Mommy's First Baking Adventure - Banana Bread

Looking at my over ripe bananas on the counter and feeling pretty good from getting the rare 6 hours of sleep last night (lately I only get about 4-5 hours at night and make some up during the day when the munchkin sleeps), I figured I would try my hand at baking for the first time since Michael arrived. We all know I can't stay away from baking for too long.


It was 9:36am when my adventure began. I know the exact times and seconds of every hour of every day because I text myself M's start and stop feeding times and nap schedule, which the hubby diligently reviews each day when he gets home from work. From these he predicts what kind of night we are going to have. To shower M? Not to shower? Keep him up until 9pm? Or let him make his own schedule?...Michael always wins because he is the boss for now.


So it's 9:36am and I am mashing up my bananas as M sits quietly in his Bugaboo bassinet watching. The oven is set to 350 degrees and I begin mixing my dry ingredients by 9:42. My post-pregnancy brain has me whizzing back and forth to and from the recipe. Was it 2 and 3/4 cups of flour or 3 and 1/4 cups? In any case, I am surprised I'm making my banana bread in record fast time, not to mention it's a double recipe. Now for the wet ingredients; four eggs. Crack one, crack two, crack three and OH BABY...before I could get to number four our little M had a breakdown! My sweet little quite boy was screaming at the top of his lungs. I contemplated going into turbo speed to finish my recipe before soothing him, but the eggs needed to be "beat well" which would require at least 1-2 minutes of hand work and I couldn't let him scream for another 2 minutes. So I tried the pacifier, didn't work. Then I tried rocking him in the stroller, that didn't work either. Then the pacifier again which worked for a brief minute, enough to allow me to crack my last egg, wash my hands and get back to the booboo. I finally picked him up. With M in one hand and my whisk in the other I beat the eggs added the oil, and vanilla and BAM another outburst! Of course I remained calm because what can you do, babies are gonna cry. I looked at my text log and realized that the last time I fed him was 7:17am this morning and it was now 10:12! 25 minutes past his feeding time! I had two choices; take five more minutes to finish my banana bread then feed him OR feed him and come back to my baking...I felt a little selfish but decided he would go back in the Bugaboo bassinet for five minutes and I would finish my banana bread. In went the bananas, then wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Mix, mix, mix! And into two loaf pans, but not before adding chocolate chips into the second pan because daddy loves chocolate chip banana bread. Into the oven at 10:29am. Whew! I picked Michael up and went into the nursery to feed him. We both had a nice snooze after that.


My morning reminded me of that oldies song by the Shirelles (you know the one they play in chick flick movies), "Mamma said there'll be days like this, there'll be days like this my momma said"...


...Oh well onto my next adventure!




Banana Bread Recipe

• 1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
• 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Sift dry ingredients together. Combine eggs, oil, mashed bananas; add to dry ingredients and beat until smooth.


Add nuts and chocolate chips (if desired).


Bake in an oiled loaf pan for 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool completely before slicing.


-Kelli