Banana Bread w/ Toasted Walnuts
Makes one 9-inch loaf

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
1 1/4 cups walnuts, chopped coarse
3/4 cup Sugar (if you want to make it Sugar Free add 1 cup sugar substitute instead of Sugar)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled (or olive oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. Whisk the flour, sugar (or Splenda), baking soda, salt, and walnuts together in a large bowl; set aside.
4. Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
5. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

DRY INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar substitute
1/4 cup milled flax seed
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup all-bran cereal

WET INGREDIENTS
1 cup natural peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 15oz can white beans
1/2 cup artificial honey

OPTIONAL ADDITIONS
1 1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used cashews and walnuts)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F . Lightly grease one cookie sheet. In a large mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients. In the blender combine all the wet ingredients and purée (adding a little water until it forms the consistency of a thick smoothie).
2. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix well (i used my hands). Once mixed, add the nuts and stir (I again, used my hands)
3. Lightly press mixture into the prepared pan. Once the mixture is mostly pressed down, I covered it with wax paper and used a rolling pin to flatten it out even further. This makes it more like a granola bar. Bake at 325 degrees F for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into bars. Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving.

*You can use any combination of nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, etc. Plus you can even leave out the cocoa if you want just peanut butter flavor.

   Oh what a beautiful snowy day it is today! Great day to stay home and bake, dehydrate, sew and work on websites. Since I finished the Apples last night (oh they are so tasty), I decided that the bananas were the next on my list. My mind is swirling with all these ideas of what I can do with all this fruit in its dehydrated state. But I don't want to give away my ideas, just yet :). As I was looking at the 9 pounds of bananas that I bought the other day, I couldn't decide whether I should make slices or sticks, so I decided to try both! Here they are in all their naked glory! OH I can't wait until these are done!!!
    *This post was originally posted in October 26, 2011. I am bringing my older post over from my original blog. :)