ratio I have ever seen.  I like that because if I am making banana bread it is because I have quite a few bananas to use up. But I will be honest here, I put in a few more ounces then they did.  I probably hit 16 ounces, possibly more.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 medium very ripe bananas (about 13 ounces), peeled and mashed
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream the butter with the sugar for a few minutes.  Add in vanilla.  Add eggs one at a time. Add sour cream and bananas.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Fold in walnuts at the end.  Or place them in the little loafs or muffin tins, whatever you like.

Pour into sprayed tins or a loaf pan.  Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 45 to 60 minutes depending on what you are baking in.  If you are using a loaf pan it will be all of an hour before it is done, especially if you add more banana.

Banana Matcha Milkshake

Note how the straw stands on its own.

This is delish.  My kids were a bit skeptical about that green stuff I was throwing in there.  Goodness gracious, not the dreaded green stuff!  But then I told them it is like their beloved Green Tea Mints from Trader Joes and then all was right with the world again.

The smoothies, milkshakes, whatever you want to call them, were gone in like 30 seconds flat.  Okay, honestly... five minutes max.  Mine was the one finished in 30 seconds, ahem.

The idea for this smoothie came from this site called, Kleinworth and Company.  I changed it up a bit because it way too thick- thick, as in I would never get it smooth because of my blender.
 

Banana Matcha Milkshake

2 1/2 cups of 2% milk
3 frozen bananas
2 teaspoons Matcha
3/4 cup chopped pineapple

Slice 3 bananas and freeze them at least 30 minutes.

Blend all ingredients together.  If you are like me and have a 25 dollar blender, you will have to keep sticking the handle of a wooden spoon down in there and mix it around from time to time (of course, with the motor stopped).  This is one thick shake. Don't be annoyed by this, it is totally worth it.