"Food Fridays" and No-Sugar-Added Banana Bread

This banana bread has applesauce in place of the sugar, so it's great if you're diabetic or trying to avoid table sugar for other reasons.  You could also add some stevia extract, if you'd like some extra sweetness, and keep the applesauce in as filler, but you'll have to experiment a little with the amount of extract needed for your tastes; it doesn't take much of this!  You can also simply replace the cup of applesauce with sugar if you're not concerned about lessening the sugar content.  At the end, I'll tell you what we did with our bread for a little added sweetness.

No-Sugar-Added Banana Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 beaten eggs

1 1/2 cups ripe mashed bananas (5 medium)

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup melted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grease bottom and sides of a 9x5x3-inch bread pan.  You can also accomplish this and melt the butter at the same time while setting your stick of butter in the pan and allowing it to melt while the oven preheats.  Be sure to take it out before the butter starts to burn!
3. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Make a well in the center and set aside.
4. Combine eggs, bananas, applesauce and butter in another bowl.  Add this mixture all at once to the flour mixture.  Stir until just moistened (batter will be lumpy).  Spoon into greased bread pan.

5. 

   Ready for the Oven!

6. Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes, until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  You may need to cover it with foil the last 15 minutes of baking to prevent over-browning.
7. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Then, remove from pan and serve warm!  
8. If you'd like to store it, allow it to cool completely on the wire rack and then wrap and store.  

Yummy Breakfast!

I reheated slices of our bread in the oven the next morning and then added some 100% pure maple syrup for a little sweetness.  It was a delicious breakfast!