Maggie David

August 24th, 2009 by Maggie

I am often asked for Recipes for finger food and today I thought I would give a favorite of mine – my Banana Bread. 

Cooking your own cakes, muffins, breads, etc is much healthier option, plus you can get your toddler or older children to help you.  Another BIG BONUS it is very cost effective. 

So much of what you cook can be frozen thus cutting down on waste, PLUS saving you time during your busy weeks.  How?

Try to create an afternoon once a week or fortnight, where you bake, cool and freeze! 

When I was working as a full time Social Worker and also at the same time teaching Welfare Students 3 nights a week, I was very time poor but wanted to still give my 2 children good “Home Cooked” food.

We had a baking afternoon once per fortnight, and during this time, I baked Muffins, The Banana Bread Recipe below, Little Chicken Pies, Meat Pies, Pizza’s, Casseroles, and much more.

Each item we cooked was carefully cooled and frozen. (Note when freezing a casserole or slow cook, make sure it completely cold, then placed cling wrap directly on top of the food to avoid “Ice Crystals” forming, then freeze as normal). 

We found to do this so rewarding as a family, plus we ate well and more importantly we ate healthy! It also saved time and money!

With the money we saved by baking our own we put towards our children’s tuition for dancing, music and their schoolwork.

Enjoy the Recipe!  It is a Favorite of some many!

Nanna Maggie’s Banana Bread – great for finger food!

Ingredients:

·            2 Large eggs (Organic)

·            1¾ Cups of Plain Flour (Sifted Twice)

·            2 tsp. Baking Powder

·            ½ tsp. salt (Iodised)

·            1/3 Cups of oil  (I use a Mixture of ½ Vegetable and ½ Organic Flaxseeed Oil which is rich is Omega 3)

·            2/3 Cup of Sugar, (I use Light Brown)

·            1 Cup of mashed bananas (about 4 bananas)

·            1/3 Cup moist shredded Coconut

Directions:

1.       Preheat the oven to 350° F (180° C).

2.       Grease and Flour Loaf Pan or use a non stick

3.       Beat eggs well in a small bowl.

4.       In a medium-size bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

5.    In a large bowl, add the vegetable oil. Add the sugar a little bit at a time, and continue beating until the mixture is fluffy.

6.      Add the eggs to the mixture in the large bowl and beat well.

7.      Add some of the flour mixture to the large bowl and beat well. Then add some of the mashed bananas and beat some more. Continue adding flour, then bananas, then flour, then bananas, until everything is mixed in.

8.     Pour mixture into the baking pan. Bake for 70 minutes.

9.     Wait 2-3 minutes the remove your banana bread from the pan, let it cool well.

Note: You can replace the Moist Shredded Coconut with Grated Carrot making it a Banana and Carrot Loaf.

This Banana bread freezes well. 

I always cut into slices and then wrap each slice tightly in cling wrap and freeze. 

Great for popping into lunch boxes or having on hand to feed your toddler a healthy treat. 

Toppings that go well with this, if you wish to add a topping to each slice are: Peanut butter, Peanut Butter and Honey, Philly Low Fat Cream Cheese,

Until Next time

Love and Light