FOOD: Whole Wheat Banana Bread with White Chocolate, Macadamia Nuts, and Coconut

Of course my first post would be about food…what else! 

I had to start out with one of my very favorite foods: BANANA BREAD. I usually always have some variation of this personal staple lying around my apartment.  I eat it for breakfast nearly everyday and I truly do not get tired of it.

I think the key to not tiring of it (other than my innate addiction to any and every baked good) is VARIETY. There are so many different things you can do with banana bread - you never have to make (or eat) the same loaf twice. You can add chocolate, nuts, dried fruit – whatever you prefer.  I tend to lean toward the sweet, more dessert oriented variations because I inherited quite a strong sweet tooth from my father (thanks, DAD!)

In any case, this particular version is one of my recent favorites. It has everything –and more – that you could want in a banana bread!  The white chocolate adds the best element (in my mind):SWEETNESS! The macadamia nuts add a wonderful crunch. The coconut compliments the bananas subtly and perfectly. It really is as amazing as it sounds, I promise!

Since I’m a little bit of a big heath fanatic, I try to make healthy substitutions whenever possible.  The original recipe (fromFor the Love of Cooking) is listed below, but here are my suggested substitutions – feel free to utilize as many or as few as you like:

-          ½ cup of butter: either use light butter or ¼ cup of applesauce + ¼ cup of butter (any way you can reduce the amount of fat in a recipe is a plus!)

-          ½ cup of white sugar: I substitute with Splenda for baking (my dad is diabetic so I’ve gotten used to incorporating this in many recipes)…it’s zero calories and you can’t taste any difference! Agave or honey are both effective natural sweeteners, but they contain calories…so it just depends what your goal is – less calories or more natural

-          Use all whole wheat flour (1 ½ cups altogether)

-          ½ cup sour cream: I prefer using fat free greek yogurt

ORIGINAL RECIPE :

1/2 cup of butter, softened

1 /2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup very ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup of sour cream

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup of macadamia nuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.

 In a bowl, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. 

Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. 



Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Add the bananas, sour cream, chocolate chips, coconut, and macadamia nuts. Stir just to combine – do not over mix. 





Pour into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Slice, serve and enjoy.

Since I’m a single girl living alone —- I slice my banana bread, wrap it in individual servings, and stack the slices in my freezer so they will stay fresh and last longer. Then I grab one each morning, defrost, and enjoy.