Banana Bread

About once a year I will dig bananas out of the freezer to make some bread.  I love my banana bread to be grainy, wheat-y and full of hearty goodness.  Or as Bo would say "hippie bread".  Fine.  I like hippie bread.

This particular "hippie bread" came from Laurel's Kitchen.  I am positive I remember a copy of this in my moms kitchen in the 70's.  Now you have to get the picture.  My mom is a straight laced "Eisenhower Era" kind of gal.  She was never part of the summer-of-love; protest-everything gang.  But she has some hippie in her soul.  She was feeding us healthy food before it was vogue.

We never had white bread in the house, or Kraft singles.  As soon as it was available our peanut butter was the natural only-peanuts-and-salt kind, and there were rarely potato chips or cookies purchased.  Yup.  She was a granola-foodie, but living in the heart of the Midwest, she just didn't know it.

This walk down memory lane was to set up my need to reach for this cookbook to look for a banana bread recipe - then to make a few changes to meet today's "health food hippie bread"

Laurel's Kitchen Banana Bread

Juice of 1 lemon
3 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda

Preheat oven to 375.  Mash bananas and mix them with lemon juice until they are smooth.

Cream the butter, yogurt, brown sugar and agave nectar together.  Add the bananas and mix well.

In a separate bowl stir together the dry ingredients.  Add to the banana mix stirring until just mixed.  It will be very stiff.  Spoon it onto a greased loaf pan and bake for 25-35 minutes.

NOTE:  I checked after 25, then at 30 I covered with foil for the last 5 minutes.