Healthy Banana Bread

As the weather gets colder, it can be easy to seek comfort foods – particularly from foods in our discretionary food groups. It’s important to follow a balanced diet, including all of our core food groups, and having some discretionary items in small quantities is perfectly healthy. Unfortunately many of our discretionary items are energy dense, and lack many nutritional components that help fill us up – like dietary fibre and protein. This can quickly lead to us over-indulging in these foods, which in turn, can cause us to gain weight, and generally not feel at our best. Incorporating a nutritious snack/discretionary item is a great way to help feel fuller for longer, reduce our overall intake of discretionary food, and reduce our intake of ingredients like added sugar and saturated fats (ingredients that we should try and keep to a minimum). The below banana bread recipe is a great snack/discretionary option – with no added sugar, low in saturated fat and a source of dietary fibre and protein. Enjoy with a hot herbal tea (peppermint/lemongrass + ginger/chai). 

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Healthy Banana Bread Recipe

Preparation Time: 10 Minutes 
Cooking Time: 50 Minutes
Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 3 bananas – mashed (ideally very ripe)
• 1/4 cup milk (of choice – regular, skim, soy, almond etc.)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 cup wholemeal flour
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Method

1. Preheat oven to 165°C. Line a 25cmX13cm loaf pan with baking paper.
2. Whisk together eggs and olive oil. Add mashed banana and milk and lightly whisk.
3. Add the baking soda, vanilla, salt and cinnamon, and whisk to blend. Using a wooden spoon add remaining ingredients (flour, coconut and walnuts) and gently fold. Be careful not to over-mix as the banana bread won’t rise (a few lumps are ok).
4. Pour into lined baking dish – bake 50-60 minutes (or when toothpick inserted comes out clean). Leave to cool in baking dish for 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack. Enjoy!

*Tips

STORAGE – Due to being moist, the bread will keep for 3-4 days at room temperature, or 5-7 days in the refrigerator. You can also slice the bread and freeze it individually for up to 3 months – let bread defrost or lightly toast bread after it’s been frozen.

ADDITIONS – nuts are a great addition to this recipe, add 1/2 a cup of your nut of choice when adding the final dry ingredients (my favourite is walnuts). If you prefer your banana bread sweeter, you can also add 1/4 cup honey in first step (this will increase the banana breads sugar content).

GLUTEN FREE – You can easily make this recipe gluten free by substituting the wholemeal flour to a gluten free alternative.

Nutritional Information (per serve)
Energy (Kj)    - 810kj
Fat (total)    - 8g
Saturated Fat  - 2.4g
Sugar          - 6.7g
Dietary Fibre  - 4g
Protein        - 5g