Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Easy Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

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Sure, banana bread is delicious. But why not take it a notch above and add some chocolate chips? I’m guessing that no one would argue if you made Chocolate Chip Banana Bread…

Even if you made it with whole grains, who’s gonna know? No one. You know why? Because it still tastes delicious. It’s still moist. And there are chocolate chips in it. It’s an amazing treat!

How many times have I said that I wished more food could be made from “spoiled” food. What I mean is – after bananas turn black, we can use them to make fantastic treats like this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. Why can’t everything be made into something wonderful after it’s past its prime?

Everything should be like a banana.

By the way, this recipe is made millions of times better simply by adding sour cream. Mmm, always add sour cream. :)

Easy Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana BreadYum

Easy Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
 
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Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground soft white wheat)
  • ½ cup sugar, brown sugar, or sucanat
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup mashed over-ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas)
  • ½ cup sour cream or plain yogurt
  • ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or butter
  • 2 eggs
  • ⅓ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  2. Add mashed bananas, oil, sour cream and eggs.
  3. Stir until ingredients are well combined.
  4. Fold in chocolate chips.1
  5. Pour mixture into a buttered bread pan.
  6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

 

Lately, Brayden and I have been making lots of loaves of this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread to share with friends. He’s becoming quite the chef and loves delivering treats to friends.

It sure is fun to share pictures of our son. Here are more photos of his big adoption day in case you missed it. :)

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Easy Low Sugar Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake

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There are so many wonderful reasons to love the month of May. The school year ends (for most), the frigid weather finally becomes pleasant (in Nebraska), and strawberries are everywhere (in bowls, in plates, in my hand…). I will now introduce you to my most recent recipe experiment involving strawberries: Easy Low Sugar Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake.

This cake is moist. It’s flavorful. It’s low in sugar. It’s whole grain. It offers the wonderful taste of early summer joy. And friends, it is topped with Cream Cheese Frosting. I declare that to be the MVP of this cake – along with the strawberries, of course!

Cutting Back on SugarYum

If you’ve been around here long, you know that I’ve taken the liberty of cutting down the sugar in many recipes, making sure they still taste amazing. I believe a lower sugar ratio is something we can get our taste buds used to! I recommend cutting back on sugar gradually, starting with homemade desserts and muffins.

Hoping to cut back on sugar? Read some simple ideas here to help make that happen!

And now, I reward your cutting-back-on-sugar efforts by giving you this recipe:

Easy Low Sugar Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake

Easy Low Sugar Strawberry Cream Cheese Cake
 
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Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • ½ cup sucanat or sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1½ cups fresh or frozen strawberries
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ½ cup melted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Puree strawberries until smooth.
  3. Add pureed strawberries, milk, sour cream, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla.
  4. Mix with beaters until smooth.
  5. Pour into a buttered 9x13 cake pan.
  6. Bake in a 350° oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  7. Allow cake to cool.
  8. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe options below)

Want to keep the frosting low in sugar too?

Here are my favorite Low Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting recipes!

Stevia-Sweetened Cream Cheese Frosting

2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 Tablespoons softened butter
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Liquid stevia to taste (I use about 20 drops)

In a large bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form. Add softened butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and stevia – whipping until well combined and smooth. Spread over cooled cake. Store in refrigerator.

If you prefer, here’s a slightly sweeter but still not too sugary frosting option:

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces softened cream cheese
¼ cup softened butter
3-4 Tablespoons real maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

With a hand mixer (or in your blender), whip together all ingredients until smooth. Spread over cooled cake.

Looking for more Low Sugar Recipes?

Here are just a few of our favorites!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

INCREDIBLE Whole Grain Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

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Stop what you are doing right now and make these Whole Grain Raspberry Cheesecake Bars!! Well, maybe finish reading this post so you can get the recipe. Otherwise though, the making of these bars should become a very high priority. My family is in love with them!

