Once upon a time there was... Easy Banana Bread

Welcome back to our second day of breakfast week! Today we are doing another great breakfast meal that you can make on a Sunday afternoon and enjoy all week. Plus, everyone loves banana bread - especially monkeys! That's why we've asked our friend Grover the monkey to help us out today.

There's a lot of recipes out there, but this is Grover's favorite because he has made it many times and it always comes out perfectly. He found it in The Everything Cookbook. The recipe makes two loaves, so if you don't want that much bread, you can always freeze one for another week of breakfast. It also halves pretty well, so if you just have a banana sitting on your counter that is too old to eat, make some banana bread!

ingredients

2 2/3 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 c butter, room temperature

1 1/3 c sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 c mashed banana*

1/2 c soup cream

*Grover's tip: Use bananas that are already significantly browned - something about the starch turning to sugar - basically, it makes it more yummy (the banana on my right is a good example). Also, an average banana yields about 1/3 c of mashed banana.

Grover's other tip: If you find that you are a little short on banana, you can add applesauce to make up the difference!

instructions

1. Prep. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease 2 loaf pans with butter and lightly dust with flour.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. (Set aside.) Mash up banana (set aside).

3. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each. Add the mashed banana.

4. Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the sour cream, mixing well and scraping the mixing bowl after each addition (start and end with flour).

5. Pour into pans and bake 45 minutes, or until the center tests done.

6. Allow to cool completely, then slice and package in baggies for easy grabbing in the morning. Store in the fridge if you want it to keep all week.

Grover would also like to add that banana bread tastes best after its flavors have absorbed overnight. Although it may be tempting to eat some bread when it is warm, it will be more delicious the next day.

Just a little more than an hour of your time and yummy homemade banana bread for breakfast allllll week! Special thanks to Grover the monkey for his banana expertise!

Moo!