sixty-six

Until I moved in with my husband, I was not a "breakfast person".  I would wake up and be content to not eat until lunch time, even if I was planning on doing something active in the morning.  I know that, in theory, skipping breakfast makes one sluggish and can wreak havoc on one's metabolism, but from an early age my body just wasn't cool with eating before noon.

That's not to say that I didn't love breakfast food, mind you.  I've always loved muffins, cinnamon rolls, omelets, pancakes, bagels, English muffins, etc. but I usually ate them as a snack or dinner.  Mr. N doesn't quite share my belief that breakfast foods are best served at dinner time (not that he doesn't appreciate pancakes for dinner) and actually appreciates eating before noon.  Sure, I could let him make a bowl of cereal, but I'm Super Wife, damn it.  That means that I martyr myself, make banana bread in the afternoon*, haul myself out of bed at 6 a.m. and toast the bread while my husband showers.  After all of that hard work, I have to share the recipe I used with my many fans so that you, too, may finally be as awesome as the Nifty Mrs. N.  You're welcome. ;-)

*you know, to trick myself into craving it all night and into the next morning

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Am trying a new recipe format.  If you ever use one of my recipes, let me know if you prefer the steps in paragraph form, or if you like them broken up (as they are below).  Took a picture and it looked bad at best.  Will update with one when I work out that little problem...

1 stick butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 or 2 cups mashed ripe bananas

2/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350*.

In a stand mixer or in a large bowl, beat butter until creamy.  Use butter wrapper to grease 9x5 baking pan.

Add salt, white sugar and brown sugar and beat until fluffy.  Mix in vanilla and eggs until just combined.  

Stir in flour, baking soda and cinnamon.  Ignore any lumps or dry spots; your only goal here is to get the ingredients into the same bowl, as the rest of the mixing happens when you... 

Gently stir in bananas, then the chocolate chips.

Bake for about 60 minutes, until bread tests done.

Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then allow to finish cooling on a rack.