Dr. Pat’s Healthy Recipes: Banana Bread

Love those bananas! Bananas are one of the most nutritious fruits you and your kids can eat. They are loaded with potassium, B vitamins, vitamin A, vitamin C, and even calcium and magnesium. I like them firm, so when they get soft and over-ripe, I just put them in the freezer as is, peel and all. They stay perfectly packaged until I pull them out to make this extra hearty, kid-friendly banana bread.

What’s so special about this recipe, besides being delicious? This banana bread is a good choice for toddlers because it uses less sugar, has heart-healthy canola oil and applesauce instead of butter, and raisins instead of nuts. It also makes a nutritionally balanced snack for kids when paired with cream cheese. Yum!

This is a double recipe, so your family will appreciate your effort twice as much. I like to use mini loaf pans; the extra loaves are easy to wrap and store in the freezer…but freeze them quickly before they disappear!

Dr. Pat’s Banana Bread

1 cup canola oil (or use ½ cup oil and ½ cup applesauce)
1 ½ cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
5 or 6 ripe bananas (about 2 ½ cups mashed)
4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup raisins

Wisk oil and sugar together. Add eggs and banana pulp and mix well. Add sifted dry ingredients, then milk and vanilla. Stir in raisins.

Pour into greased and floured pans (or use Pam for Baking). Bake at 350 degrees F approximately 1 hour for two 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans. For mini loaf pans, shorten the baking time to 45 minutes (or less). (In my convection oven the mini loaf pans take only about 30 minutes, so be careful not to overbake.) Cool, then wrap and store overnight before cutting or freezing. (This is important, because the raisins plump up and the bread really is more moist and flavorful the second day).

When comparing my banana bread recipe to other quick breads (ah yes, the buttery recipes…), I found another recipe that intrigued me, kumquat bread.

It looked wonderful, especially since I have a kumquat tree in my yard (yes, I live in California). I never have figured out what to do with kumquats, so I am eager to try it! I’ll keep you posted…

Happiness is…picking fruit from your own back yard.