Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pecan Banana Bread

This is one of my FAVORITE recipes that I use pretty much every time I have bananas that don't get eaten in time!

I must credit a majority of this recipe to the famous Paula Deen. About 4 years ago (almost exactly actually), my in-laws and I, along with my FIL's mother, Grandma Angela, took a trip to Savannah, GA -- Not only did I fall in absolute love with Savannah, I fell in love with Paula Deen. For those of you who may not be familiar with Paula or her story, you truly are missing out on one of the South's most inspirational chefs (please see Food Network and Wikipedia for more details). While in Savannah, we had the opportunity of taking the Paula Deen tour (which we did and before that, I had no idea who she was). It was a fantastic little tour, taking us around the city, sharing fun facts about Paula's life, where and how she got her start, her struggles, determination, and dedication, as well as giving us a chance to eat at her brother, Uncle Bubba's, restaurant. One of the items I picked up on that trip was a signed copy of her Kitchen Classics cookbook, which includes both The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook AND The Lady & Sons, Too (one of my all time favorite recipe books). I absolutely LOVE Paula's recipes and I haven't made one that I don't like yet! Unfortunately, her motto "Everything tastes better with butter" adds LOTS of unwanted calories.... so I generally take her recipes and modify them into a healthier version. Here is my semi-healthy version of her Banana Bread recipe (you may want to skip the chocolate chips, but gosh they are so yummy!).

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature (you can sub margarine, but Paula would have a stroke if she knew)

1 cup granulated splenda for baking

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup crushed pecans (optional)

1/4 cup Nestle Toll house chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar; mix well. Add the salt, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, baking powder, bananas, pecans, chocolate chips, and mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes.

This is a pretty basic recipe and is so delicious. It always gets a 10 (unless, I burn it or something LOL). Try it out for yourselves and be sure to check out many other DELICIOUS recipes from Paula Deen and her family!