As it happens, one day I decided to experiment with combining my Raspberry Oatmeal Bar recipe with my Crustless Cheesecake recipe. The result is this incredible, layered dish of delightfulness.

The cheesecake filling bakes right into the bars, creating a fantastic moist texture with raspberry cheesecake flavor. Truly, each bite of these bars is full of WOW.

As a bonus to the deliciousness of these Raspberry Cheesecake Bars, we get to enjoy the nourishment of whole grains, healthy fats, and low sugar content. I personally find nothing wrong with serving these bars for breakfast. But they are also wonderful as a dessert!

Whole Grain Raspberry Cheesecake BarsYum

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Whole Grain Raspberry Cheesecake Bars
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour
  • 1½ cups rolled oats
  • ½ cup sucanat or brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup melted butter
  • ½ cup 100% raspberry jam
  • CHEESECAKE LAYER:
  • 8-ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tablespoons real maple syrup
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Mix together flour, oats, sucanat, baking powder, and salt.
  2. Stir in melted butter until the mixture resembles crumbs.
  3. Press half of the mixture into an 8x8 inch baking pan.
  4. Spread jam over the top.
  5. In a blender or with beaters, whip together cream cheese, egg, maple syrup, and vanilla.
  6. Spread this cheesecake layer over the top of the jam.
  7. Sprinkle remaining oat mixture on top of the cheesecake layer.
  8. Bake in a 350° oven for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.

Not a fan of raspberries? Substitute any of your favorite jams or jellies. And my next experiment will likely include something involving chocolate too! (You are shocked, I’m sure.)

Want more info?

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Giant Breakfast Cookies For the Freezer

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It’s likely that many of you have been making my Giant Breakfast Cookies for years. It was one of my very first recipes I shared here. (Aww, sweet memories.)

Freezer Breakfast Cookies5

Yum

I used to always bake big batches of these cookies (or even a double batch) and freeze them to pull out as needed. This is great! But I like this new idea better.

See, with this idea we can have hot, fresh breakfast cookies whenever we want them. I think we can all agree that a hot, fresh breakfast cookie with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee is much, much better than a room temperature cookie with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee.

So this is what I do now:

Make Giant Breakfast Cookie Dough Balls for the Freezer

I mix up the Giant Breakfast Cookie recipe as normal. I scoop out cookie dough and freeze it on a cookie sheet like this:

Freezer Breakfast Cookies1

Once frozen, I transfer the cookie dough balls to a freezer bag.

Freezer Breakfast Cookies2

In the morning, I get out a few cookie dough balls to bake fresh.

Freezer Breakfast Cookies3

I put them into the oven (yep, from their frozen state) and bake them while the coffee brews.

Freezer Breakfast Cookies4

When the family wakes up, there are hot, fresh breakfast cookies ready to go with the rest of our breakfast!

These cookies are always the star of breakfast, but I usually only make enough for two per person so the fruit and protein can get the attention they need. :)

Here’s the recipe and freezing instructions:

Giant Breakfast Cookies (with frozen cookie dough ball instructions)

Giant Breakfast Cookies For the Freezer
 
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Serves: 20-24
Ingredients
  • 1 cup melted butter
  • ½ cup honey
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup buttermilk (the recipe will not be effected if you choose to leave this out)
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • ½ cup raisins or chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Mix butter, honey, eggs, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, vanilla, and buttermilk.
  2. Stir in flour and oats.
  3. Fold in raisins or chocolate chips.
  4. Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
  6. TO FREEZE:
  7. Mix dough and scoop side-by-side onto a cookie sheet.
  8. Freeze dough balls, then transfer them to a freezer bag.
  9. Place desired amount of frozen cookie balls onto a baking sheet while oven pre-heats.
  10. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Breakfast Cookies for the FreezerEver tried freezing cookie dough balls before? I’ve been doing this with regular cookies for years. Why it took me this long to do this with Breakfast Cookies is just sorta silly.

More freezer recipes and ideas coming soon!

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