My Weight Loss Journey – Week 44

I am finally back from my stay-cation. I decided that I needed a break from pretty much everything this past week, so other than looking for recipes, and commenting on other people’s blogs, I tried to stay off my computer. That meant no new posts for me from Christmas Day until now! It was hard, but also necessary for me after blogging about tea for almost 24 days straight. I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

2017 had both good and bad moments for me and my family, but overall it was a good year. It treated me especially well along my weight loss journey, and I hope that 2018 continues in the same vein. I have wonderful news to start off the year! I finally hit ONEderland. (I kind of hate that phrase, but at the same time I’m pretty proud of my accomplishment.) Today (January 1st) was weigh in day, and when I stepped on the scale I had lost 2.1 pounds, for a total of 88.1 pounds! I’m now at 297.9 so I am 47.9 pounds away from my ultimate goal!

And to celebrate, I have a recipe for Banana Bread to share with you all! I got this recipe from my cousin so I will post both the directions she gave me, as well as the substitutions I made to lower the points a little.

Nickie’s Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter at room temperature, plus more for pan
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup mashed banana (very ripe)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter 9x5x3 loaf pan. Set aside. With electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat to incorporate.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix until just combined.

Add bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix to combine. Stir in nuts and pour into prepared pan.

Bake until cake tester comes out clean. About 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let rest in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack to cool. Doesn’t it look delicious?

For the version I basically followed the directions , but I made the following substitutions:

1. 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce instead of 1/2 cup butter
2. 1 cup all purpose flour, and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour instead of 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
3. 1/2 cup plain, fat free Greek yogurt instead of 1/2 cup sour cream

Obviously in following the directions,  the applesauce and sugar was not “light and fluffy, but I mixed it well with the mixer before adding the eggs. I also used 2 mini loaf pans lined with parchment paper, and I reduced the baking time to about 50 minutes.

I will probably try reducing the sugar a bit next time around, but I thought I should test the substitutions I made before making more. As you can see from the photos, it didn’t hurt the end result, and the bread tasted as good as it looked! I was afraid it might be very dense and heavy, but it was really a very nice texture. I was quite pleased and will try this recipe again!

I’m so excited to get back to sharing some crafting, and recipes with you all. And I still need to share the gifts I received from some friends for Christmas, but I’ll save them for another day. Until then, I hope you enjoy the banana bread recipe!