First in the Series of “Eating Healthy(ish) on the road… “
This past Sunday was a busy one for me…I was preparing to leave town for 2 weeks on a business trip and had to make enough goodies to sustain myself in a somewhat healthy manner while I was away. So, this will act as the first in my series of “eating healthy(ish) on the road…”.
Though I’m given free breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner on this business trip, I’d rather eat healthy(ish) on my own for my breakfast, snacks, and lunch rather than succumb to the temptations around me. Dinners are eaten out, so I’m trying out the local Austin scene and brining leftovers to incorporate into my next day’s lunch.
Before I left, I had some ripe bananas and fresh blueberries sitting around and thought it was the perfect opportunity to adapt the blueberry banana bread recipe from “for the love of cooking“.
Many of the pictures are going to have to be left out at this point, as my work computer isn’t behaving with me, but I had to get out the word of how great this bread actually is (pictures to hopefully come soon)!
Ingredients:
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 egg
2 large very ripe bananas
5 tbsp + 1 tsp cinnamon greek yogurt (leftover from my carrot cake cookies)
1/2 cup toasted pecans
1/2 cup dehydrated strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries (divided)
I pretty much followed Pam’s recipe to a “t” except for some ingredient substitutions and omissions.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a loaf pan with parchment paper (it doesn’t make the banana bread look as pretty, but makes clean up really easy). Cream together the butter and sugar with a mixer. Add the egg mixing thoroughly. In a separate bowl stir together flour, salt, baking powder and the baking soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, alternating with the yogurt, start with flour and end with flour.
Place the pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat and cook for a 3-4 minutes, tossing frequently. Set aside and cool. Mash the bananas very well with a potato masher. Gently add the smashed bananas, toasted nuts and strawberries into the batter then carefully stir until combined. Fold in blueberries, reserving a few for the top of the loaf. Pour the batter into the bread pan then sprinkle the remaining blueberries on top.
This bread came out beautifully and survived my trip to the hotel with flying colors! All I do in the morning is cut off a slice and mic it until it’s warm. I would serve with butter or margarine, but I haven’t had to opportunity to pick it up from the grocery store yet (also, I think it would be a travesty to mask the wonderful taste of the bread).
Nutrition (assuming 10 servings/recipe):
111 cal
5 g fat
12 g carb
2 g fiber
4 g protein
Not so bad for living out of a suitcase…
