I have always loved bananas. Of all the fruits, they are my absolute favorite. I love to eat them for breakfast, as a snack, or added to a smoothie. I even love them on a sandwich. I totally agree with Elvis on the peanut butter and banana sandwich concept…yum yum. Besides their yummy flavor, they are packed with vitamins and minerals and provide an excellent source of energy and fiber. I almost always have a bunch of bananas in the kitchen, but sometimes I can’t get to them fast enough and they get a little smushy. And I even though I love bananas, I prefer mine non smushy. 🙂 But smushy bananas make excellent banana bread! I wanted to share this basic and super easy banana bread recipe. And be forewarned… it smells absolutely amazing in the oven cooking!
The Ingredients:
- 3 ripe bananas
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
The Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and butter together in a bowl.
- Mix flour and baking soda together in a separate bowl; stir into banana mixture until batter is just mixed.
- Stir salt into batter.
- Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean, about 1 hour.
The Nutrition:
- Bananas are a great source of potassium. Potassium is an essential mineral for maintaining normal blood pressure and heart function. One medium-sized banana contains 400 mg of potassium.
- Bananas are a good source of fiber, containing about 3 grams in one medium banana. Bananas contain a type of fiber called pectin. As bananas ripen, the water-soluble pectins increase, and this increase is one of the key reasons why bananas become softer in texture as they ripen.
- Bananas contain fructooligosaccharides (FOS). FOS are unique fructose-containing carbohydrates that are typically not broken down by enzymes in our digestive tract. Instead, they move along through the digestive tract until they reach our lower intestine and get metabolized by bacteria. This process helps maintain the balance of good bacteria in our lower intestine.
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