Banana Bread Day

Today is Banana Bread Day, so what better way to celebrate than to make some homemade banana bread? I love to eat it warm with butter or cold with some cream cheese. I love making mini loaves and muffins because they are a quick and easy breakfast to grab when we're running late.

I have a really easy homemade banana bread recipe. It takes about 45 minutes to make muffins or mini loaves and an 1 1/2 hours for  9 inch loaves (prep to baking).

You will need:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3-4 ripe bananas, mashed (DM Tip: Smashing the bananas is a great activity for the kids!)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.  In a large bowl, combine sugar and butter.
3.  Mix in eggs.
4.  Pour in vanilla, milk, and bananas. Mix until smooth.
5.  Stir in the salt, baking soda, and flour.
6.  Mix in chocolate chips. Don't mix too much, just enough to evenly
     distribute the chips in the batter. (If you are using nuts, mix them in with the 
     chips.)
7.  Pour batter into greased pan or lined muffin tins.
8.  Bake 20-25 minutes. Check at about 20 minutes to see if done by inserting a
     toothpick into the middle of the muffin. If the toothpick comes out clean,
     the bread is done!
9.  Once bread is completely baked, remove from oven and pan. Allow to cool on a
     cooling rack.
10. Enjoy! 

Bake Time Guidelines: This is how long the bread usually takes to bake in my oven.

• Mini Loaves: 20 minutes
• Muffins: 25 minutes
• 8 Inch Loaves: 1 hour
• 9 Inch Loaves: 1 1/4 hours

DM Alternative: Use half Cinnamon Chips and half Chocolate Chips to add a little extra flavor.