Monday was a little rough coming back from vacation. My body just felt off for the first half of the day and I was lacking motivation big time. Likely because of the time change + late bedtime + all the winneee sipped over the weekend, but after chugging water and drinking one instead of 3 cups of coffee (which I would typically do on a late night), taking myself out to Beyond Sushi for the veg filled lunch I was craving and eating it in the park, and sweating a bit after work while listening to a podcast I was feeling back in the rhythm by Monday evening. I’ve learned over the years, that the body will ebb and flow and instead of saying, “I don’t feel like myself, but I should feel like myself” and guilt tripping, I repeat the word gentleness and ask what I really need to take care of myself. It’s okay to not feel 100% awesome all the time.
I didn’t quite know what I would post about today since I have a content heavy post planned for Friday, but then I got a couple comments on Monday’s post asking to share my favorite banana bread recipes and thought that was a grand idea. There are few foods I love more than a slice of banana bread smeared with pb or butter. I over buy bananas for the sole purpose of letting them go brown so I can 1) freeze for smoothies and 2) bake a loaf of banana bread weekly.
I’ve tried A LOT of banana recipes over the years, creating a few myself, but really I love trying others recipes rather than creating my own when it comes to banana bread. Sometimes I adapt the recipe a bit to whatever I have on hand, but usually the recipes I follow use kitchen staples.
So here are my favorite, go to banana recipes (I’m expanding past just bread!) and I hope you love them too. Feel free to share or link to your favorites in the comments!
My favorite go to recipe currently is this one for peanut butter banana muffins from the Thug Kitchen cookbook. I always add chocolate chips to the batter because…you just do that. I’ve made it with both ww flour and oat flour but prefer the oat. If you love dense and doughy baked goods then go with oat flour. Whole wheat flour is still really, really good but it will make for a lighter muffin. I highly suggest buying the cookbook (if you’re not offended by a splattering of f bombs…I think it’s hilarious) but I did find the recipe for you all here (also ignore all the talk about making “healthier” versions of muffins in that post…)
The photos in this post are horrible (I was in my first year of nursing school and had zero time for thinking about pretty pictures…) but my marbled banana bread is one of my most made recipes.
This banana oat chocolate chip cake with peanut butter glaze from Oh She Glows is an old school recipe but one of my favorites — the texture of this recipe is insanely good. Like muffin meats granola bar meets cake. I love making it for breakfast to eat with scrambled eggs.
I use to make these chocolate chip banana oat bars from Ambitious Kitchen all. the. time. during my first year in New York. If you’re like, “why do all of these recipes have oat flour?” it’s because I am obsessed with the doughy sweetness of oat flour. It’s so fab in baked goods.
Smitten Kitchen is one of my favorite foods blogs. I love her recipes and photos. This double chocolate banana bread is amazingly delicious. I make it with both AP flour and whole wheat pastry or spelt flour and actually prefer the heartier texture of the ww or spelt flour. If you use AP flour you could totally frost this thing with some peanut butter frosting and make a cake out of it! Trust me, I’ve done and it.
There are some very bad banana recipes made with coconut flour out there. And there are also really good ones. When I had a stash of coconut flour I would make this chocolate chip coconut flour banana bread recipe from Ambitious Kitchen often. It holds up well and doesn’t use…like a cup of nut butter. I don’t know about you guys, but when recipes call for that much nut butter I usually don’t make them since that stuff is $$$ and I’m not wasting it in a bread.
Compared to my marbled banana bread photos, this recipe was one I made over three years ago and looking back I’m rather surprised at the photos in this post…I’m no professional AT ALL but these aren’t that bad I don’t think 🙂 I haven’t made these pb and chocolate chip snacking cookies in a while but they are SO GOOD. Even better eaten straight out of the freezer.
What’s your favorite? I’m always looking for more!
Oooh this is great! Bananas are probably the only fruit I don’t really like, but banana-flavored things are my favorite! (Yes, weird) Gonna have to try some of these!
I’m the same way! Don’t love eating just bananas, but do love banana-y things!
I’ll only eat bananas with pb 🙂
my old roommate was similar — HATED bananas but would eat them in smoothies and bread. Do what you love!
Your marbled banana bread is my go-to banana bread. I love the strong cocoa flavor.
so glad you love it!
I have your marbled bread on my make this list week. It definitely takes me a few days to recover from a trip, sometimes a week. As long as the memories are worth it! 🙂
Yea girl, I’m like I need another weekend! But then I realize that’s silly 🙂
Oh my I want all of these!! I just made some simple chocolate chip banana bread. It really is the best! Thanks for these ideas!!
Hello Robyn!
These all look so yummy!! I love reading your post and seeing how you always eat such yummy food! I am just wondering if you count calories or keep an estimate or how you handle all of that… Thank you! I pray you and Mr. Nick have a blessed day!
