banana bread

Coming up with breakfast ideas for the kids can sometimes be a little challenging.  Trying to devise something new, delicious and nutritious each and every morning (especially before coffee) is daunting.  So I’ve gathered a few of my favourite breakfast strategies together and will be sharing them with you over the next week or so.

First of the rank is my delicious banana bread, loaded with gorgeously ripe bananas, calcium rich creamy yoghurt and spiked with heartwarming cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger.  This banana bread recipe is another incarnation of my beloved yoghurt cake recipe that I often use as a base for muffins, cakes and cupcakes.

The reason I love and use this yoghurt cake recipe so very often is its simplicity.  It’s so easy to prepare, simply mixing dry ingredients into wet and pouring into a lined tin, and this type of simplicity is an absolute must when conjuring up anything for breakfast.  I know that when I roll out of bed and am greeted with hungry mouths to feed I cannot be faffing around with electric mixtures, food processors or endless arm killing whipping, it’s a simple stir and bake I am after and this recipe is exactly that!

Don’t be fooled however into thinking that the obvious lack of effort results in a lack of flavour.  Absolutely not.  As the saying goes, the simple things in life are often the best and I couldn’t find a better way to describe this banana bread, simple and the best.

Banana bread, on its own, may not be the most nutritious breakfast but coupled with a serving of calcium rich creamy yoghurt, fresh passion fruit and deliciously crunchy wedges of apple certainly balances things out and makes it a lot more interesting.

Grace happily gobbled her banana bread up for breakfast this morning, along with her apple and a little yoghurt and I have to say watching her demolish the bread chock full of skillfully disguised banana made me a very happy mama.

Banana bread

Serves: 12 slices

Freezer friendly:  Simply wrap pieces of banana bread individually with cling film, place in a freezer bag and stash in the deep freeze for up to 3 months.  To serve, allow to thaw then grill for a couple of minutes each side until golden and toasted.

INGREDIENTS

¾ cup (180ml) vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 cup thick natural yoghurt

1 cup caster sugar

3 bananas, mushed

2 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp cinnamon, ground

½ tsp ginger, ground

½ tsp nutmeg, ground

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C.  Place the oil, eggs, yoghurt, sugar and bananas in a bowl and whisk to combine.  Sift over the flour and spices and stir until smooth.  Pour the mixture into a greased and lined loaf tin and bake for 35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.  Allow the cake to cool a little before removing from tin and placing on cooling rack to cool completely.