When stuff goes bad...

And by "stuff" I mean bananas.

Noelle goes on banana kicks and then decides they are a lesser fruit to be eating. So I will buy bananas fairly consistently and they will be eaten - and then one day they won't.

I find that when this happens I have 2 leftover bananas...maybe 3, but almost always 2. And those lonely bananas are brown and gross.

When you have brown bananas, you make banana bread. Or in our case - muffins!

I found this recipe through googling and it is very yummy, very simple, and I can make it in a hurry.  It makes 1 pan of 12 muffins, which is perfect. One and done!  I wish I could remember how long I bake it for....I think it is somewhere between 18-25 minutes. You can always just make the loaves like the original recipe calls for if you are terrified of ruining muffins!  I usually just let them bake and check on them once or twice with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

Here's the link to the original recipe:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/bananabread

And here it is pasted in :)

Banana Bread
Makes 1 full-sized loaf or 2 small loaves
2 eggs
2 or 3 very ripe bananas
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional - but I add it!)

**Abby's add** - 1/2 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (because we need our chocolate!)

Preheat the oven to 350.

In one bowl, combine:

1/2 stick (4-5 tablespoons) butter, softened

Use a potato masher, fork, or spoon to squish the banana and mix the ingredients together. It is alright for there to be small (1 centimeter) chunks of banana in the batter, but you want most of the banana to be reduced to mush.

In another bowl, combine (**Abby's add** I also just combine it all in one bowl b/c I am lazy) :

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the ingredients are blended together.

If you like, stir in additional ingredients here, such as chopped walnuts or pecans, dried cherries or apricots, or chocolate chips. A handful (about a half a cup) is about right.

Pour the dough into greased baking pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Small loaves take around 30 minutes, a normal-sized loaf takes around 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven. This bread is great warm, but it is excellent cold too.

After they have cooled for 5 or 10 minutes the loaves can be removed from the pan to cool. Once they are cool they can be individually wrapped and frozen.

The next time you have some bad bananas on your hands I hope you give this a try! It is so so easy and makes for a very tasty breakfast treat!!