Meatless Monday: Quick and Easy Banana Bread

I realize summer doesn't exactly conjure up images of baking bread...but I had some overripe bananas left and for some reason banana bread sounded great! When the weather gets warm, and I do feel like baking (which as any of you know is not THAT often) I do my baking int he evening when the temperatures are cooling. No one wants a hot oven in the heat of the day!

I found this recipe for "quick and easy" banana bread on Cooks.com , not a terribly complex or visually appealing website but it has a tons of variations of the same dish you are looking to make, and it makes cook crooking an easy venture sometimes! This particular recipe is super quick and easy, because it uses self-rising flour...an easy short cut and something I tend to have on hand because I am such an impatient baker!

Banana Bread  Courtesy of Cooks.com

2 c. self-rising flour
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
1/2 c. nut meats or raisins (I decided to use Blueberry Craisins to try something different)
1 c. sugar
3 mashed bananas 
Melt butter and pour into mixing bowl. Stir in sugar, eggs and bananas (in that order). Add flour to banana mixture gradually, adding nut meats or raisins last.Pour batter into well-greased loaf pans (2) or a 9x13-inch cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Bread is done when toothpick inserted in thickest part comes out clean.

I wanted to make and sure all this bread so I made one in a loaf pan and one in an 8x8 pan. In hindsight, I should have stuck to the instructions because the breads came out a little flatter than I would like, but the flavor was there...and it was eaten in about an hour when it got brought into work! I also enjoyed the Craisins in the bread. I am going to use this combination next time to make some muffins and add a little bit more banana for extra moist banana goodness!