Banana Bread

1 cup Sucanat or organic sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 3-4 medium)
1/3 cup water
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottom only of loaf pan (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 OR 9x5x3 inches). Mix sugar and butter in a large bowl. Stir in eggs until blended. Add bananas and water and beat for 30 seconds. Stir in remaining ingredients except the nuts just until moistened; stir in nuts. Pour into the pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 55-75 minutes (depending on size of pan). Cool 5 minutes in pan after done baking. Loosen sides of loaf from pan and remove bread. Cool completely before slicing. Store in the refrigerator.

Hint: Banana bread freezes very well! Make a double batch and put one in the freezer for a later breakfast or snack!

Oven Pancakes

• 1/2 cup butter
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 425 degrees. While the oven is heating, put butter into a 9x13 baking dish and put in the oven to melt.

While that is heating and melting, beat the eggs, milk, flour, cinnamon, and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Once the butter has melted, remove the pan from the oven. Pour the batter into the pan. Once the oven is done preheating, bake for 15-20 minutes.

To serve: Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with pure maple syrup (or homemade syrup). Applesauce is also good on top in place of syrup! We would also pour a little orange juice over the top with the powdered sugar and that was good too. Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

NOTE: I decided to try a banana variation to my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins....I made some this morning and they were a hit! I bet this recipe could even be used to make a nice banana cake as well! I'll have to try that next time :). Enjoy!

The Day Before, mix up the following in a plastic bowl, cover with a lid or plastic wrap, and let sit out on the counter until the next morning. (I actually start these a whole 24 hours before I want to bake them. Allowing the flour to soak for 24 hours gives you the best nutritional benefit! So…get this soaking the morning before you want them for breakfast.)

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup buttermilk (can use homemade)
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

The Next Morning: Add the following and mix well with a mixer until the batter is smooth and the lumps of flour are gone:

• 4 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups mashed bananas

Next, mix in the rest of the dry ingredients with the mixer:

• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Then stir in the chocolate chips:

• 2 cups chocolate chips

Put in greased muffin tins (see note below). Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

Yield: 24 muffins

Note: I like to use the silicone (rubber-like) muffin pans. You don't have to grease the pans at all and the muffins pop right out! The muffins also bake very evenly and nice in these pans.

Fruit Smoothie

Yield: 5 cups

• 1 whole banana, frozen
• 1 cup strawberries, frozen
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup ice
• ¼ cup honey

Blend all ingredients in the blender until smooth. Serve immediately.

Note from Sheri: Experiment with this recipe by using different fruits, using yogurt or kefir instead of milk, etc. Smoothies are great served with toast or muffins for breakfast.

Maple Syrup

• 4 cups white sugar (use organic sugar or rapidura or succanat if possible)
  
• 1 cup brown sugar (can use homemade)
  
• 2 cups water
• 2 tsp. Maple flavoring
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Mix the sugars and water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and turn to simmer for 5 minutes. Take off the burner and add flavorings. Stir. Let cool and store in a quart jar in the refrigerator. You can also use old syrup bottles or ketchup bottles to store the syrup in.

Note from Sheri: The best option is to use pure maple syrup. If you don’t mind the cost, then go for it. I did want to include a homemade maple syrup recipe here, however, because I believe that making the syrup from scratch (even though it has sugar in it) is better for you than the store-bought stuff. I like this recipe because it is a bit thicker than most other homemade syrups I have tried.

Baked French Toast

THE NIGHT BEFORE:

10 slices of bread (use your homemade if you can!)
1 1/2 cups milk
4 eggs
¼ cup honey
¼ cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
cinnamon

Grease a 9 x 13 pan with butter. In a large bowl, mix all the above ingredients together, except for the bread and cinnamon. Lay out 5 slices of bread in the greased pan. I put 4 slices down, 2x2, then cut the 5th slice in half and put it on the end.

Pour one-half of the egg mixture on top of the bread, then sprinkle some cinnamon on top of that. Put the other 5 slices of bread on top of the other bread (as explained above), pour the rest of the egg mixture on top of that, then sprinkle with more cinnamon. Cover the baking pan with plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator until morning. The egg mixture will soak into the bread over night.

THE NEXT MORNING:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap from the pan, and bake it for 40-50 minutes or until the egg is cooked.

Serve with real butter and 100% pure maple syrup (or homemade maple syrup). We also like it with some cold applesauce on top.