Strawberry Banana Bread & Favorite New Cookbook Finds

I think it might be the fact that our kitchen remodel is just a few weeks away from being finished that has me all cookbook crazy these days. I love to cook and bake, more baking than cooking if I’m honest, but that may be due to a slight sugar addition. So knowing that there’s a pretty range just waiting for me to get dirty in my not-so-distant future, I’ve rounded up a couple new favorite cookbook finds and shared my new favorite spring recipe with you.

LOVE & LEMONS

Not only visually beautiful, I love how Jeanine Donofrio set up this cookbook! It has a very organic approach to cooking, meaning figure out what you have on hand and then consult the cookbook for some delicious recipes. Perfect for summer CSA produce boxes or farmers market jaunts where you come home with random ingredients. It’s not divided into meals or even typical categories like vegetables, poultry, seafood, etc. It’s categorized by fruit or vegetable type truly perfect for impromptu cooking. Love that!

HEALTHYISH

Healthy-ish by Lindsay Maitland Hunt is SO my cup of tea. As a registered dietitian with a masters degree in nutrition if I had to sum up healthful eating in one word, this is it–healthyish. Food is not meant to be a chore, it is not meant to be rigorous, it is not meant to be daunting or make us heap guilt upon ourselves. Eating well means being “healthy-ish” knowing when to indulge in foods we shouldn’t always consume because frankly, food is more than calories, and then knowing the foods we should consume often to help our bodies thrive. I love her wholesome approach to meals especially with an emphasis on whole foods and a vegetable-rich diet. This is a cookbook you can dive right in and sink your teeth into.

As I was flipping through “Healthy-ish” Lindsay’s recipe for Seeded Banana Bread struck a cord. Not only do I love banana bread but I’ve been wanting to incorporate more seeds into our diets because seeds are foods we should consume often. Seeds are a nutrition powerhouse– filled with high quantities of vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein. For example, 1 oz of chia seeds (about 2 tablespoons) gives you roughly 9 g of fat, 4 g protein, and a whooping 11g of fiber! But thats not it, 1 oz of chia seeds also gives you 18% of your daily value for calcium, see more info here. The nutritional profile of 1 oz of sesame seeds (roughly 3 tablespoons) is equally impressive if not more (here) 14 g of unsaturated fat, 5 g protein, 27% of your daily value (DV) for calcium, 23% of your DV of iron, 25% of your DV of magnesium to name just a few. I think seeds are a forgotten part of our diets which is why this is my new favorite recipe!

Here’s my version adapted from sweet Lindsay’s delicious recipe. You can see her original recipe here. But you’re definitely going to want to go get her book. I changed several things around, mainly adding strawberries because, hello, how good does strawberry banana bread sound? I wanted a fun spring recipe and right now strawberries are perfect. Try them both ways, I really like my version because I like cramming as much nutrition as I can get into foods my boys will eat. I’ve added it to my official recipe book, ie notebook with scribbles. I also put my dietitian hat back on and substituted out some honey for part of the granulated sugar, added chia seeds and changed the amounts of the seeds to make way for the addition of the chia and ground flax seed.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 C Sunflower seed oil (or vegetable oil)

1 1/4 C whole wheat flour ( I like King Arthur Flour Organic white wheat)

1/4 C ground flax seed

1/8 C poppy seeds

1/8 C chia seeds

1/8 C sesame seeds

1/3 C granulated sugar

1/3 C honey

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 large bananas mashed well

1 1/2 C chopped fresh strawberries

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 C walnuts lightly toasted and chopped

Strawberry Butter

DIRECTIONS

Start by heating your oven to 350 degrees F. I use the Trader Joes Olive Oil spray (the one that’s just olive oil with no propellants) to coat a 9×6″ ceramic loaf pan.

Mix 2 tsp sesame seeds and 2 tsp poppy seeds with 1 tsp granulated sugar and set aside. This will go on the top of your loaf right before you’re ready to pop it in the oven.

Toast your 1 C of walnuts until golden brown and aromatic. Roughly chop and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix your dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, flax seeds, 1/8 C of poppy seeds, sesame seeds and chia seeds. Add baking powder and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, mash your two soft bananas well. My kiddos don’t appreciate lumps so I’m good about smushing.

In a blender, add your chopped strawberries, eggs and oil and blend until strawberries are almost pureed. Once again, I do this because my boys don’t like lumps but you can skip this step if you’re wanting lumps of strawberries in your bread. Add the strawberry puree mixture to your mashed bananas in the large bowl. Add 1/3 C of sugar, honey and the vanilla and mix together.

Now it’s time for it to get delicious. Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients in the large bowl and mix until just combined. Mix in chopped walnuts and pouring into pre-greased loaf pan. Sprinkle the seed/sugar mixture over the top and put it in the oven.

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. The top gets dark and golden so you may want to add tin foil midway through the baking. I was out of aluminum foil and wished I had covered it.

While the bread was baking, I softened 1/4 c of butter and mixed in 1 tablespoon of strawberry jam. This was a delicious addition to the warm Strawberry Banana Bread. Serve slices warm with some delicious strawberry butter.

My insanely talented friend Ruthie from Ruth Eileen Photography took these pretty pictures. And then she helped me devour the strawberry banana bread. If you’re in the New England area and need a photographer, she’s your gal! And tell her I sent you!