This side of Heaven,
Summer Rae
Hi Summer!
I follow the Intuitive Eating principles – you can search the blog and find my food philosophy 🙂
xoxo
YASSSSSSSS so pumped to try ALL of these! Thanks Robin 🙂 hope ya feel back to normal in no time- I’m sure your body is loving the rest and graciousness your giving it <3
Welp, I need to bake more. I havent baked in years because my kitchen sucks, but dang you can do a lot of baking with bananas! I also just got back from vacay, so Im feeling your feels…
welllll I might bake enough for the two of us 🙂
I absolutely love posts like this. I think I saved almost all of those links for the next time I need a banana based recipe. My favorite banana bread recipe right now is from oh she glows! I always add chocolate chips, too! I shared the link below for you to check it out!
http://ohsheglows.com/2016/10/07/vegan-banana-bread/
I’ve hear that one is FAB too!
THANK YOU!!! I’ve been needing a banana round up post from you! <3
<3 hope you enjoy!
I recently discovered this recipe and it is my new favorite!
http://cookieandkate.com/2015/healthy-banana-bread-recipe/
adore Cookie and Kate!
Kate recommended your marbled banana bread recipe, and I have it bookmarked to try! 🙂 Also those Thug Kitchen muffins look delicious.
I’m glad you were able to just gently reset your body and be gentle with yourself as you came back from vacation.
i go through phases with banana..lately im anti-banana probably because i had little too much last couple of months. i will revisit this post for sure.
intuitive eating 🙂
Do you have the ambitious kitchen link? Some of the links looked off…
hmmm like they weren’t linking to the recipe?
Yes the smitten kitchen goes to Oh She glows.
Your marbled banana bread is my go to
Wow! You are speaking my love language… I eat an extreme amount of bananas, it’s bananas 😛 Went out to get more so I could make some of these! Thanks for sharing 🙂
haha..I loled at that “it’s bananas” 🙂
Oh! And this is my newest favorite recipe for bananas; green smoothie bowl! – http://kriswithbliss.com/im-little-late-game/
Thank you for all these recipes! I got out of the habit of baking (which I’ve always enjoyed) but today I actually made my first baked good in awhile- This chickpea flour banana bread from ambitious kitchen: http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2016/04/chickpea-flour-banana-bread-gluten-free/
Next up on my list is Monique’s chocolate chip banana oat bars you posted about! I love using oat flour as well so I’m excited to use that in those!
I LOVE a lot of AK’s recipes but I tried that chickpea recipe and it was a total fail – help!
I think bananas are possibly the greatest food on Earth! I eat at least a few large super ripe bananas a day, and equally enjoy baked goods with bananas. Thank you for some lovely looking recipes 😉
Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful recipes! I will def be making one/all of them soon 🙂
One of my all time favorite ways to use extra bananas up is blending 3 bananas with 1 c. Creamy peanut butter + 1/3 c. Melted coconut oil, 1/4 – 1/3 c. Cocoa powder and a drizzle of honey.
Once you blend the entire banana mixture up, pour into pie dish and freeze until solid. Literally reminds me of a fudgsicle. SO GOOD.
Here is the link to that recipe!
http://www.luluruns.com/peanut-butter-chocolate-pie/
I totally resonate with the idea of gentleness and that it’s ok to not feel 100% all the time. Such a great perspective.
I love bananas too- they are so versatile! My favorite thing is probably just straight up PB (or sunbutter) and banana on toast!
Made the choc chic banana oat bars last night and my husband loves them! I used greek yogurt and peanut butter in place of the applesauce since that is all I had on hand. Yum!
Omg I am so with you on the “1 cup of nut butter” recipes! It’s like, do they expect us to stash a gallon of nut butter at home at all times? ???? Also, it takes me way longer to finish the bread/cake/muffins/etc when it has sooo much nut butter, to the point where I don’t even want it anymore. And I hate to waste food.
Hi Robyn!
This post has got me thinking and I think i’m in a bit of a sticky situation. I LOVE baking. I always have. I especially love baking for others, but I find that I have an incredibly difficult time allowing myself to bake what I actually want. Often I think it is because none of my friends and family have the same tastes as me – They don’t want fresh banana bread or fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. However, as i’m still recovering from my fear of foods, especially baked goods and ice cream (my favorites!), I don’t know if it’s just that I still need to come to terms with these fears and realize that they are doing me more harm than good, or if it’s my fear that left to my own devices I will eat each and every cookie or each and every slice of whatever I bake if I don’t have anyone to share them with. That’s the situation now, I will be living alone in a dorm room when I start law school, and the thought of having cookies and things I love around me all the time is actually still quite scary as I don’t trust myself (yet?). But, I would love to be able to bake and truly savor and enjoy my own creations when the mood strikes. Do you have any tips or thoughts on this? Thanks 🙂