Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Banana bread is literally my vice. There is something about the dense but soft, somewhat sweet, moist (sorry if you hate that word which you probably do), goodness that is banana bread. I can’t keep my hands off the stuff. Plus, I don’t even have to feel bad about forgetting to eat my bananas because I’m an hour and fifteen minutes from sweet, soft, warm banana bread.

Did I mention I love lettuce carbs?

I really do love a good salad but there is something oh so terribly spicy about arugula this time of year.

In other news, Dan and I are hoping to be the brand new tenants of a b-e-a-u-tiful apartment in Northeast, Minneapolis. We’ve been constantly browsing the internet for a new apartment even though we promised we wouldn’t look until June… but Craigslist is only a few clicks away! It has everything we wanted – fenced in yard for Neko, hardwood floors, a nice kitchen (hard to find in some of these old MPLS homes), and location. Provided we both pass the background check, the apartment is ours. WHOOP.

We promptly celebrated by grabbing some grub at Anchor Fish & Chips (I got the veggie burger) and brought it over to Dangerous Man. Needless to say we are super excited about the new location and have THREE bedrooms. We can even have a room for our toys – all the bikes, skis, and camping gear gotta go somewhere.

My mom and little sister are in town this weekend so I’ve been relaxing and not biking nearly as much as I should. Saturday morning, Ciara helped me with the banana bread and then we got lunch at the Midtown Global Market with Dan. We all got tacos from Tacocat and strawberry kombucha from East Lake. For a long time, Tacocat only delivered tacos by bike to the Minneapolis area. Living in Saint Paul, we were stoked when they opened up a store front at the market. With food babies in tow, I took Ciara to the outlet mall – at least neither of us had low blood sugar. She’s all ready for summer and I burned off “some” of that guacamole. For dinner, my mom and I went to French Meadow in Uptown because the tempeh rueben is my ultimate JAM.

In other news:

Totally obsessing over this rug and the Yellow Brick Home blog. All their posts are pretty straight forward, their home is beautiful, and their dogs are super cute. Win, win, win if you ask me.

Have you guys tried the new mint chip brownie Larabars? If not, you’d best head to Target this instant because they are SO good.

I really liked this post on Ambitious Kitchen about what it means to be healthy.

As a new blogger, it was good to read this article about building your personal brand.

These pants are on sale so even though I told myself I wasn’t buying any pants during race season, I think I’m gonna bite the bullet.

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Servings: 1 loaf, 8-10 good sized slices

Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 ripe bananas, mashed or pureed
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup cane sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 TBSP flax meal
• 6 TBSP non dairy milk
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 TBSP cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup non dairy chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Grease a 9×5″ loaf pan with coconut oil or cooking spray. I like to line mine with parchment paper and grease with coconut oil for easy removal.
2. Combine bananas, peanut butter, and coconut oil in a medium sized bowl. On medium speed, mix thoroughly with a hand mixer or using your stand mixer. Add sugars, ground flax, non dairy milk, vanilla extract and mix to combine.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, and spices in a medium size bowl. Whisk to combine. While mixing on low, slowly add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Use a spatula to fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Pour batter into your loaf pan and spread evenly using a spatula. Bake at 350 deg F for about 50 minutes to 1 hour. Check that the bread is done by inserting a toothpick – if it comes out clean then you know you’re ready to go. Allow to cool completely before serving. Store in airtight container for up to one week.

**If baking muffins, decrease bake time to 20-25 minutes.