I've made this one a few times, and though I like the full fat version with chocolate chips better, this is not a bad healthy alternative! Banana Bread Lite 2 cups flour ½ cup whole wheat flour ¼ cupd ground flax seed 1 cup brown sugar (or brown sugar splenda) 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp salt 3 egg whites 2 tbsp butter 1 cup plain yogurt (lo fat preferred) 1 tsp vailla ½ cup walnuts Mash bananas and mix in all other wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients. Add chopped nuts. Put in PAM sprayed 9 x 5 loaf pan. Bake at 325 for 1 hr 20 min.

The food charts I have for how long you can keep bananas in the freezer gave no amounts of time, and one said "extended freezer time" - whatever that means (LOL). I guess the goal should be to use the frozen bananas in a timely manner (few months), but I was moving some things around in my refrigerator freezer and I found several ripe bargain bananas that were quick-frozen then placed in a FoodSaver bag, vacuum-sealed shut -- early last summer and promptly forgotten about. I made them into banana bread the other day for yet one more offering to the "throngs" for breakfast during their Christmas visit. When you vacuum-seal peeled bananas (or most food destined for freezer storage), they will last longer than in a typical storage bag because they are stored oxygen-free. Oxygen-free storage prevents the moisture inside the food from migrating from the surface of the food into the bag, drying out or creating ice crystals in the bag. A food science tidbit about using overly-ripe bananas for banana bread. When a banana bread recipe only calls for baking soda as the only chemical leavening, overly-ripe bananas are not as acid (6.5-7.0 pH) as a regular banana (4.6 pH) in order to react in partnership with the baking soda. The reaction may be a weak one resulting in a heavy banana bread. A good banana bread recipe, one that ensures adequate leavening, will use both baking powder and baking soda. If the recipe only has baking soda, make sure a portion of the bananas aren't overly-ripe, or there is another ingredient in the recipe that provides an acid ingredient. That could be some lemon juice added to the bananas to keep them from oxidizing and turning dark, orange juice, honey used as the sweetener, or yogurt, sour cream or buttermilk, which are all acid foods that will react with the baking soda. -Grainlady

Try Glenda's banana bread - it's moist and delicious! Glenda's Sour Cream Banana Bread 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup oil 2 eggs 1 cup mashed bananas (2 medium) 1/2 cup sour cream 1 teaspoon vanilla 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour bottom only of a 9 X 5 loaf pan. In large bowl, beat together sugar and oil. Add eggs, bananas, sour cream and vanilla, blend well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup, level off. Add flour, baking soda and salt, stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350F for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely. Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator. Makes 1 loaf.

I'll add one more that I don't think was in the older part of this thread, and it may address some pan issues others mentioned. I use a restaurant-grade spray - Bakers & Chefs Cooking Spray. It doesn't contain any water or alcohol and resists darkening under heat, so no dark cruddy pans. I get it through Amazon or Sam's Club (unfortunately, Sam's don't always carry it), and it is also available through restaurant supply stores. I also give my pans a spritz of DAWN Foam, or a bit of DAWN Ultra Platinum and a little water, and rub it all over the inside of the pan and let it sit until I'm ready to do clean-up. It will soften any residue for easy cleaning. As to when to take a quick bread out of the pan.... Step 1: When you remove the pan from the oven and while it's still hot, give the pan a quick, hard, shake left-to-right several times (press your arms tight to the side of your body while doing this - it's a physics thing as explained in the class where I learned this tip) to loosen the bread in the pan. It's not time to remove it YET, just loosen it. Step 2: Let the loosened bread in the pan sit anywhere between 5-10 minutes (can be a little longer depending on how large the loaf is - you want the crumb to firm enough to safely make the trip out of the pan). Set the pan ON a cooling rack (not on a flat surface like a stove top or counter top where it will continue to cook due to residual heat from the pan to the hard surface). Then remove the bread and place on the cooling rack to completely cool. Tip (free of charge ;-): Place a cloth on the flat surface and raise the racks on top of the cloth on 4 condiment cups (I have stainless steel ones I use). Elevating the rack will allow more air-flow and better cooling. Adding the cloth...? It will absorb moisture from the steam. If you leave the rack on a hard surface of the counter top that is about 1/2" from the surface, the moisture from the steam will collect on the hard surface and be reabsorbed into the bottom of the bread. I do the same thing with anything I cool on a rack. -Grainlady