When I was in college I lost some weight on Weight Watchers. The program was excellent and I saw the results I wanted but looking back, I ate a lot of highly processed foods and chemicals in attempt to keep my calories down.
I participated in a community message board where I, along with a group of women all losing or maintaining weight, would post our daily menus for accountability. At first I was embarrassed that I relied on this anonymous Internet support to keep my diet under control, but eventually I realized that I was picking up valuable weight loss tips, healthy recipes - including my favorite banana bread recipe.
In my opinion, the healthiest foods and recipes have real ingredients and a lot of flavor. Sometimes people equate healthy with “low calorie” and while that’s certainly true in some cases, it isn’t true for foods that have been chemically altered in order for calorie reduction. That’s not to say you’ll never see me eating a 100-calorie pack of cookies or crackers, but if real, natural food is available to me, I’ll choose that, but maybe have a smaller portion to compensate for high fat or calorie content.
This banana bread is one of the few recipes that swaps out fat without adding anything artificial. It uses real sugar, applesauce, egg whites and fat-free milk to deliver a whole lot of flavor and one of the moistest banana breads I’ve ever had. Perfect to bake on a Saturday morning and enjoy with a hot cup of coffee.
Banana Bread
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 large bananas, sliced into coins
2 tablespoons fat-free skim milk
1 3/4 cup flour
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Cream together applesauce and sugar. Add bananas and milk. Mix well until combined; add egg whites and continue to blend.
3. Mix together, slowly adding flour, baking soda, powder, salt and nutmeg.
4. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F; turn oven down to 325 degrees F and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes
Did you notice that I’ve been posting more frequently than usual this week? In celebration of National Novel Writing Month, some bloggers choose to commemorate November with NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. I’ve challenged myself to post daily this month and hope that you’ll challenge yourselves to read them all!
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I like WW too, but found I was save my points so I could eat sweets and would not use them on valuable fruit, vegetables and dairy products. I eventually realized this and switched to the core plan instead of the points plan.
Now onto the bread. Looks moist and delicious which is great:) Usually I fail at making banana bread but this recipe looks like a winner!
looks so moist!
Applesauce is one of the great substitute ingredients in baking. I’m not a big fan of banana bread, but this one looks too good to pass up.
Aw I just made a much more unhealthy banana bread. Wish you had posted this sooner!
This looks delicious but I have a bit of a banana allergy, so I’m wondering if I could substitute the banana for something else…
I would love to try this recipe. Most banana bread, and quick breads in general have A LOT of fat in them, and I guess I just think too strongly that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can get a great deal of flavor without all that fat. Thanks for showing us how!
oh my, I love bananas in all forms (au natural, sliced on top of cereal, in fro yo/ice cream, in a crepe with nutella, you catch my drift…) but I LOVE banana bread. the only thing I would maybe miss in this recipe is the nuts– would adding some walnuts make it that bad for you?
try using whole wheat flour to make this even healthier!
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