In Our Kitchen: Dark Chocolate Ginger Banana Bread

I mentioned in last week's Small Graces post that Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Ginger had become a recent favorite treat. I decided to mix it in with another one of my favorite treats - banana bread.

I can't help but feel happy whenever I eat banana bread because it makes me nostalgic for some of my favorite times during high-school. Before every cross country meet my senior year, the team would get together for pasta dinners and banana bread was always the dessert. The evenings were full of encouragement, anticipation, and laughter. I attended three different high schools so by the time I was a senior I wasn't sure I'd ever find my "place" or my "people". These dinners changed that. They made me feel part of something bigger than myself, being part of a team, and I found friends I knew I'd cherish forever.

Ingredients

1 C sugar
1 stick butter (soften)
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas
1/2 C vanilla yogurt
1 C all purpose flour
1 1/4 C wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 C TJ's Dark Chocolate Covered Ginger (cut into small pieces)

Directions

move rack to bottom of oven then preheat to 350'
grease bottom of 4 mini loaf pans with shortening
throughly mash bananas
blend sugar and butter until smooth
mix in eggs
mix in (mashed) bananas and yogurt
mix in flours, baking soda, and salt (mix just until everything is moist)
stir in chocolate covered ginger
distribute batter evenly between the four loaf pans
bake for 30 mins

So there you you have it, a new favorite combined with an old. The results are pretty tasty. I made this batch last night and will probably make another one tomorrow - the one loaf we have left should be gone by the evening's end.

And just of fun, here's my senior year cross county picture.

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