100% Whole Wheat Bread with Banana

 
Before you begin clapping your hands and jumping up and down, hear me out on one thing. This bread is not your typical banana bread, but it's more for sandwich making. An actual sweet and aromatic banana bread is scheduled for sometime next week. 

As the bread baked, I imagined myself downing 3 slices of banana-y goodness. The bread smelled like bananas; the bread had typical banana bread ingredients; the bread was meant to be banana bread.

With my first bite though, I was discouraged. MOM! Come try my bread. She smacked her mouth a few times. Hmm, it's not too banana-y, but it's good! She proceeded by allowing herself to another helping.

The woman said it was good, so be confident that it is. The bread is moist from the Greek yogurt, banana, and applesauce; and dense from the wheat flour. Dense bread is my kind of bread. What I especially love about this is that there's a twinge of banana flavor that is perfect for a peanut butter sandwich; even better, make an Elvis Presley! French toast it up, smother on some peanut butter, and layer on a a banana or two.

If you are a regular wheat bread consumer....please, give this a try. Each bite grew on me. I'm actually a bit embarrassed to say that my mom and I devoured the bread in one sitting, leaving one lone piece for my dad.

Whatever you do, just don't eat the entire loaf at once. Speaking from experience here...it will be the hardest thing to get out of your seat. You'll want to crawl into bed and sleep for 20 hours.

 First one plain, second one buttered...third one plain, fourth one buttered.

Tip-Top Healthy Chocomuffs

 This doesn't happen often, but these muffins happen to be ones I immediately scarf down straight out of the oven. I only made four in this batch, but they were so good, I made them again. Plus, they're super healthy :) Actually, I believe this are my first healthy chocolate-containing baked good. Score! Motivation to discover and make more mine.

Although I haven't I don't particularly have a sweet tooth these day, I still crave chocolate. So so so, these were perfect; my Tip-top Healthy Chocomuffs (always making up words) are bittersweet and moist, but when you bite into a chocolate chip...mmm you see fireworks. Of course, these fireworks are better than the ones that have been blasting all week here in Shanghai. 

When I saw these on Dashing Dish's blog, I knew I had to have them. To make them more moist, I added applesauce, upped the amount of Greek yoghurt, and sweetened them slightly with Agave nectar.

The best part of these muffins are delish sans flour, oil, and sugar! What?! Totes my fave recipe now.

What I didn't understand was the muffin top. First of all, why is it darker? Second, why am I so lucky?! It frosted itself :) Kind of?

I'm thinking it's because I took them out of the oven to sprinkle chocolate chips on, and then the cool air did something to them. I actually don't know...I'm just making things up.

Wait wait, look at the name of these. I thought I was so clever when I named them. (;

I don't want to bore you with my family all the time, but they're the ones who give me really great feedback. I guess once school starts up again (ugh...Monday), my lovely food-loving friends can start giving me feedback.

Buuut, teens will eat any free food right?

Later in the day, I saw the last chocomuff in the fridge, so I cut the muffin top off. My mom scowled at me, probably because she wanted it.

Okay, I'm going off on a tangent, but I've been obsessed with Greek Yoghurt these days. I eat it with granola, apples, plain, with honey; put it in dressings, muffins, sushi; sub in for mayo...someone please help me before I over-indulge. Jokes, don't stop me. I laaav it! Back to these beauties... 

If you have the time, which you should, these are quick and rewarding to make. You basically dump everything into a blender and voila, a Tip-top chocomuff :)

No, but they're actually super rewarding. I'll break it down for you:

Applesauce: This is high in fiber and vitamin C.

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: high in fiber and protein, stabilizes blood sugar, gives good cholesterol and gets rid of bad cholesterol, gluten-free, and contains antioxidants beneficial in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Greek Yoghurt: high high high in protein!, contains probiotics great for aiding digestion, is a good source of calcium :)

Agave Nectar: low glycemic index, meaning it doesn't give an unhealthy blood sugar spike 

Chocolate:  increases endorphins that can decrease stress levels and fight depression, boosts energy levels, and the list goes on. Find more on chocolate at this site.

24 Karat Cake