Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

I'm mixing things up today with a recipe. Hubs has been begging asked me to make some banana bread since he seems to consistently buy two more bananas than he can eat before they go bad (maybe that's his way of hinting at banana bread haha). But not just any banana bread, he also asked for peanut butter, chocolate chips, and protein powder. If you knew Hubs, you'd know that's a pretty typical request. Let's just say he likes to experiment.

The pictures aren't the best because I didn't think to take any until I was already in the middle of everything so I just used my cell phone. I based this off of a Betty Crocker recipe, but I think the eggs, baking soda, and salt are the only things that remained the same so I don't feel bad about sharing my recipe. That and Hubs said it might be the best banana bread he's ever had, so I had to share.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c unsweetened applesauce (mine was actually unsweetened cinnamon applesauce)
• 1/4 c creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/4 c Splenda (actually calls for sugar but we were out)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 c mashed ripe banana (you know the brownish ones that no one wants to eat)
• 1/2 c buttermilk (or 1/2 TBS white vinegar + enough milk to make 1/2 c and let sit for 5 minutes - that little substitution is compliments of Betty)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 c  whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 bag of chocolate chips (or something like that, just add until you're happy with the chip level)

Mix the applesauce, pb, and Splenda until smooth. Add eggs and mix. Then add banana, buttermilk (or substitute), and vanilla and stir.

Add the dry ingredients and stir until everything is moist. I used a spoon rather than a mixer to avoid over-mixing. Now add the chocolate chips and stir them in. I promise there really isn't that much stirring/mixing, but apparently I just don't know many synonyms for stir.

Grease the bottom only of a pan. I used 8x6. No, not any kind of loaf pan. Somehow I've made it years without one so I didn't feel like getting one now. And I wasn't feeling a bunch of mini loafs (I do have those pans they just seem to take forever to bake). Bake at 350 degrees with the rack in a low position so the top of the pan is in the center of the oven. It only took about 45 minutes to cook, but keep an eye on it after about 30 minutes if you use the 8x6 because the outside started to get a little darker about that time.

And this little guy kept visiting the kitchen window. I'm pretty sure he could smell the bread because he came right up to the window even though I was standing there taking his picture with my cell phone like a crazy lady.

 Finished giganto loaf!

Oh, if you're wondering where the protein powder was in all of that, it's still up in the cabinet. With all of the other substitutions I completely forgot about it. So I have no advice for you on that front, sorry. It's a good thing I took a picture as soon as it came out of the oven since we polished off the entire loaf as snack + dinner.

If anybody has any extra cooking motivation laying around (or recipes for dinners that leave you with fewer dirty dishes than you started with), please send it my way. I've been seriously lacking in the cooking department lately and these other bananas aren't baking themselves.

And the winner of the Uprinting giveaway is Emilee (picked by random.org)! Congrats!! I've already contacted Emilee, so she'll be rolling in custom postcards soon.