New Friends....and a New Recipe!

A few days ago I was out and about because I had several errands to run. I had passed by this way several times before and have always wanted to capture the horses on photo, but never had the time. This day I had decided to make the time. As I drove up, these guys (or are they gals?) seemed quite curious to meet me.

 

They let me pet their noses and scratch behind their ears. They were quite sweet!

 This was a neighboring farm,

 I liked the silhouetted appearance of this shot

so I just wanted to throw this one on as well...

 

A parting photo.....until we see each other again!!! 

Our visit ended much too soon...

...and now for this recipe....a confession: This was my first attempt at banana bread

I looked online to find a recipe, and found two that seemed good. I combined things from both and came up with this one:

My Banana Bread Recipe 

In a medium sized bowl combine these dry ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl combine the wet ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

The original recipes called for 1/2 cup butter, but I decided to cut back and use a bit of olive oil instead...trying to be "heart healthy"...

So at this point cream the butter/oil with the sugar. Once it is nicely mixed together, add:

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream these into the butter mixture.

In a separate bowl, mush together 

3 bananas and add 

applesauce to make 2 cups

then add to this banana mix(if desired)

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup cooked quinoa 

Add this banana mixture to the butter mixture and mix until well blended. 

Now all the wet ingredients are all mixed together. Add your dry ingredients that you reserved at the beginning into this larger bowl of wet ingredients, and fold it together until the dry ingredients are combined but don't stir it too much. It is ok if it remains a bit lumpy, do not over stir!!! Just stir until the ingredients are barely combined, maybe about 7 or 8 turns.

Have your loaf pan buttered and floured and pour the banana batter into the loaf pan. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar over the top of the batter. I like the dark brown sugar best.

Place the loaf pan into the center of the oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees. Bake for 65 minutes.

Enjoy!!!