Even though its only been a few months since I’ve been married, I’m already starting to feel like a fraud. Over our one year plus period of living together before taking our vows, I was the consummate Donna Reed (Nick at Nite, anyone?) of the home. Always cleaning, folding, and sweeping with a smile on my face. Happy to do the dishes whenever we were in a pinch (read: always) and never thinking twice about whipping up a loaf of lemon bread out of thin air.

Fast forward several months later and we begin dealing with lots of extra demands. Like, um, managing the beginnings of a business. Now I find the dishes stacked and the laundry growing more often than not, and when I do sweep, the old grin morphs into a slight smirk. The duties still remain, it just takes me a little extra time to get into the zone and enjoy making it happen.

So after reflecting on these changes, I decided to put on my happy housewife apron for a few minutes to bake a few loaves of banana bread from scratch. Since this mythical apron is known to self-destruct within 5 minutes of applying it due to the fact that we live in 2011, I decided to enlist help from my stepson to make the process even faster…

Here’s the actual recipe doubled if you want 2 loaves:

1/2 cup of applesauce
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar (no need to pack it)
2 eggs
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 cup of white flour
2 tsp of baking soda
1 1/2 tsp of salt
2 1/2 cups of mashed bananas (about 6 old bananas)
1/2 cup of yogurt or buttermilk

Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in eggs. Sift together flours, soda, and salt. Combine bananas and yogurt. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the banana mixture, stirring just enough to combine well. You never want to stir too much or it’ll flatten your bread.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes in 2 greased, medium loaf pans.

Your Healthiest Life: I really love this recipe because I can bake large amounts of the batter in either loaf pans or muffin tins and freeze a lot of the leftovers for snacks and breakfasts for weeks to come. I also love knowing that I’m feeding my loved ones something that tastes delicious, but is actually a decently healthy treat with plenty of nutrients from the whole wheat flour, the apples, and the bananas.

QUESTION: Any favorite substitutes you use to make recipes healthier?