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Attempting Cook’s Illustrated Ultimate Banana Bread

Marcia June 24, 2010 Cookbooks, Recipe ratings, Recipes 5

Bunch of bananasOh, how quickly a bunch of perfectly just-a-hair-underripe bananas, purchased with the best of healthy-and-light-eating intentions, can go from fit for snacking or slicing into a bowl of Kashi Crunch to must-freeze-for-pops-and-smoothies to oh-dear-its-time-for-banana-bread. The inevitability of an upcoming banana-bread episode fills me with both glee and guilt—glee because I have an excuse to bake one of my all-time favorite snacks breakfasts nibbles splurges, guilt because most quick breads and muffins—no matter how much good-for-you lowfat yogurt, whole-wheat flour, or unprocessed wheat bran goes in them—are sweet, calorie-dense temptations. You think I’m going to have just one slice? I don’t think so . . .

Two simple criteria make a recipe splurgeworthy. First, the taste, texture, and overall delight must be worth the time and trouble to make it. Second, the experience has to be enjoyable enough to justify the overabundance of fat, sugar, and calories I will end up consuming. Of course, finding splurgeworthy recipes takes considerable trial and error.
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Blueberry-Banana Smoothie

Marcia July 5, 2008 Recipes 0

This smoothie has a gentle tang and a beautiful bluish-purple color. A light meal in itself, a fruit-packed smoothie such as this, plus a cup of coffee, serves as one of my favorite weekend morning breakfasts. You’ll need a 16-oz. tumbler to hold the entire recipe, and a not-too-thin straw.

Ironically, just a few hours after typing up this recipe, I stumbled across New York Times columnist Tara Parker-Pope’s blog entry that listed frozen blueberries as one of The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.

Makes one serving

4 ice cubes
1 tablespoon honey
6 oz. plain nonfat yogurt
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries

Crush ice in blender. Add yogurt and honey, process on a medium to high setting until honey is blended in (you might need to scrape the sides of the blender with a spatula to make sure all the honey is incorporated). Cut the banana into 6 or 8 pieces, add to mixture, and process some more. Add the blueberries, and process until all blueberries are incorporated and the entire mixture becomes a lovely blueberry purple. Pour into tumbler.

Per serving (entire recipe): 302 calories, 1g fat (0g trans fat, 0g sat fat), 3mg cholesterol, 132 mg sodium, 67g total carbohydrates (5g fiber, 51g sugars), 11g protein. Percent daily values: 2% Vitamin A, 23% Vitamin C, 35% Calcium, 4% Iron The good: Low in sodium and very low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Also a good source of calcium. The bad: A large portion of the calories come from sugar.

Nutritional analysis via NutritionData.com