Nutella-Swirled Banana Bread

Nutella-Swirled Banana Bread...is the yummiest creation so far! Sweet, but no more than all the other fruit breads. I love this, even though it was an adventure to make considering, I made two trips to the store, once for flour (I was 1/4c. short and didn't want to risk it) and then again when I cracked the last egg and saw that it was a bloody still born! (EWWWWW) So finally I got it in the oven and fought my nemisis...bread that's cooked all the way through...mine ALWAYS wants to be gooey in the middle. Its still cooling on the rack, so I'm not sure if I won that battle..but with a corner missing..I'm impatient ok..it sure tastes good! Now the recipe says a regular bread loaf pan, but mine is occupied with another creation so I doubled the recipe and cooked it in an 8x8, and had a little extra batter left..no big deal.

Nutella-Swirled Banana Bread

courtesy of http://www.recipegirl.com/

2 cups all-purposed flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 c. mashed ripe banana

1/3 cup plain low fat yogurt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. nutella

Preheat the own to 350 degrees F. Spray 8x4 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.

In mixer, beat sugar and butter at medium speed until well blended.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended.

Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until flour is incorporated (don't over mix).

Spoon Nutella into a medium dish and soften in the microwave about 30 seconds. Add 1 cup of the banana bread batter into the Nutella and stir until blended.

Spoon unblended banana bread batter alternately with the nutella bread batter into prepared bread pan.

Swirl batters together with knife.

Bake 60-70 minute, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Check the oven at 45 minutes to check the top of the bread for browning. If its browning too quickly, cover lightly with foil for the remainder of the baking. Cool for atleast 15 minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cook.

So this sunny, summer afternoon, I'm busy thinking about all the foods I'd like to make. My recipe pile is growing, and so is my drive to cook more and more things myself. So I thought I'd make a list.

1. Peanut butter-this is extremely dangerous considering that I LOVE peanut butter, and especially with apples which are coming into season.

2. Applesauce- going to go fast in this house!

3. Pears (canned)- Pears are my daughter's absolute favorite fruit so she will benefit from this the most.

4. Bread- I'd really like to make a nice healthy bread like once a week..maybe sundays..for Isabelle to use for sandwiches in her lunch box, or healthy toast in the morning. Plus I'm sure Nick and I will gobble it down right away too.

5. Chorizo sausage- my husband loves this, and I just found a recipe to do it without having to mess with casings and gross things like that. I may like to cook, but I have a thing about touching meat..I just can't do it.

6. A million and one new recipes for dinner and cookies lol!! Seriously the stack is so high now I think I'll be set for months!

Everything seems to be going well. Not only is my pantry stocked, but with all the home cooking I'm doing the fridge is full of yummy leftovers. So when I have a night (like last night) where it was just me and Isabelle, and I didn't really want to cook, we still had a hot homemade meal made of leftovers. Plus is was way better than a big mac and the roll that would put around my waist! lol! This isn't so hard. Just keeping in mind that my mom did it, and my grandmothers and so on..and there for I should be happy we're not so far back that I'm growing the wheat and grinding it, and making butter with my churn LOL!